London Calling: New Girls’ Leagues, 100FC & Wildcats (London FA)

London FA’s page sets out four initiatives aimed at getting more women and girls playing in the capital. Four youth leagues – Tandridge, Camden & Islington, London County Saturday and the nine-year-old Capital Girls League, now over 100 teams – are adding girls-only divisions from the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons, with an East London provision promised. The centrepiece is 100FC, a three-year programme backed by the Wembley National Stadium Trust to recruit and train 100 new female coaches a year through a funded pathway, aimed squarely at the shortage of female coaches to serve rising player numbers. Wildcats centres continue to offer girls aged five to eleven a first, unpressured route into the game, with the application window reopening in November, and the county has published a map of every women’s and girls’ team and Wildcats centre in London.