Examination of Witnesses (Questions 1-19)
MS SUE
LOPEZ MBE, MS
WENDY OWEN,
MS HELEN
DONOHOE, MS
EMMA WAKE,
MS PAULA
COCOZZA
27 JUNE 2006
Chairman: Good morning, everybody. This
is a special one-off session of the Culture, Media and Sport Select
Committee, where we would like to examine the question of women's
football. When we announced we were to do this it was greeted
with a little surprise which, in a sense, is the reason why we
are doing it. I hope this session will help to actually raise
the profile of women's football. We are delighted to have a number
of witnesses but, first of all, I would like to welcome our panel
of experts to represent the independent viewpoints and the grassroots
of women's football: Sue Lopez, a former England international;
Wendy Owen, who is also a former player; Helen Donohoe from the
Women's Sports Foundation; Emma Wake, from my own county of Essex,
the Women's Football Development Officer and Paula Cocozza, who
is a journalist with The Guardian. To start, can I invite
Helen Southworth.
Q1 Helen Southworth: We have been given
evidence that women's football is hugely growing in participation
both by people playing and the audience and we thought we would
like to ask you, first of all, what you think the key successes
are in developing women's football over the past few years, and
what your priorities would be over the next few years?
Ms Donohoe: If you look at all
the submissions that have been made to the Committee there is
clearly a massive growth in women's football, which is to be welcomed.
There is not a day goes by that someone does not say, "Isn't
it great, Euro 2005 was on television and there are clear and
well marked successes that we have achieved". I would qualify
that by saying that it depends where you draw your baseline and
where you compare and how you put it into context, for example,
to men's and boys' football. You will see in our submission, if
you compare it to Germany and Sweden, in terms of participation
we have still got a long way to go. I think the growth has come
about through distinct and dedicated initiatives and investment
from the FA, and fundamentally from the passion, belief, drive
and education of volunteers, and women and girls themselves, because
any football overcomes the biggest barriers there are in the world.
I do not know if you saw the BBC website yesterday; there was
an article about a small village in India that has its own women's
football team. I think it is a combination of all things. I think
it is important to put in context that we have come a long way
but, as I have said, we have got a hell of a long way to go and
enormous potential to fulfil, but it comes down to investment,
specific funds and specific ring-fenced initiatives, but fundamentally
the spirit, belief and love of football.
Ms Lopez: I have been in the game
for 40 years I hate to say, at all sorts of roles, not only as
an England player but also as an A-licence coach. I have survived
and it was a real pioneering spirit, as Helen alluded to, when
I was younger; but now, thanks to the FA resources, it has grown
fantastically but I think we do need to address lots of issues
now. Since the FA took over in 1993 I feel the women's game has
bolted onto the men's. It has done fantastically well but we need
to look at specific things, like the development of girls' football
at a young age. Centres of excellence have been fantastic for
that but there is only a small group of girls. We need to also
look at grassroots development because, as in boys' football,
it is the youth that get the coaches who are not quite so experienced;
and of course girls are a little bit different from boys and they
do need, I feel, not special treatment but a better understanding.
We need to understand that girls might feel a little bit inhibited
in joining in. There are not quite so many opportunities for them
to develop their skills and develop into league players, or to
develop even their movement skills. If you do not get it at primary
school, and it is not always possible at primary schools, that
early age is key to helping the girls develop. They cannot all
get into centres of excellence so youth club football needs a
boost. We need to get more expert coaches in developing girls'
football at youth level. I see a possible route as using the centres
of excellence as a kind of hub, as a beacon, like schools, so
that local clubs could use them as examples of good practice to
develop more coaches, develop more referees and that kind of thing.
I think a lot of stuff needs to go on at youth level and I am
sure there are other people who would want to talk about it at
the adult level. I was at Southampton Football Club and have been
a victim of the boom and bust there. Obviously Fulham is another
example of boom and bust. We need to address how best to fund
and to get the clubs better funded and to help the adult women's
game progress at all levels, not just the fortunate Arsenals and
Charlton, obviously fantastic models, but it is all the other
layers which need help.
Ms Cocozza: On the key successes,
I think particularly from a media perspective, women's football
has started to build a public and people are happy to watch the
game on television or at big matches, and that has been a huge
success, as well as of course the growth in the number of players.
