Football

Female Officials Programme

The London FA Female Officials Programme is run in partnership with Arsenal Girls’ Centre of Excellence.  Starting in 2008/09, it consists of a group open to all qualified female officials and run by a Level 3 referee with extensive experience in the women’s game. The aim of the project is to increase the support given to female officials, and subsequently increase the number of female referees in London.

Project detailsProject duration: 01 January 2008 - ongoing
Organisation: 
London Football Association
Project name: 
Female Officials Programme
AudienceAll women
Age group: 
0 - 15
Age group: 
16 - 24
Age group: 
25 - 40
Age group: 
41+
Innovation
The project provides an opportunity for female officials to gain experience in an environment where the focus is on development, giving officials the opportunity to start with a younger age group and work their way up to games involving older players as they gain more experience.
Recruitment and promotion
Participants were recruited by directly contacting all London FA registered female referees. The project was promoted by holding an official launch at The FA HQ incorporating a Q&A session with a panel of special guests including experienced referees and representatives from Arsenal and London FA, as well as promoted through various websites and e-newsletters.
Location
Urban
How was your project delivered?Football
Funding
The project is jointly funded by Arsenal Girls’ Centre of Excellence and London FA
Partnership
The main partnership is between Arsenal Girls’ Centre of Excellence and London Football Association
Results
Lessons: 
The hardest thing is to attract enough female officials to the programme so sometimes running the programme jointly with another County FA might be a good idea to ensure a big enough pool of officials.
Evaluation: 
The project was monitored using feedback from the female officials involved. This was positive demonstrating a successful project. This success is also demonstrated by the progression and improvement of the female officials over time as confirmed by Arsenal and the London FA mentors. Eight officials took part in the programme in Year 1 and 6 in Year 2. Oone referee who joined the programme at the beginning of year 1 by refereeing U10s games. She has steadily progressed and recently started refereeing the U16s and received excellent feedback from Arsenal and her mentor. She now also referees 11 a side games regularly outside of the programme. The number of female officials taking part in the second year decreased. This is being addressed by arranging a female-only referee course nearby so that the females that qualify from this are able to get involved in the programme.
Themes

Workforce development

The programme provides mentoring and support for female referees, as well as paid employment through refereeing on match days at Arsenal Girls’ Centre of Excellence.

Key links: 
The London FA

Faith and Action: Born to Succeed

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The project aims to tackle the low number of Muslim women and girls in sport, in order to bring equality through the arena of sport. This is done through the provision of a suitable environment in which they could train and compete against women and girls of the same and different faiths.

Project detailsProject duration: 01 August 2009 - 01 August 2012
Organisation: 
Muslim Women’s Sports Foundation
Project name: 
Faith and Action: Born to Succeed
AudienceMuslim
Age group: 
16 - 24
Age group: 
25 - 40
Age group: 
41+
Innovation
The project is unique as it is the first project to is focus specifically on delivering activity for Muslim women.
Recruitment and promotion
We recruited participants through schools, word of mouth and the media.
Location
Regional
How was your project delivered?Basketball, football
Funding
Our project is reliant on funding from the Football Foundation and Nike Player Panel.
Partnership
Partners include Sporting Equals, the Prince’s Trust, Elite Youth, Islamic Societies, Asian Football Network, Harrow and Brent Council, BBC One Extra and many sporting organisations including England Basketball and The Football Association. The chair of the MWSF was voted one of the top 20 most influential Muslim women in the UK by the Times and sits on the FA’s Advisory Group for Race Equality, the FA’s Asian and Muslim Women’s Support group, and John Mann’s (MP) Tackling Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism taskforce. The MWSF have also been recognised by winning the 2008 Mosaic Award, Nike Player Panel Award and 2009 Muslim News Award for Excellence for Sport.
Themes

Growing participation

The Faith and Action: Born to Succeed project was specifically introduced to tackle the low number of Muslim women and girls in sport, in order to bring equality through the arena of sport.  Part of the project is to research Muslim women’s participation in sport across England, in particular barriers that prevent such women from participating at all levels of sport, and recommendations for ways to engage them.

