Girls’ football at school level in London continues to grow, says Chris Wilding, secretary of the Barking & Dagenham Schools FA and founder of the London Girls’ U11s League.
District football has been around for donkeys’ years. Hundreds of local schools’ run representative sides in what has been a long-established breeding ground for countless professional and international superstars. But, until very recently, it was the sole domain of boys.
That has been slowly changing though over the last decade as more and more boroughs identify the need and benefits of running girls’ sections.
Chris Wilding, founder of the London Girls’ U11s League explains, “There are 353 local associations affiliated to English Schools’ FA. That is a massive base for developing the girls’ game at district level. Even if only a handful were able to find the volunteers and resources to operate a girls’ district team, the impact could be huge.”
The London Girls’ League began last season with eight teams from across the Greater London area competing. Primary schools’ teams from Woking, Sutton, Barnet, Brent, Camden, Islington, Haringey and Barking & Dagenham became the original members of a competition that looks set to go from strength to strength.
The tournament culminated with the league’s Finals’ Day at The Hive, home of the London Bees, in the North of the capital. On a sun-drenched Saturday morning in June, all eight sides thrashed out the final places in front of healthy crowds, including England international Rachel Yankey.
It was Barnet who triumphed at the end of the campaign, edging a nervy 1-0 victory over neighbours Brent in the showpiece game.
However, the significance of the Finals’ Day was that the girls’ district movement had gathered such momentum to warrant an occasion of that size in the first place. From a handful of teams playing one-off festivals and representative matches, girls’ district football in London now has a structure and timetable from which to build further.
This season, Lewisham and West Kent have been added to the league which will hopefully continue to grow year on year as the competition has become officially adopted by London Schools’ FA.
Wilding added, “In the borough where I teach, we set up an inter-school girls’ league around ten years ago. In the first season, seven schools entered. That number is now up to twenty-three with around two hundred and fifty girls taking part. If we can do the same at district level, we can fill a niche to provide opportunities for our pupils to pursue an interest in football that they wouldn’t necessarily have otherwise.”
SHE KICKS – the online community for women’s football
