'They don't take girls' football seriously': Future football stars on breaking down barriers

With a week to go until the Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, football among teenage girls is more popular than ever.

But new research carried out by Football Beyond Borders found that teenage girls are getting left behind when it comes to football.

It comes after a government review suggested with the right reforms, women's football could become a billion pound industry.

Former England international Karen Carney’s review panel has called for wide-ranging reform at the elite and grassroots level of domestic football to fully capitalise on the Lionesses’ Euros success last summer.

But according to some of football's future stars there's still a long way to go, particularly for girls in London.

The Lionesses' Euro wins was transformative in many ways but had less of an impact on inner-city teenage girls' engagement with women's football, Football Beyond Borders found.

A survey by the education charity of 650 teenage girls found 63% of teenage girls still can’t name any of the Lionesses.The charity is hoping to use the momentum of the World Cup to further drive participation and engagement in women’s football and are currently fundraising to reach their goal.

Ceylon Andi Hickman Head of Brand at Football Beyond Borders told ITV News London that there were "still so barriers for girls to play football" in London.

"There's so many systemic and structural barriers and individual barriers," she said.

"In schools, the ability to play football is based on whether you've got a good PE teacher who wants to run a girls' football club after school.

"We've got other barriers; we've got girls who weren't allowed to wear their hijab to play football.

"What we need is targeted, intensive interventions for girls who may not be able to access football previously."

She said she wanted the government "to deliver on the equal school sports pledge.

"It's so important that girls can go into school and get equal access to football and PE lessons."

Young footballer, Sallyanne Thomas-Phillips said: "So many boys are introduced to football by their schools or parents.

"Girls are not really introduced to sports like that, they're normally shifted towards something like dance or acting or something like that.

"In primary school, I don't really feel like girls' sports teams are paid to attention to [as much as] boys sports teams, especially football, I don't think they take young girls' playing football as seriously as they take boys.

"And growing up that affects you, going into secondary school you don't think you're going to ask to play football because you weren't introduced to it at a young age so you don't think you're as good as boys, but that's not true.

"You can learn to play football at any age and you can be just as good as boys, even better."

The Football Association said: “These are exciting times for the development of the women’s game, and we share Karen’s vision of creating world leading standards for players, fans, and everyone involved in women’s football.

“We look forward to working with all stakeholders to address the challenges and opportunities outlined in the report, and to deliver the changes needed to take the women’s professional game to the next level.”

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