Brentford lead campaign to encourage girls to play football

Brentford FC Community Sports Trust have teamed up with the Football Association to encourage more girls to play football.

The initiative, coined the SSE Wildcats Girls’ Football Centres, will provide girls in west London with regular opportunities to play the game.

It offers organised sessions in a fun and engaging environment, created exclusively for girls aged 5-11.

More than 200 clubs were piloted across England in 2017 and the scheme is now being extended to more than 900 centres, with 26,000 participants across the country.

SSE Wildcats Girls’ Football sessions take place on a weekly basis, either after school or at weekends.

Sessions in the west London area will include Whitton Wanderers Wildcats Centre, Lampton School Wildcats Centre, Kew Park Rangers Girls Wildcats Centre and Rectory Park Wildcats Centre.

Each SSE Wildcats Girls’ Football Centre will be run in conjunction with local County FAs.

The initiative is in line with The FA’s Gameplan for Growth, with the target of doubling girls’ participation in the sport by 2020.

Sharan Khroad, a female coach at the Trust who was runner-up for the Young Leader of the Year award at the recent London Youth Awards, said: “I started playing football at a similar age to a lot of the girls taking part in these sessions and that’s when my love of football began.

“It’s so important to encourage them to enjoy the game from a young age and SSE Wildcats provide a great resource for that.”