There has been increased media coverage. Women's football has
been on terrestrial television, Euro 2005 last year, and the FA
Cup has been shown on BBC1 for the past few years. Another success
I think is that a lot of work has been done towards building a
pathway so that young girls who want to start playing football
can find a club and have a pathway along which they can progress.
For me their limitations would be that that pathway is not accessible
equally in all bits of the country; that there is a lack of competition
at all levels and games vary from region to region. While there
have been large audiences for a number of key women's matches—such
as the FA Cup, such as internationals where the FA puts a lot
of money into getting people there, and a lot of people go on
free tickets to get the numbers up—during the regular football
season audiences are very low; sometimes as few as 50 people will
turn up to watch a game, and there is no harnessing of these big
crowds to try to sustain an audiences from Sunday to Sunday, week
by week through the football season. Those would be my comments.
Q2 Mr Sanders: Do you think the audience
for women's football is different from men's football in relation
to that answer?
Ms Cocozza: I think there is much
more resistance among football fans. I gather that the FA conducted
some research a couple of years ago where they discovered that
female season ticket holders at men's clubs were particularly
resistant to the idea of watching women play. I think the audience
at many a league match would be made up largely of family members,
friends and the odd uninterested party who just wants to support
their club in every way they can; and perhaps they are fans of
the men's team and they also turn up to watch the women play.
There are probably a higher percentage of people watching who
are families and lots of children, and this is particularly true
at the internationals where lots of school parties go and so on.
Of your regular terrace crowd at the men's game only a tiny section
would be present at the women's game.
Q3 Mr Sanders: Are there perhaps
disadvantages in women's teams being closely associated with a
professional men's football team? Is there actually scope for
trying to broaden an entirely different network of women's teams
that are not connected with the local established professional
football team?
Ms Cocozza: I think it is very
difficult because obviously men's football at least provides an
infrastructure. It is a really important question, I think, because
some years ago when the FA announced there would be a professional
league within three years, women's teams were encouraged to hook
up with men's teams and they kind of forewent a lot of independence
in doing so but seemed to gain in stature; they would suddenly
have a name that people recognised. Instead of being Clapton Orient
they would become a name people associated with football and so
there were big games. What has happened, partly as a result of
that, is that men's clubs do not seem to have been willing or
able to provide the funding that is necessary to bring women's
teams under that umbrella. Some teams have tried to find more
independence and to detach themselves and be self-funding but
obviously it is very difficult and there is no support structure.
Q4 Chairman: You have mentioned the
shining examples of Arsenal and Charlton, but is the truth that
most top clubs are not interested, and indeed the best known club
in Britain (if not the world) Manchester United closed down its
women's football club two years ago?
Ms Lopez: Yes, Chairman. As Paula
said, it is a very interesting thing, and I have gone through
the boom and bust with Southampton. I think we need to think about
different models. There are the fantastic Arsenal/Charlton models
where you have got a club and chairman and people of influence
at the club who are willing to be supportive, and that is fantastic;
but I think we do need to find other models that we need to use
to not only sell to the professional clubs but I see it as a package
we need to be selling to the clubs so that they can see some advantage
in it. As Paula alluded to, Southampton brought into the professional
model and of course was disappointed and was doubly disappointed
when they got relegated, and wanted the funds they were giving
to us for their men's structure. I think we need to build clubs
that are a bit more independent and are into the local structure
at a local level. If there is a professional club, I think we
do need to build a little package for them so there is something
in it for the clubs; and obviously, looking at the community side,
so that the women players are involved in different ways in the
community; so the clubs can actually see some benefits.
Q5 Chairman: If Manchester United
cannot sustain and is not interested in maintaining its own women's
football club then what hope is there?
Ms Lopez: With respect, Chairman,
we cannot expect professional clubs to be a charity; we cannot
expect them to be interested if they do not want to be; but where
there are clubs wanting to be interested (and I am sure there
are lots of examples around; if you ask the FA there are lots
of good examples of good practice with professional clubs but
that they have to be willing) I think the way we do it is important
and we need to go and build a partnership with that club at whatever
level, whether they are Manchester United, Crewe or just a little
local semi-pro team. It can just be the local men's team.
Q6 Alan Keen: As Chair of the All
Party Parliamentary Football Group, the Policy Group, can I welcome
you. It is to Helen's credit that we have got this inquiry today.
The Vice- Chair of my committee is a woman, and I promise you
that we will give you access to Parliament from now on and I hope
you take advantage of it. We will do everything we can to help.
