Around the Counties: Northumberland FA

The magazine’s recurring county slot turns to Northumberland FA, which works with a range of partners to provide regular playing opportunities for females across the county and calls women’s and girls’ football a key priority. There is a player pathway from the age of eight to open age, taking in female futsal sessions and an annual beach soccer tournament. The Northumberland Girls Football League, formed in 2004 with around nineteen teams, became an affiliated league in 2005 and gained FA Charter Standard status in 2013, with over 750 girls playing regularly in 2013/14; now sponsored by Pin Point Recruitment, its junior leagues serve eighty-one teams from Under 10 to Under 18. The County Women’s League provides eleven-a-side football for open-age teams, and an FA Girls’ Player Development Centre run with the Newcastle United Foundation trains a hundred gifted players. The page belongs to the Around the Counties series sponsored by Bluefin Sport.