One Two Magazine Edition 1 December 2015 One Two Magazine Edition 1 December 2015 | Page 5

England Women’s Team
These developments
are manifesting
themselves in many
ways. Indeed,
Sunday's historic
Wembley debut of
the FA Women's Cup
Final was fuelled by
a four-year, sevenfigure sponsorship
deal with SSE, that
will ring-fence
funding to create a
UK-wide programme
of girls-only football.
That's progress at the elite level, but locally
Bedfordshire FA have set out plans for the
promotion of dedicated female
programmes, designed to increase mini
soccer at youth level, increase referee and
coach development and, with so many
alternative options vying for girls' sporting
attentions, satisfy a retention target, as
opposed to a growth target. It isn't a plan to
ride on the coat tails of Women's World Cup
fever – but unexpected English success is a
welcome leg up.
"We're proud of the strategy," said Beds FA
Female Football Officer Julia Robathan,
adding: "It's quite a nice time to tell
everyone what we've been doing because
of the success of the [England] women's
team.
"We've spent the last four years significantly
growing the number of girl-only teams at
mini soccer – five and seven-a-side – and
we've seen an increase of 24 additional
teams in the last two years.

However, it's unlikely that much of this cash
will flow directly into the coffers of
Bedfordshire clubs. The county's two elite
women's teams, Luton Town Ladies and
Bedford Ladies, play in the FA Women's
Premier League Division One South East, the
tier below the WSL. But the vast majority of
funding for women's football still comes
from Sport England – a pot that is split
between 46 sports.
"There's not very much funding at grassroots for girls," said Jill Upton, treasurer of
Bedford Ladies and Girls Football Club, who
celebrate their 20th anniversary this year.
"There is a bit of funding in the FA Women's
Premier League but we play at tier two with
Luton and MK Dons, and if we were in tier
two in men's football we'd be very rich."
Comparisons are ever present across the
football gender divide, on and off the pitch.

But the men have had more than a
century's head start in terms of FA
governance – 152 years, compared to 22
years for the women's game. In terms of
participation, the FA Secondary School
Programme recognises that football is only
the fifth most popular participation sport for
girls, behind things like dance, compared to
its overwhelming popularity as number one
amongst boys.
"It's a work in progress at every level,"
Robathan said of women's football, adding:
"The division that sits just below the
Women's Premier League is still run
completely voluntarily by a league
committee, so there's still a huge gap
between each of the steps and things still
to conquer."
There's no lack of ambition, however. The
national vision, unveiled in June by FA
National Women's Football Development
M