There are a growing number of women watching the professional
game. Is there a way of tapping into that growing band of watchers
of football, of women, to get them to realise it? We want to get
young girls at school playing, so is there a way of doing that
that will help?
Ms Owen: I think the media is
a chicken and egg situation. If you can get the media coverage
it spurs on the interest to watch and go just like the men's football.
Just at an anecdotal level, when Euro 2005 was on in my place
of work all of a sudden men who had never seen or been interested
in women's football before were coming to talk to me in the senior
common room to say they had watched it and started talking about
the players and the tactics and really got interested and involved
in it. It became a real office talking point and they were enjoying
it. Unfortunately that was only a week or so and we were just
getting that impetus and getting interested and then obviously
it went out of the limelight. I think the problem is, you just
get your FA Cup Final on the television, you get the odd game
and you get the odd international and it does not sustain it.
If we could get the women in the limelight for a little bit longer
it would tap into a new audience. Paula is saying that it is mainly
the family of the players, but clearly during that tournament
a whole host of other folks were becoming interested in women's
football. I think that is the problem, but I have not got any
answers as to how you get that media coverage sustained. If you
had got a stronger women's league that could get more attendance
and more media coverage, so you did not just see the odd game
at the end of the season on the television and the odd international,
if you could get more sustained coverage you would get the chicken
and egg situation but how do you get that, because the media perhaps
are not going to get involved until the game gets up to a certain
level.
Ms Donohoe: There are two issues
here: there are women as viewers and women as participants of
the sport. The BBC will tell you that almost 50% of the viewers
of the World Cup and Match of the Day now are women, so it is
clear that there is a big audience in sport generally amongst
women; that is an established fact. The other matter is participation
and, there again we quote some research in our submission, and
one in three girls say they would like to play football. The fundamental
thing is we know there is demand out there; there has always been
a demand, it is nothing new and has gone on for a hundred years;
but it is about providing the opportunities across the board at
every level for those girls and those women to pick up a ball
and play. The bottom line is now that it is great having Euro
2005 on the TV and was a real breakthrough, and the BBC were not
too keen on taking that risk for understandable reasons, because
there are still a lot of cynics who believe that women's football
is just a little bit rubbish and does not deserve airtime on terrestrial
TV; but they had the guts and showed it and were amazed that almost
three million people tuned in on BBC2 on a Sunday evening; again
proving the point that there is a demand out there. The opportunity
to play is fundamental. It is all very well watching England play,
loving it and thinking "I want to do that", but can
you then go into school and play football without feeling you
are doing something which is a bit weird? Can you then go and
join a club locally that you can walk to nearby, or your mum or
dad can drive you to, where you can play and stay playing after
11 and carry on and enjoy and not feel as if you are doing something
which is marginal or a bit weird. I think that is the fundamental.
If you are unsure or unconfident, or do not have a mum or dad
pushing and encouraging you, or you are just not very good, the
opportunities are not there in comparison, for example, to boys'
football and men's football.
Ms Owen: It is patchy in schools.
In some areas it is good and it is a hub; but in other areas there
is not anything. It depends on an interested teacher in a primary
school. I have had a couple of correspondence from parents recently
saying, "Where can my child go on and play later on?"
At the moment they are playing for the boys' team and they are
not going to be allowed to play for the boys' team next year;
they want to but cannot find a girls' team without having to travel
(and it is about that distance again), or a girls' team
that is of the same standard. I think provision is patchy within
primary schools.
Ms Lopez: Some schools are so
varied. If you get a talented girl she cannot necessarily find
a quality girls' team to go and play with, and that is why she
wants to go and play with the boys. It is the exit routes once
the school has done a good job where it is very variable.
Ms Owen: Exit routes, but even
still in the schools it is patchy.
Ms Lopez: On the schools point,
I notice increasingly it is outside provision that is coming in;
it is not the primary school teacher unfortunately, who is not
well enough trained sometimes to take games. Sometimes I have
reservations there because, for instance, if you have got a local
football club coming in with all the badged-up stuff so it is
all great for the boys, the girls are thinking, "Gosh, what's
this got to do with me?" If they have not got an empathy
with the girls, they can feel marginalised even though the provision
is there.
Q7 Alan Keen: Could I ask Emma as
a Development Officer in the county, you are right at the grassroots,
what are the problems? You have mentioned changing facilities
and dressing rooms. That is one of the problems, is it not? Can
you specify that and tell us about the other problems you have
got, and the lack of coverage of the area so that a girl in one
area cannot find somebody to play with, can you expand on that?