Confidence and self-esteem

The project aims to help MWSF build an organisational infrastructure that has the scope to change attitudes about, and the understanding of, what sport can provide Muslim women and support other organisations to deliver appropriate coaching sessions for such target audiences.

Key links: 
Muslim Women's Sport Foundation

Football

Football participation overview 

Football is the most popular team sport for women and is in the top ten across all sports for female participation.

Female football is the third largest in terms of participation in team sports, beaten only by men’s football and men’s cricket. 

Around 151,000 women play football at least once a week. 

Football is twice as popular with BME women as White women. Two in ten female footballers are from a BME group, which is almost twice the proportion in the general population.

Key links: 
The FA
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Essex 7s women's football league

Since Jan 2008 ECFA has been running female ‘get back into football’ sessions within Essex’s Metropolitan Boroughs as well as outer Essex. The success of the sessions gave us the idea of offering those females an opportunity to play some form of competitive football. A one off 7s event took place in August 2008 with 5 teams taking part. Due to the success we made the decision to turn it into a league and we are now in our third season. Each league consists of 4 monthly events with all results rolling over each month to work out the eventual winners.

Project detailsProject duration: 01 August 2008 - ongoing
Organisation: 
Essex FA
Project name: 
Female 7s League
AudienceBME
Age group: 
41+
Innovation
The project is unique because if offers ALL females with the opportunity to play football regardless of their lifestyle, ability, background, religion etc. The league is delivered in a relaxing and inviting environment which allows individuals and teams to develop and progress in their own time. There are friendship groups formed between players and teams which we believe is quite special.
Recruitment and promotion
The league is regularly promoted via Essex Fa’s website. Posters are also visible in Powerleague for any interested parties. The Gumtree website has been used to promote the league as well as for teams to recruit more players, which has been extremely useful. For the past two our October event has also been a One Game One Community sponsored event and as a result we have had FA Ambassador Lorraine Deschamps in attendance to hand out medals.
Location
Local
How was your project delivered?Football
Funding
The project is funding by Essex FA via the FA’s National Game Strategy funding. We also use our partner Umbro who provide all new teams with a free kit as well as equipment vouchers for returning teams.
Partnership
We work with Umbro for kit as well as establishing a positive working relationship with Fairlop Powerleague who host each event. This partnership has led to us delivering other events there including a schools disability league for girls.
Results
Lessons: 
The development of female officials was disappointing. The league began life with us using female coaches as officials, however, due to discipline problems it was decided to use Powerleague referees which changed things dramatically.
Evaluation: 
The success is that it continues to develop and is now coming to the end of its third league. It is also successful because we have been able to see two teams now playing affiliated 11v11. We have also linked two teams into affiliated clubs who have now established them as their ladies teams. Each month we have up to 70 females aged 16 and upwards taking part which may not have been the case should the league have not been created.
Themes

Growing and sustaining participation

The 7’s league has many different outcomes depending on how you look at it. It has helped to increase female participation by the flexibility of only taking place once a month which has brought new females into the game. It has also sustained participation by offering those females who may not want to continue playing 11v11 with a smaller format.  There is one player taking part in the league who is registered as disabled. We have females from a number of minority groups and have teams from the LB of Newham and Waltham Forest which are classed as deprived areas. Teams that attend have included those with sisters playing together as well as one team with a mother and daughter. Two teams that began in the league have now transferred to the Essex County Womens League and play 11v11 affiliated football. The league is a good stepping stone for those teams that do have ambitions to progress or it is a welcoming environment for those that want to just play and have fun.

Rebranding and reversioning sport

The 7’s league is a flexible format of football which has been extremely appealing to the groups of females taking part. Many teams share players if numbers are low and there is a family atmosphere at games. At the end of each four month league there is a presentation and all teams bring with them a selection of food which also creates a family atmosphere. For some women football is a new sport  and it is our responsibility as organisers to ensure that they get the best possible experience.

