Female FC are on the ball: the rise of women's football in London

At post-work kickabouts and fast-paced games of five-a-side, it’s squad goals for women’s football this summer, says Samuel Fishwick 
Dream works: Hackney-based club Romance FC collaborated with Nike on a campaign
Romance FC

Football’s coming home, knocking on your door, and asking if you fancy a kickabout. England’s Lionesses knocked out Cameroon 3-0 to reach the quarter-finals yesterday. At the Playfiveaside complex in London Bridge, meanwhile, owner Nilesh Pandit points to the “Lionesses’ bounce” reflected on his own mixed pitches.

“The further the England Women’s team go, the more interest we seem to get in women turning up and wanting to play, or emailing to ask about pitches, which is great”, he says. “The mixed league was roaring well before the World Cup, and hopefully this success will encourage even more women to get involved.”

Pandit operates around 40 pitches across London, and is not alone in noticing a surge leading up to the World Cup.

“In the last 10 months participation by female football players has doubled from four per cent to eight per cent,” says Christian Rose, CEO of Powerleague, which hosts 100,000 players on its five- and seven-a-side pitches every week, “which is an improvement, but nowhere near where it should be.”

As a form of exercise “over an hour, it’s one of the most aerobically beneficial activities you can be involved in, and you’re playing in a team, which is a wonderful feeling.

“You don’t need to be super fit, since all skill levels are generally accommodated. You have that sense of euphoria if you score or win. You have sense of not letting it happen again if your team doesn’t win.” But barriers to entry are still a problem. A UK study commissioned by Powerleague found only 12 per cent of women have played football for a team, compared with 52 per cent of men.

“Women’s attitude to playing was one of concern that if they turned up, they could be leered at, laughed at or ridiculed,” says Rose. “That’s shocking in terms of people still behaving in a way that would make women feel uncomfortable playing football.”

Powerleague is considering promoting “a female-football focused training experience” tailored particularly to helping women improve their skill set”. Rose also wants to attract “parents dropping off their children after school with an opportunity for the adults to have a kickaround, although obviously, that’s not just women”.

Nike unveil bespoke England kit for Lionesses

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But it’s more good news than bad news. The capital is seeing a rising wave of successful women’s sides, from Goal Diggers FC — a club for all women and non-binary people — to Hackney creative collective Romance FC, which recently collaborated with Nike to design its own line of jerseys. Nike also works closely with youth football platform Rising Ballers, which launched its first female football squad for young women earlier this year.

Andy Anson, chief executive of Goals Soccer Centres, says the Women’s World Cup has prompted “a number of commercial organisations such as Lucozade, through its relationship with the Lionesses, helping to drive an uplift in the women’s game.” It’s a shift that’s paying dividends in the workplace, adds Rose. “One big growth area for women is not league matches but social ones, where we’re seeing an increasing number of mixed male and female teams, especially when companies are putting together teams. That’s encouraging, because companies are realising that getting fit is good, that men and women can play a sport like five- and seven-a-side football. It’s great for banter, and also mutual respect.”

It’s an open goal. Ultimately, everyone’s on the same team.

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