Ms Wake: I think in our county,
because it is so diverse, it goes from extremely rural to extremely
built-up, and the problems vary with each different area. When
we talk about facilities from a female perspective, as you saw
from the Football Foundation submission, again they can vary from
good to very, very poor. At a local level, just speaking with
my friends and players before I came here, you are talking about
one female toilet between 30 females when they are playing a game;
team showers; team baths; extremely boggy pitches. Often female
teams are the third team of the weekend to use a facility and
that is if they get to play at all. They often get pushed down
the ladder of priorities to play. Certainly if they are not paying
for that facility it can be, "You could get this team in
and they're going to pay £50 or £100 so we'll take them
instead of the women's team", so the women's game will get
rescheduled and so on and so forth. If clubs have to use school
facilities there is very often no access to the toilets or changing
rooms, because again that is another cost incurred, or team baths.
If you are using local authority pitches there is no area to have
refreshments or no bar. They are the kinds of issues we are dealing
with at a local level.
Q8 Alan Keen: As an example, I have
got two combined county clubs in my constituency near Heathrow
Airport, and they have got their own bar and pay a lot of money
to keep the club going and they have got kids playing on Sunday
mornings. Have you got examples of these sorts of clubs? Is there
a failure amongst some of these sorts of clubs to involve women
because they are short of facilities, or have you had some success?
Ms Wake: It is extremely different
as you move across the county. We have had some great success
stories of community clubs looking to increase participation with
girls, and they work really hard and their girls' sections have
increased. Again, they are very, very spread out. It is a matter
of building up relationships, and every club is different and
their perception of girls' football is different. It is like everything,
there are good examples and there are other examples where you
have to work a little bit harder to get them to start a girls'
section.
Q9 Alan Keen: I know the Football
Foundation are saying, "Look, if you want money you've got
to provide women's facilities", so that is going to help
change the culture; but can we do in other ways? How can we get
clubs to realise that it is changing the culture, is it not?
Ms Lopez: We have got the Charter
Standard clubs; I think if that could be enhanced—and this
is where I see the County FAs playing a leadership role in encouraging
all the local teams that are registered with them, the women's
and girls' teams, to better understand the need to link in with
boys' clubs and vice versa- we need to do a lot more selling of
the benefits of community clubs.
Q10 Alan Keen: It is frustrating
because I would love to be able to play with people less than
30 years younger than I am. I am playing people coming straight
from five-aside football. I love to play with veterans for the
parliamentary team rather than playing against people who are
at least 30 years younger, so I see the frustration. This is the
problem—there are not enough veteran sides of a certain
age and there are not enough women's teams. I understand the problem
from that point of view. Afterwards you must get in touch directly
with the All Party Parliamentary Football Group and we will do
everything we can to provide links with people.
Ms Cocozza: Just to talk about
changing the culture, which was touched upon just now, at all
levels, from grassroots and from small clubs up to clubs that
are in the men's premiership, since the number of women at these
clubs in managerial positions of whatever kind is so small, and
that most football clubs are run by men, it is a very male environment,
whether you are reporting on a match or whether you are playing
or in the offices helping to run the club. I think there is a
perception that women do bad things to football pitches. There
is a kind of reluctance to let women have the pitch when the pitch
is in a good condition. A pitch that is given for women to play
on is a pitch that the rugby team played on the day before and
perhaps the boys' team played on in the morning. There was one
instance I remember of a men's club in the then men's Division
One whose women's team was in the Premiership and the manager
of the men's club reportedly said that he was ". . . not
going to let that bunch of dykes mess up his football pitch".
That is not a pleasant comment but I mention it because it is
indicative of some of the views that are in men's football clubs,
and that something needs to be done to try and level things up.
I think an educative programme is needed.
Q11 Chairman: Would you say that
kind of comment would be the exception or would you say that was
an attitude which is quite common?
Ms Cocozza: I think it is quite
common.
Ms Donohoe: I think the cultural
barrier is absolutely critical and, unfortunately, it is the hardest
thing to change and it is the thing which takes longest. It can
be changed and it is changing slowly and now we have more household
names of female footballers than we have ever had, which is great.
Q12 Mr Sanders: Why is it not the
case perhaps in tennis that those cultural barriers are there?
