Football has always been the most popular sport in England and many see it as the ‘men’s game’ but women’s football has recently become more televised and therefore watched by more people. Catching the public’s attention, the England women’s national team succeeded where the men stumbled: they won the Euros. This enormous victory in the summer of 2022 gave women’s football the recognition it deserves yet the Euros win would not have been possible without the growth of the game at grassroots level, allowing more girls the opportunity to get involved and play. Washington AFC, a local club, is an example of this; starting with two girls teams in 2008, the club now has fourteen girl’s teams and two women’s teams.

 

Washington AFC has around 250 girls across all age categories. Popularity is continuing to grow as a result of the partnership with Durham FA and the introduction of the Wildcats Centre attracting girls as young as five. Gary Sykes, the owner of Washington AFC, described a ‘big increase’ in the number of girls joining teams since England won the European Championships last year but has also seen an increase in the years prior as interest in the national team had been gathering momentum through their success. As a result, Washington AFC plan to expand their girls teams. In each age category, they used to have one girl’s team however with the numbers increasing, some age categories have two teams and Mr Sykes believes there is potential for this to rise to three.

 

In March alone, Washington AFC has: set up a second under 8s team; are planning to set up a third under 11s team to start in September; and are trying to set up a third under 9s team if they can find a coach for the team. All the coaches at Washington AFC are volunteers who give up their time to help and support children aspiring to be footballers. Amongst these coaches are eight females however the club are encouraging more females to get into coaching. When asked about the lack of representation at a coaching level, Gary Sykes highlighted how he would ‘love to have more female coaches’ and was unsure what the barrier is for women to get into coaching.

 

Some of the female coaches at Washington AFC have been at the club since a young age and have travelled through the ‘club pathway’. Abigail Phipps (who now coaches an under 9 girl’s team) and Olivia Douglas (who coaches an under 13 girl’s team) are two examples of this and Mr Sykes hopes that ‘the likes of Abigail and Olivia can inspire the next generation of girls.’

 

Even at the top level, female coaches are still under-represented. In the Women’s Super League (the top division in England) there is currently an even split of male and female coaches yet female coaches in the male professional leagues are non-existent. This poses the question: will there ever be a female coach managing in the male leagues?