Football clubs announce significant new investment in women’s grassroots football. 

A new scheme will provide £2.4 million in funding to help get 40,000 more women and girls across the country playing football.

This scheme is a collaboration between the Football Association, Sport England, the Premier League and the Football League.

The investment will fund season-long training sessions for women aged 14 to 25, and clubs will work with schools, universities and county football clubs to attract participants.

FA general secretary Alex Horne said: “This is a fantastic initiative. The professional clubs’ brands will attract more players and we know that qualified coaches will deliver top-class coaching sessions just where we need them.”

The programme aims to halt the decline in women’s participation in football, since, according to the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, although 131,000 women over the age of 16 play football every week, this figure is down almost 20 per cent on seven years ago.

But this is not the only boost women’s football in the UK has received lately.

Earlier this month, England women’s captain Casey Stoney became the first woman to join the management committee of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA).

She hopes to use her new position to encourage the PFA to increase the opportunities available to women in sport.

“The biggest issue is obviously getting more girls playing and getting more people coming in the gates and watching,” she has said.

“Hopefully we can get more awareness around the women’s game, and the PFA are going to help with that.

“Hopefully we’ll start to break down those barriers and the women’s game will flourish and grow.”