Wimbledon prize money aside, I cannot think of many other sports
in the world where women and men seem to command the same television
audiences for games and the same rewards for games and the same
amount of media coverage for the players. Is there perhaps a lesson
to learn from the history and development of tennis as a model
for where you want to take women's football?
Ms Donohoe: Tennis has a very,
very different cultural heritage from football. It is an individual
sport and a sport where other factors contribute to a player's
popularity. Football goes back a long way, and there are very
deeply entrenched cultural attitudes to the game, and passions,
and that is what makes it the amazing sport it is and, unfortunately,
it is what makes it difficult to change at all levels (and women's
football is just one part of that) but it can be changed. If you
look at the work that is being done to eradicate racism, attitudes
can be changed, and they slowly are changing as more and more
women become season ticket holders and attitudes on the terraces
are changing. As more and more girls get the chance to play football
and turn around to their mum and day and say to them, when they
are young girls, "I want to be a footballer", then attitudes
will change. Peers and role models develop and you create that
positive cycle of change, as opposed to the negative cycle we
have at the moment where there is a lack of role models; where
you do suffer intimidation. I have played football since I could
walk and there is not a season goes by that I do not get from
the sidelines, or do not witness at least, intimidation or some
form of derogatory language whether it is from the ground staff
or from passers-by, the man and a dog. I come back to my point
where you have to be pretty gutsy to play women's football still,
and it is only the determined, the good or the ones with pushy
parents that actually get through the system. We know that one
in three girls want to play football and it is those girls who
are getting let down.
Q13 Chairman: Did Bend it like
Beckham help to change that at all?
Ms Lopez: A little.
Q14 Chairman: In terms of presenting
an image of women's football which is actually popular, attractive
and encourages people to think this is not an extraordinary, weird
thing that only freaks do—
Ms Cocozza: I remember the lead
character's mother thought that her daughter must be gay because
she was playing football, and I think it raised that question
which historically has been a very difficult question to raise.
I think it glamorised it and made the sport look good. It made
it look glossy and it suggested that there might even be a career
in it if one could get a scholarship to the US.
Ms Donohoe: I remember Blue
Peter showcasing a young girl who played for a boys' team
and I saw on TV suddenly another girl who played football. If
you ask any woman who plays football they will all remember a
single role model that gave them hope when they were younger—and
that was 30 years ago! Small but positive imagery and pieces of
popular culture are great, but if you have not got the grassroots
and the basis to go around and tell your mum and day you want
to be a footballer then it is worthless.
Q15 Philip Davies: Just following
on from Adrian's tennis analogy, is it perhaps the case that because
the women's tournaments are played at exactly the same time as
the men's tournament, and therefore televised together, in the
same way that the Paralympics has raised its profile by actually
taking place just after the Olympics in exactly the same city
as the main Olympics, is there an argument that women's football
might be better promoted by having a women's World Cup on at the
same time or just after the men's World Cup and that might generate
more of the media coverage you seem to say is so important?
Ms Cocozza: I think the timings
of the season and the competitions are important. Certainly that
is something which needs to be worked on. In terms of the League,
at the moment the Women's League begins sort of August-ish and
ends sort of April/May depending on the weather, the disposition
of grounds men and other things. I think it might benefit from
having a tighter and a different structure. There is no narrative
of the competition at the moment. It peters out and it stops and
starts and matches get postponed or put off for one reason or
another. I think if there was a way of doing it at a different
time, having women's football during the summer maybe when there
is no men's football, or else making sure that if it is on at
the same time that it feels like it is somehow part of a similar
competition. At the moment there is no identity for the League
season. There is no League narrative because matches are played
irregularly still.
Q16 Mr Hall: We have seen a massive
improvement in Rugby League since it turned to summer rugby because
of the quality of the grounds. The point you have just made is
that it might well be that women's football on better football
pitches would allow it to prosper and have an identity of its
own. I have a lot of questions from everything you have suggested
but the big question is: there is no doubt that women's football
is growing in popularity; and more women and more girls want to
play. The obstacles are: opportunity, facilities and funding,
and there are load of other things around that. If you could change
one thing, what would you change?
Ms Lopez: You cannot change the
culture. I would just like to quickly go back to when we were
talking about the States, because that is where the Beckham girl
went, which I think tells a story. In the States soccer is not
as popular, whereas here we are dealing with the most popular
game for men; it has been traditional for years and is inbred
in most guys; and it is a heck of a job to break that down. For
us to go into the boys' locker rooms over the last 40 years you
sometimes feel you are treading on their territory, but it is
breaking down. There are some good points: I think leadership.