Targeting self-confidence and self-esteem issues

I believe that due to the huge mixture of ages, backgrounds, cultural and religious beliefs many barriers are crossed. For some women, taking part in sport and especially football is frowned upon so to have such a multicultural league is a real achievement for all those involved.

Key links: 
Essex FA

Celebrating Silver, Going for Gold

Celebrating Silver, Going for Gold marks WSFF's 25th birthday with a look back at a quarter century of records from women's sport.

From Tessa Sanderson winning Olympic gold in 1984, to the IOC's decision in 2009 to add women's boxing to the London 2012 programme, the report charts both administrative and athletic milestones. Its pages are brought to life through a striking spread of photography and montage of memories from leading figures in sport.

In the report you will find both stories of WSFF and the past 25 years of women’s sport – presented in a way which we hope fulfils two objectives; firstly, to explain who we are, where we came from and where we are heading and secondly, to give you goose bumps.

We want you to feel the same shiver which travelled down our spines when we relived moments like Tessa Sanderson standing proudly atop the medal podium at the 1984 Olympic Games, Dame Kelly Holmes’ wide eyed shock at winning the second of her two gold medals in Athens, and the moment when England midfielder Jill Scott rose above a crowd of defenders to send England into the final of a major championship for the first time in 25 years.

While looking back fills us with joy, it is looking forward which really excites us. We are now operating in a time when more doors are being opened for women in sport and the amount of people working towards that same goal is growing. So while we’re proud to be celebrating our 25th birthday this year, we are already planning for the years ahead which we hope will bring even more reasons to be proud and of course, more goose bumps.

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London Playing Fields Foundation - Active Angels

Active Angels is an innovative multi-activity project that aims to contribute to the health of 14-16 year old girls by encouraging and sustaining their participation in sporting activity.  It focuses on girls who are currently active but who are at risk of adopting sedentary lifestyles once they have left school. The project has been providing opportunities for girls to participate in sports and physical activity in a non-competitive, friendly and supportive environment since 2004.

Project detailsProject duration: 01 January 2004 - ongoing
Organisation: 
London Playing Fields Foundation
Project name: 
Active Angels
AudienceSchools
Age group: 
0 - 15
Age group: 
16 - 24
Innovation
What makes the project so innovative is that is it customer focussed, responding to the needs of the girls rather than to a prescribed syllabus or fixture list. Active Angels targets a new type of participant – now known as the semi-sporty. The coaches were all recruited from local clubs so that if the girls developed a particular interest in an activity and wished to pursue it then they already had links established with a local club. Year 11 pupils were mentored and action plans were developed to help them identify opportunities to maintain their activity levels once they left school.
Recruitment and promotion
LPFF worked closely with the Partnership Development Manager and the Community Sports Coach to ensure that the project was promoted within the local schools. The Project Coordinator visited each school and made presentations to the appropriate Year Groups during assemblies and PE lessons and put up posters. An emphasis was placed on recruiting girls who were not participating in sport or physical activity outside school and PE teachers were asked to refer pupils they thought would benefit from the project. Participants were empowered to be Ambassadors to promote the project within their school. They were also encouraged to “Activate an Angel” and bring a friend with them to sessions. Before the start of each term reminder postcards were sent to previous participants with details of sessions.
Location
Local
How was your project delivered?Hockey, netball, badminton, football, swimming, aerobics, spinning, street dance, gym, ice blading, salsa, pilates, boxercise
Funding
Phase 1 of the project (2004 – 2007) was funded through an Active England grant. Phase 2 of the project is being funded through Waltham Forest Youth Support Service.
Partnership
Partnerships were established with the Waltham Forest Northern School Sports Partnership, Waltham Forest PCT, Waltham Forest Healthy Schools Coordinator, WF Community Sports Coach, Leyton Orient Community Sports Programme, Greenwich Leisure Limited, Women’s Sports & Fitness Foundation and Pro Active North London.
Results
Lessons: 
The key lesson learnt was the need to tailor the activity programme to the needs of the girls. For example, the intention was to deliver activity sessions throughout the three school terms; however the attendance figures dropped from January until March when the evenings were cold and dark and so a decision was made to cancel sessions during this period. The coaching style of the instructors was also a key factor in keeping the girls engaged. They were asked to focus on making their sessions fun and sociable and encouraging participation and rather than performance coaching. When the girls provided negative feedback about particular instructors the Project Coordinator approached them and asked them to adapt their sessions. If they were unable to accommodate this request then they were replaced by more suitable candidates.
Evaluation: 
The project was evaluated at the end of Phase 1 which showed that 380 girls had participated over the three year period. 39% of these girls were in Year 11 and 23% in Year 10. 16% of attendees were in Year 12 which demonstrates that participants were keen to keep attending Active Angels after they had left school. Twenty girls joined the gym using the concessionary scheme offered by Greenwich Leisure Limited in order to increase their participation rates. At the start and end of each term a monitoring questionnaire was completed by participants to measure the difference in their attitudes to the benefits of physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle. The results showed that the girls all thought their health had improved through participating in the programme and they had a greater understanding of the positive effects that physical activity had on their physical and mental health.
Themes

