Hands up if you watched the Lionesses ‘ Euros final against Spain this summer? Seemingly, the whole nation was on its feet, willing our girls to win with every fibre of our being. And as history-maker Chloe Kelly booted in that penalty, echoing her past achievements, the pubs, homes, beaches and fields of England erupted: we’d done it, again.
Hannah Hampton, Lucy Bronze, Ella Toone and teammates have become household names, but cast your minds back a few short years, and we’ll bet most people can’t even name a female footballer from a decade ago. Yet all the challenges along the way – Lionesses’ captain Leah Williamson, it’s rumoured, gets paid the same per year as England men’s captain Harry Kane makes in a week – it’s fair to say that the future of women’s football is bright.
One change that’s made all the difference to the team? Two words: Sarina Wiegman. Since her appointment as England head coach back in September 2021, Wiegman has consistently delivered results – starting with that historic Euros win on home soil in July 2022, cemented by a repeat this year, she’s quickly become synonymous with success and is widely credited with being the brains behind the Lionesses’ stratospheric rise to victory.
However, we know that in order to nurture the very best future talent, having the infrastructure, investment and support at grassroots level is vital. While there’s no doubt that changes have been made, a 2023 government-backed review of women’s football led by ex-Lioness Karen Carney revealed a catalogue of failures, from underinvestment to a lack of career pathways for women in the sport.
And it’s this inequality that’s at the heart of a new campaign, spearheaded by Starling Bank in association with Lioness legend, Jill Scott. The Kick On initiative commissioned a survey of more than 1,000 grassroots football coaches and 2,000 female football players to determine the barriers women and girls face in the sport, and the findings were stark: put simply, there aren’t enough female coaches in football.
According to the findings, 85% of players and 90% of coaches say there’s a national shortage of female football coaches, despite huge demand: nine in ten (89%) female players and 84% of coaches want more female coaches at their club or school, while 46% of players say having the right coach is one of the biggest factors influencing their involvement in football.
So, with this in mind, we turned to Scott herself, along with current players and coaches, to find out what’s going on – and, more importantly, what needs to change to secure the future of women’s football.
Keen to read more of our Women in Sport content, while you’re here? Don’t miss our interview with rugby star Tatyana Heard, cover shoot with world-famous Rugby icon Ilona Maher, or features on the rise of female sports fans and the Formula 1 fangirl.
What is the Kick On Initiative?
Jill Scott MBE is one of England’s most decorated football players. The Sunderland-born midfielder earned over 150 caps and was part of the 2022 Euro-winning squad. Announcing her retirement shortly after that year’s Lionesses’ victory, Scott is now channelling her energy into changing the face of grassroots girls’ football – starting with more female coaches.
“I could talk for hours about how important it is for players to have strong role models within the game,” she shares exclusively with MC UK. “I think the game is in a great place now where players can have both male and female role models, but we need to have non-playing role models appear too, particularly within coaching.”
“The Kick On campaign has a simple mission: to boost the number of female coaches across the country and to help nurture the next generation of Sarina Wiegmans, who can lead teams to success both on and off the pitch,” she continues. “To do this, they’re offering free kit and equipment to more than 300 clubs as well as the resources and training for women to become a football coach themselves.”
“This is really needed, as despite the recent growth of women’s sports, particularly football, research by Starling of thousands of coaches and female footballers has found that the number of female football coaches in the UK is concerningly low. Female coaches play a crucial role in the women’s game, and a national shortage means that there are fewer role models to inspire young female players and to keep them in the sport. So, we need to be asking why more women and girls aren’t getting involved in this side of the game.”
Why is having a female coach so important to girls in football?
It’s clear from the survey findings that female coaches are vitally important to girls in football, for a myriad of reasons.
In addition to being valuable role models (85% agree that a female coach attracts more women and girls to their teams), female coaches help girls to see a career path in the sport beyond playing, as well as challenging men’s perceptions of women’s place in football.
But it’s not just about securing interest in the sport. Female coaches are important for retention too – 76% said that having a female coach prevents women and girls from dropping out of the team, largely due to the emotional support they’re able to offer, proving it’s as much about mentoring as it is about matches.
In fact, Scott goes so far as to credit her England career to one of her youth coaches.
“I had a few female coaches, but one that definitely stands out is Mo Marley, who coached me with England U19S and Everton,” she tells MC UK. “She became a mentor to me, more than just being a coach, and always went above and beyond to offer me life advice when I needed it. I was around 16 years old when I first met Mo, and we still keep in touch now. She used to test me on the football pitch while teaching me the right attitude to have to be able to succeed at the highest level. I never would have played for England without her.”
The old adage, you have to see it to be it, rings true for Scott, too. “I’ve always believed it’s hard to dream big if you’ve never seen anyone like you do it,” she continues. “I’ve had some brilliant male coaches over the years, but having women in those roles makes such a difference. When young girls see a female coach leading a team, it shows them there’s space for them in the game too – whether that’s on the pitch or on the sidelines.”
One female coach who is walking the walk is Chloe Morfey-Greenberg. In addition to coaching, she’s the founder of Beyond The Ball, an inclusive club offering training sessions, matches, tournaments and more to women players. “I think female football coaches really do make a difference, no matter the level of football that you’re coaching or playing,” she says. “I know from personal experience that many girls are encouraged to join a team if the team has a female coach, which Starling’s research reflects, and some might even be put off altogether if there isn’t a female coach. There is something about seeing another female around that makes you think ‘I belong here’.”
