Around the Counties: South Yorkshire, a Hotbed for Female Football

Sheffield and Hallamshire County FA reports a season in which South Yorkshire hosted the FA WSL Continental Tyres Cup final in November, the first Continental Tyres Youth Under-14 Cup and the England against Belgium European qualifier with the FA’s Junior Fanzone. Its girls’ and women’s county leagues give 150 teams the chance to play from mini soccer to eleven-a-side, from Under-9 to open age. Monthly Under-8 gala days introduce seven and eight-year-olds to football before team environments, and two FA Skills centres run female-only sessions and half-term camps. A steering group drawn from five professional clubs runs open sessions for fourteen to twenty-five-year-olds, and female walking football sessions are planned.