Tackling drop-off

In order to try and prevent the drop-off in participation for those in the 16+ age group, the project specifically targeted girls aged 14 – 16 years and provided them with a programme of activity tailored to their needs. 

The coaches delivered activities with a focus on sustaining participation rather than performance which tends to put off the target group.  The aim is to create an environment which is not only customer focused but also seeks to enhance the self esteem of the participants. 

Health and well-being

Many of the girls took part in Active Angels to control their weight and to feel good about themselves. This improved self image has helped the girls function better in other parts of their lives.

The project used several methods of communicating with participants:

  • Presentations in schools by the Activity Coordinator
  • Posters in schools
  • Reminder postcards to participants
  • Ambassadors – participants promoting the project within their school
  • Activate an Angel – bring a friend scheme
  • PE staff were encouraged to refer girls who they thought would benefit from the project

Reversioning sport

The emphasis of Active Angels was on delivering activity in a fun and relaxed environment.  The coaches understood this ethos and tailored their sessions accordingly.  After each session there was an opportunity for the girls to socialise in the sports centre.  The Project Coordinator also organised off-site trips (e.g. ice skating at an outdoor rink at Christmas) and delivered healthy eating workshops where the girls had the opportunity to socialise with girls from different schools.

Promotion and marketing

The Active Angels project used several methods to communicate with participants:

  • Presentations in schools by the Activity Coordinator
  • Posters in schools
  • Reminder postcards to participants
  • Ambassadors – we used participants to promote the project within their school
  • Activate an Angel – bring a friend scheme
  • PE staff were encouraged to refer girls who they thought would benefit from the project
Key links: 
London Playing Fields Foundation - Active Angels

Women in Sport Audit 2007/2008

 

Backing a winner: unlocking the potential in women's sport

The Women in Sport Audit 2007/2008 looks at the inequalities faced by women's sport. The Audit works across the three core areas of Leadership, Investment and Profile to provide an overview of the sector and uncover where sport is missing out when it comes to women. 

The audit exposes just how uneven the playing field currently is when it comes to men and women. Across leadership, investment and promotion in sport, women are on the back foot. It’s time to take these learnings and drive positive change.

In learning from where women’s sport is a success story and capitalising on the current prominence of sport, there’s huge potential. 

In order to inspire real and lasting change it does, however, need to be a team effort.

Across several years the Commission on the Future of Women’s Sport will be spearheading a shift across the sector, inviting all of its colleagues to join forces in tackling the three big issues to give women more of a sporting chance.

We hope that this is the first step towards a big change in women’s sport, one that all members of the sport shall champion.

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