FA Girls’ Football Week is coming to Essex from Monday 23rd to Sunday 29th April and we're excited to promote further opportunities for girls to get active, meet new friends and have fun!

Girls’ Football Week is a week of activities designed to get as many girls involved in playing football as possible. Whether they play regularly or are lacing their boots for the first time, it is a great chance for everyone to enjoy football! Clubs all over Essex are planning and delivering activities throughout the week, with support and resources from The FA who have teamed-up with Disney to inject some extra fun into football and get girls active.

Disney are supporting The FA with a range of resources which use storytelling to deliver football-related activities. Girls’ Football Week will feature activities and games inspired by well-loved Disney stories and characters, allowing girls’ taking part to imagine the fantasy world of their favourite Disney films whilst also learning and developing essential skills.

Emma Burden, Football Development Officer at the Essex County FA, says it’s still not too late to get involved: “Any organisation that has young females who would benefit from being more active can enjoy FA Girls’ Football Week,” she explained. “This could be a youth club, brownies, guides, after-school sessions, a boys’ clubs that doesn’t have a girls’ section, a coaching company that doesn’t provide sessions for girls. Anyone can join in!”

“Anyone can run fun sessions which are inclusive and engage with all girls, regardless of ability.  Sometimes we are all guilty of getting really enthused when we see talented athletes. We need to focus on all girls and make sure they’re getting really fun outcomes from being involved in football. So festivals, after-school matches and skill sessions, ‘come and try’ sessions are all brilliant to be involved in. There are no rules… be creative!”

Last year’s FA Girls’ Football Week was a huge success and Emma believes this is a great time to play girls football in Essex: “Historically, Essex has always been really engaged in Girls’ Football Week. I think the record number of events we have ever had register is 73. The number of opportunities to participate is increasing all the time.”

“We are holding bi-monthly festivals around the county for girls aged six and over, the Essex County Girls’ League are offering fixtures for girls aged nine and above and the Brentwood Community Football Alliance are involved in a pilot which allows girls to play a year down within their league. We also have 28 SSE Wildcats centres operating throughout the county, so localised opportunities are available for any girl in Essex.”

Find out more about FA Girls’ Football Week at www.fagirlsfootballweek.com. For information about playing for, or training with, a team, visit our #SquadBooster service and search for ‘EssexFootball’ on Facebook. You can also interact on Twitter by using the #GirlsFootballWeek hashtag and including @EssexCountyFA.