Hampshire FA's Commitment to the Growth of the Women and Girls' Game
The FA’s new Women & Girls’ strategy pledges to Reach Higher by focusing on four key priorities:
- Build and protect the uniqueness of the women's game
- Win a major tournament at international level
- Build robust, high-quality competition
- Deliver equal opportunities for women and girls to play.
The FA’s priority of ‘delivering equal opportunities for women and girls to play’ is a key objective of Hampshire FA’s grassroots football strategy.
With a number of female-only opportunities, we are committed to growing the number of female coaches, players and referees in our county over the next four years.
Hampshire FA’s Female Pathway Lead Football Development Officer, Hannah Humphreys said: “Equal opportunities for Women and Girls to play football has been a huge priority for us for a long time, and it continues to be at the forefront of everything we do.
“We want to create an environment where no woman or girl feels they’re unable to take advantage of opportunities to play, coach or referee. We’ve made big strides in offering female-specific sessions, workshops and programmes to allow this to happen, and the data shows us that we’re heading in the right direction.”
“One of our most successful female-specific programmes has resulted in a 57% increase in registered female referees, largely through our Female Referee Development Programme (FRDP) which provides The FA Referee Course, Workshops, CPDs, Community Support and Mentorship to aspiring female referees in Hampshire.”
The FA’s previous Women & Girls’ strategy (2020-2024) saw a 113% growth of female referees.
With a The FA’s particular focus on delivering a refereeing recruitment strategy through County FAs to have a refereeing workforce that is representative of society by 2028, the FRDP offer is ahead of the curve in training young female referees and providing crucial support to retain the workforce through challenges and hurdles they encounter along their journey.
“I feel really proud of myself. If anyone’s thinking about doing the [Female Referee Development Programme] course, I would just say go for it. It’s a great job and it’s really enjoyable.”
-Laura, Female Referee Development Programme graduate.
“When I qualified as a referee in 2018 I was the only female on my course. I probably, on reflection, did find that quite daunting.”
-Anne-Marie Godfrey, 3W Women’s Referee, Level 5 Men’s Referee and Referee Mentor.
To see the full Women & Girls’ 2024-28 Strategy, download it below.
Reaching Higher - 2024-28 The FA Women & Girl's Strategy
For more information about the Hampshire FA Grassroots Football Strategy 2024-28, visit our Evolving With The Game page.
For a full list of female-specific playing, coaching and refereeing opportunities in Hampshire, please download the below digital opportunities brochure.