UEFA Study Visit on Girls' & Women's football

The FA recently hosted a UEFA Study Visit on the development of Women’s and Girls’ football in England, with representatives from Norway, Iceland and Croatia all here to see The FA’s work in this area.

The visitors began their visit with an opening speech and welcome by Sue Hough, FA Women’s Committee Chair, before National Women’s Football Development Manager Rachel Pavlou then provided the three nations with an overview of women and girl’s football in England.

This covered all areas of the player pathway including grassroots participation and development, The FA Tesco Skills programme, The FA Centres of Excellence programme, the International Team structure and the new and exciting Women’s Super League proposals.

The second day started with a visit to the Manchester FA’s county offices, and a presentation on how county football in England works, including the different areas of the game the County FAs cover. There was also a talk from a female referee and a young female leader about the support they have experienced. 

After the presentations, the group travelled to Manchester United FC and watched a demonstration of an FA Tesco Skills coaching session using children from a local girls’ school.  Participants were then given the opportunity to ask questions to David Ryan, manager of the Manchester United Foundation, about their involvement in female football. 
   
The next stop was Villa Park, the home of not only Aston Villa FC but also Aston Villa Girls’ Centre of Excellence.  The visitors had a ground tour of Villa Park before listening to a presentation from Villa’s Centre of Excellence director, Martin Harrison.  Following this, there was more football action with a session for the girls in the indoor training facility there, as well as a Futsal coaching session led by FA Futsal Coach Graeme Dell.
 
On the final day of the visit, The FA’s Women’s National Coach Hope Powell opened the presentations on by outlining the international framework in England. The success of reaching the recent European Championship Finals meant Hope’s attendance was a highlight for all of the visiting nations, who were keen to learn what they could do to benefit women’s football in their own countries.

The visitors then had the opportunity to see a number of our current internationals in action as they watched Everton Ladies play Roa in the UEFA Champions League. Whilst the aggregate result meant Everton unfortunately lost the tie, the high level of play clearly demonstrated the impact the England’s Women’s Programme is having.

The session was then closed by Tessa Hayward, FA Women’s League’s Coordinator, who gave an overview of the league structure in England.