Women's Football - A Growing Success Story
One of the fastest growing sports globally, women's and girls football is set to gain massive media interest with the kickoff of the UEFA Women's Euro 2017. The first event to include 16 nations, this European Championship takes place in the Netherlands between July 16th and August 6th with the cream of the crop in European women's football battling it out to win the UEFA Women's Euro Trophy. In a boost for the British game, both England and Scotland have qualified for the Championships with the latter qualifying for the very first time after Anna Signeul's side finished runners-up in Group A qualifying with 21 points. The Swedish boss is stepping down from the hot-seat after the Finals and will hope to go out in style with the Scots reaching the latter stages of the competition. England have steadily grown in stature in recent years under Mark Sampson's guidance finishing 3rd at the 2015 World Cup and qualifying for the Euros with ease and will start as one of the favourites to lift the European title next month. At Direct Soccer we are also passionate about the women's game and amongst our club shop partners are key players in the women's game north and south of the border. We host club shops for the likes of Whitehaven AFC, Forfar Farmington, Glasgow Girls and Central Football Academy (Girls). All four clubs are important in the growth of the women's game and provide great opportunities for girls and women of all ages and abilities to participate in the sport. Women footballers can also buy specific women kits from the likes of Nike and adidas if they want to wear a kit with a specific womens cut. What about the game across Europe as a whole? It has seen tremendous growth in participation and spectating with an increase as well in media coverage. With thanks to uefa.com the infographics below tell more of a story about the progress the women's game has made in recent years. [caption id="attachment_2640" align="aligncenter" width="600"] With over 1million registered players, a figure that has doubled in 4 years. England is one of 6 countries with more than 100,000 girls and women playing football. (courtesy of www.uefa.com)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2642" align="aligncenter" width="600"] In 2012/13 there were only 173 national teams at the various age groups in the women's game throughout Europe, now this number is at 233. The amount of national girls academies has also doubled in this period. (courtesy of www.uefa.com)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2641" align="aligncenter" width="600"] There has been consistent growth in the amount of qualified coaches across Europe over the last 5 years as well as match officials looking after the women's game. (courtesy of www.uefa.com)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2643" align="aligncenter" width="600"] From Iceland to Italy, Portugal to Russia, 16 nations will take part in the UEFA Women's Euro 2017 in the Netherlands (courtesy of www.uefa.com)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2644" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Growth is also being shown in the amount of national associations that have a women's national league (52) and the amount of youth teams involved in girls football is now nearly double what it was in 2012/13 (courtesy of www.uefa.com)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2645" align="aligncenter" width="600"] A huge amount of national associations in the UEFA umbrella now offer opportunities for football participation in schools and also run disability programmes. This has helped increase the media coverage of the game. (courtesy of www.uefa.com)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2646" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Fan participation has also increased in the womens game while the number of women working in managerial positions at their respective FA's in Europe is also on the up (courtesy of www.uefa.com)[/caption]