Around the Counties: Birmingham FA – Get Your Boots On

Birmingham FA has launched Get Your Boots On, a match-maker app that pairs players with teams by preferred playing time, location and format, supporting more than 4,000 teams in the area. Chief executive Kevin Shoemake frames it as a way to make it simple for women to join or return to football. The county has also worked with the Central Warwickshire Girls’ League on a new Under-21 recreational league starting in September 2016, the first of its kind in the country, in which teams arrange their own monthly fixtures – a format aimed squarely at the drop-off from Under-18 to open-age football as players move away to university or take on other commitments. Quarterly female college festivals focus on inclusion and enjoyment.