Football Association programme gets 21,000 females playing football in the last year

Female participation in football has increased. Credit: PA

Almost 21,000 girls and women have taken up playing football in the last year, the Football Association have announced.

Since launching the FA Women’s and Girls’ Programme in October 2013, 20,992 females between ages of 14 and 25 have participated in the coaching sessions that run for 30 weeks of the year.

The sessions are run as part of a joint initiative between The FA, Sport England, the Premier League and the Football League Trust.

The aim is to have 40,000 girls and women participate in the sessions before August 2015.

Minister for Sport Helen Grant said: “It’s great news that more girls and women are getting into football at a time when so much effort is going in to strengthen and raise the profile of women’s sport generally.

“These results show what can be achieved when the FA, Premier League, Football League Trust and Sport England all pull together and shows the growing demand and interest there is in women’s football in this country.”

The Women's Super League has boosted popularity of the sport. Credit: PA

This positive news comes ahead of England women's clash with Germany at Wembley, where they are crowd of more than 45,000..

All involved are hoping this will assist in making women's football the second largest team sport after men’s football by 2018.

Simon Morgan, Head of Community Development at the Premier League said: “This initial positive experience, allied to the unique ability of PL clubs to continue to engage, motivate and inspire young people has made the first year of this collaborative girls programme such a success.

Helen Grant has spoken positively about the scheme. Credit: PA

There is belief there is still large group of females who are also interested in taking up the sport in upcoming year.

Jennie Price, Sport England Chief Executive, said: “Getting women and girls active is really important to us. We know women play less sport than men but most would like to do more. In fact, almost 120,000 women tell us that they want to play football. But the opportunities have to be right for those women to turn ambition into a reality.

“By working together we can continue to address the barriers to women’s participation and close gender gap in sport.”