And the players agree. “I think that having a female coach is honestly something empowering,” says 12-year-old Yara Croppo Basunti. “It makes us young footballers feel as if we can play and be given the same opportunities as anyone else. Female coaches were once in our position, so there’s a greater chance they can help us progress and learn new things.”
It’s clear, too, from speaking to the young players, that they feel more comfortable opening up to a female coach about adolescent angst and anxieties.
“Having a female coach makes us feel safe,” Croppo Basunti continues. “They’re someone who we can confide in and will be able to relate to us and possibly even help us. This is something that not many male coaches can do, especially without feeling embarrassed, with maybe not even any understanding of what we need help with.”
This is something Scott relates to, as well. “From my own experience, players often feel more at ease talking about things like body confidence and so on with a female coach, and the research backs that up,” she says. “Two-thirds of players with a male coach said they don’t feel as comfortable discussing body confidence issues. Having women in those positions helps create a space where girls can just be themselves.”
What barriers to entry are female coaches facing?
Given that girls are dropping out of sport at an alarming rate – figures from the charity Women in Sport show that over a million teenage girls (43%) who love sport are disengaging once they’ve left primary school, compared with just 23% of boys – it feels more important than ever to address the reasons for this. It’s clear that having female coaches is a good thing all around, so what’s currently preventing women from joining coaching teams?
“Despite it being easier than ever for many female players to get into the game, it doesn’t feel that the same progress has been made for female coaches,” muses Scott. “In my experience, the cost of starting out can be one of the biggest barriers, which Starling is helping with by providing crucial equipment and resources.”
Morfey-Greenberg agrees, telling MC UK: “One thing I’ve found is that getting into coaching can be quite expensive. You can have all the football knowledge and the desire to coach, but you might not know anything about managing a team, or it might be the other way round, where you’ve got strong personal skills and an interest in football, but you don’t know the ins and outs of the game.
“No matter where you fall on the spectrum, you’ve got to go through the training to qualify to coach, and I certainly found the training helped enhance my technical and tactical knowledge, making me a more confident coach.”
But in order to attract talent to the role, it has to be appealing to them, and it’s a sad fact that the football world is still a largely male-dominated sphere. “I’ve also personally found that the environment in the male grassroots football world can be unwelcoming and intimidating as a woman,” shares Morfey-Greenberg. “This has really affected my confidence at times, and I’ve considered stopping coaching altogether because of it.”
What other inequalities are still present in the women’s game?
While the inequalities faced by women on the pitch are being addressed, coaches and players stress that there’s still a long way to go.
“I think we’ve come a long way, but there are still a range of barriers for girls both playing and staying in the game – ranging from both personal to logistical issues,” agrees Scott. “Starling has been running its Kick On initiative for a few years now, with previous iterations highlighting how girls were three times more likely to quit football than boys, due to factors such as school work, body confidence issues, bullying, and an unclear path to a career in the sport negatively influencing their commitment to the game.”
Many girls are concerned about safety, too, with worries over travelling to and from clubs (particularly in the darker winter months) and anxieties around being outside weighing on them.
“At my club Beyond the Ball, we have personally experienced men walking across our pitches during matches and jeering from the sidelines,” reports Morfey-Greenberg. “It can feel like a constant struggle to be seen and heard in this space. But we always challenge this behaviour and would welcome our male allies to do the same. We deserve to play too.”
Frustratingly, though, the inequalities being faced aren’t limited to personal issues; they extend to practical barriers, too. “Last year, Starling found there’s unequal pitch access between men and women players,” shares Scott. “Research found more than half of female players have booked a pitch and had it reallocated to a men’s team, with this happening on a frequent basis for many.”
As is so often the case, the bottom line is money. “There’s simply more money in the men’s game, which can create financial inequalities such as a stark difference in salaries, and a lack of funding and sponsors at the grassroots level,” notes Scott. “It was only back in 2018 that all WSL sides became fully professional, and players in the WSL2 only reached this recently – before then, it wasn’t uncommon for female players to have to take on other jobs to supplement their income, and it could be hard to fit football in around these.”
What changes do we need to see in women’s football, to encourage more female coaches in the future?
Looking to the future, it’s hoped that the Lionesses’ legacy will prompt more and more girls to continue in the game, and paving the way for more female coaches is a crucial part of this.
“A greater number of female coaches will increase opportunities for many young girls playing football,” agrees Croppo Basunti. “Looking up to female coaches can give us a sense of wider opportunities within the sport. Hopefully, this can potentially further develop women’s football in the UK!”
Both Scott and Morfey-Greenberg stress that visibility is a huge factor here. As it stands, the pathway to coaching (and other post-playing careers) is unclear, but with more exposure, things should shift.
“Cultural expectations around women in football are changing, and I think the progress of the England Lionesses and the growth of the Women’s Super League have contributed to this shift,” notes Morfey-Greenberg. “However, more visibility and education is needed at grassroots – in school and clubs – to make spaces more inclusive and safe for girls and women.”
“There needs to be a clearer pathway from playing to coaching, for players who are thinking of hanging up their boots,” agrees Scott. “I was able to do my coaching badges back in 2015 when I was playing at Manchester City, but the crucial thing is to make coaching seem like an attractive role – I’m hoping that Sarina winning the award for best women’s coach at this year’s Ballon d’Or can help to spur things along.”
“While many female coaches may worry that they’d be in the minority when going for their coaching badges, if we can keep pushing and clearing the way for more female coaches to come through, then this should shift the balance.”
Watch this space.
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