We talk about role models for players, but unless we have got
leaders—and they do not have to be women, but they have
to understand the women's game. I do not think some of the people
in leadership positions perhaps understand all the nuances in
the women's game; girls are different. For all these cultural
things we have talked about, we need to create an environment
for the girls and the players and the game that is not so associated
with the men. I think we get seduced by the men's game thinking
we can copy it; we cannot and we never will, I do not think—not
for many years.
Q17 Mr Hall: You do not need to.
Ms Lopez: Exactly, but I think
we need to build our own women's game (but we do not want to reinvent
the wheel) and certainly engage the men. I have probably learnt
more from the men's leagues in the game than I have from some
of the female coaches, for instance. We need to develop our own
leadership style with women and men that understand the game.
There is not enough deep understanding of the needs of women and
the needs of the women's game in this country.
Q18 Mr Hall: In your earlier evidence
you talked about, in 1993, being "bolted on" to the
men's FA. Would it be better if there were separate organisations?
Ms Lopez: No, I am not suggesting
that at all. I am saying that because it was bolted on in 1993
(and there have been fantastic benefits) I am saying we have moved
on now. The FA have done all those fantastic things which have
needed to be done, but let us have a fresh look at the game and
see the current needs. For instance, we have girls and women-only
activities but it is not just about a girls' and women-only coaching
course, it is about the coach. Does the coach actually understand
what those girls or women need? I do not think we think about
that. As I said to you, in schools you get the outside agencies
coming in to coach those girls, but are those coaches actually
understanding what those girls need? They are not going to be
the next Rooney's, which is what the boys are hoping to be. The
local men's club think, "Wow, this is great", and the
girls are thinking, "What's this got to do with me. I'm not
going to be the next Rooney. What's this guy on about?"
Ms Owen: From my point of view
my frustration is, if it was me I would try and move women's football
more away from relying on the patronage of men's football and
men's football clubs. I might be biased, but I work in higher
education and what frustrates me is I think there are a lot of
opportunities to develop women's football in the education sector.
I think it has been late to get into schools; it is still struggling
to get into schools; but I think there is a big opportunity for
higher education and universities where the government is aiming
to get 50% of people between the ages 18 and 30 going into higher
education; and I think there is a huge potential there to develop
the leaders and coaches, and to educate them within the education
sector and then have them feeding down into the schools and into
the clubs; and to have a joined-up approach where you have got
the universities feeding down into FE, down into specialist sport
colleges, schools and down to the primary schools. Personally
I am doing a lot of work at the moment with sports volunteers
with my sports science students; and I run a women's university
team, and they are going to go out in the future and possibly
become teachers; and I am trying to offer them the coaching opportunities
to educate them while they are at college; and sending them out
now for their sports volunteer scheme to go into working in the
primary schools, because there is a huge need in primary schools.
This is a totally separate issue perhaps but it is linked: primary
school PE at the moment I think is in crises because they have
stopped including it as compulsory to do PE in your training of
primary school teachers, your classroom teachers. The PPA time,
where the primary school teachers are now allowed time off for
planning, preparation and assessment, what is happening on the
ground is that the subject that is losing out is PE. Where primary
school teachers are taking their PPA time off is from the PE lessons.
They are taking those because they do not feel trained in it,
and taking it as a time to go and do their assessment and the
schools, as Sue said, are increasingly now buying in coaches not
just for football but are buying in coaches for any sport where
they are desperate to get PE lessons to cover for their teachers.
I have got a big demand on my students to go in and deliver all
sorts of stuff because the primary school teachers do not have
the expertise, and they are also taking their PPA times in the
PE times. There is a problem in primary schools. I am running
a scheme where we are trying to educate volunteers to go in if
there is an opportunity there. I have got young women who have
got their coaching awards who have been going in, and I have been
mentoring them in schools, and mentoring their coaching development.
More of that needs to be done but I feel that the FA perhaps has
not yet discovered enough the potential of the higher education
sector to actually train young women leaders.
Ms Lopez: That is where the American
game flourished. In the colleges that is why they have got their
basic grassroots soccer mums doing stuff and then they go into
the colleges.
Q19 Mr Hall: Is there a case for
raising the age limit at which girls can play mixed football?
Is it 11 in schools?
Ms Lopez: Yes.
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