Grassroots clubs are riding the women's football boom

The headline numbers of the women's game are familiar by now: record crowds, rising television audiences and sponsorship deals that would have seemed impossible a decade ago. The less told story is what happens on a cold Tuesday evening at a local club, where waiting lists for girls' teams keep getting longer.

A surge at the grassroots

Club secretaries describe the same pattern after every major tournament: a wave of new players, many of them girls who have never kicked a ball in an organised session before. Adult women's teams are growing too, with returners and complete beginners joining recreational leagues.

That growth brings a welcome problem. Clubs need more volunteer coaches, more referees and, above all, more pitch time, which is often already allocated to long established boys' and men's teams.

The less told story is what happens on a cold Tuesday evening at a local club.

What clubs say they need

• Fair access to pitches and changing rooms at reasonable times, not just the late slots nobody else wants.
• Funding and training for volunteer coaches, including more women coaches.
• Kit and boots designed for women and girls, rather than smaller versions of men's equipment.

Keeping players in the game

Recruiting players is only half the job. Participation among girls has traditionally dropped in the teenage years, so clubs are experimenting with social sessions, flexible formats and friendship based teams that keep the game fun as well as competitive.

If the boom is to last, the momentum created in the stadium will have to be matched by investment on the local pitch. That is where the next generation of players, coaches and fans is being made.