The FA have released a set of guidelines for encouraging more female participation in football, and how whomever thought this up didn't expect some sort of backlash is quite amazing.
Thelist was compiled by national and regional FA staff with supposed input from the Women Sport and Fitness Foundation, in efforts to heap some knowledge on persons looking to present the sport to new females, who may or may not be interested.
Some of thesuggestions are quite ridiculous and range from using 'colourful bibs that look clean and smell nice', to placing advertisements on the back of toilet doors, to allowing breaks for social media posting.
And you can be certain that most of these will not go down well with the female community, although there's nothing that beats being allowed to use your hands to score (yes, that's on the list as well.
Here are some choiceexamples below, but you can see the complete listhere.
Advertising the session
- Advertise in places where girls go i.e. coffee shops or on the back of toilet doors
- Use images that are similar to the target group you're trying to attract. Some examples are below for your use
- Use female friendly branding and colouring on your marketing materials. See the Women Sport and Fitness Foundation's Marketing Toolkit as an additional resource. It provides top tips on marketing sport and physical activity to women and girls
- Based on the idea that some women like to exercise together, consider targeting existing groups of women i.e. gym classes/mother and daughter groups
- Set up twitter/facebook accounts and regularly update them and post photos. You could delegate this to the group.
Session content
- Constantly consult and ask participants what they want to do
- Play music alongside participation. You could allow the group to choose their own playlist (as long as it's suitable!)
- Run conditioned games i.e. matches that allow girls to use their hands and feet or where they must score with a part of their body other than their feet
- Have some element of skill development but not for the majority of the session
- Offer the chance to have a go at additional sports by linking with other National Governing Bodies.
- Play indoors through the winter, outdoors in the summer
- Some women/girls are deterred from playing when being watched by men. Consider a venue with limited viewing access
- Use an approachable, qualified, friendly and understanding coach
- Incorporate set social times into your session i.e. time to discuss the programme or a tea & coffee break
- Allow girls the time to check their phones within a session or incorporate a twitter break so participants can tweet about the session
- Provide appropriate session plans for teachers who can continue and sustain delivery ï‚· Most of the time, girls only want to participate with other girls. Players with more ability may be willing to play mixed football
- The name of the group has been shown to be very important to help the girls feel a sense of belonging. You could run a competition to allow girls to choose their own name/logo/twitter username etc.
From the toilet to the pitch. Not a bad headline now?