Cash boost for female football programme

Date published: 22 October 2011

Local ladies aged 16-21 wanting to ‘Bend it like Beckham’ should get themselves down to Radcliffe Riverside High School every Monday from 5-6pm to join in a new football initiative which could ultimately boost their job prospects.

The £5,000 cash boost has been given to event organisers, Bury Football Development Forum by The England Football Foundation, Working with the Sport and Physical Activity Service. The new programme which started two weeks ago will run until December 19.

The programme has just started and organisers would love more people to come along and join in because they believe that there is a lot of untapped talent locally. The idea is to increase the number of local ladies playing the game and get more people involved in volunteering.

There is also a chance that the course could improve employment prospects as participants who attend will be given the opportunity to join Bury Sport and Physical Activity Services pool of volunteers and possibly a chance to join the pool of coaches where they will have the opportunity to be a casual coach and earn a wage. Anybody who attends will get the option to go on courses such as the Junior Football Organisers course and a Level 1 in Coaching Football course which are recognised coaching qualifications.

According to the Football Association, football is now the UK’s number one female team participation sport currently has 1.38m women and girls up and down the country playing the game regularly. Sport England’s Active People survey in 2011 highlighted that 275,300 adult women play some form of football in England. This demonstrates that women's football is now the third largest team sport behind only men's football and men's cricket.