EFDN members promote women’s football

EFDN members promote women’s football

We are approaching the end of the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, with the initial field of 24 now reduced to the final four. The football world is looking forward to the last games and we would like to take this opportunity to highlight some initiatives from our members to promote women’s football.

The 2019 Women’s World Cup is a contribution to the UN 2030 Agenda. It is building momentum for the effective implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially goal number 5: Achieving gender equality and empower all women and girls.

EFDN and Women’s football – Inspiring examples

At EFDN, we believe that sport is a powerful platform for advocacy and raising awareness for gender equality. Sport can diminish all forms of discrimination against women and girls. The human rights based rules of sport can help to replace culturally discriminative norms that exclude women and girls from taking part, while sports programmes can also increase self-esteem and confidence of women and girls, empower them and help them develop skills needed to become equal participants and leaders in their communities.

CHELSEA FC FOUNDATION

Chelsea FC Foundation runs a comprehensive programme for female footballers of all ability levels. The Foundation deliver projects on behalf of the Premier League, through their Women’s & Girls’ programme which incorporates more than 12 satellite centres providing a variety of football for females into comprehensive schools, but also includes walking football for ladies of all ages at EXEL Leisure Centre, Futsal after school clubs, and helping to set up and coach a UK Womens Parliamentary team. Also, this month author Matt Oldfield joined 120 primary school pupils at Stamford Bridge for a special literacy event linked to the Women’s World Cup. Chelsea FC Foundation also participates with a team in the ‘Streetfootballworld’ tournament (from June 29 to July 8 in Lyon, France).

SBV EXCELSIOR

SBV Excelsior developed a programme called ‘Talent is Topsport‘ which is a programme for women, led by women, who would like to achieve the next goal in the field of employment, training or personal development. Talent is Topsport offers the opportunity to attend lectures workshops and personal training, especially for women who are finding themselves far-away from the labour market.

BOHEMIAN FOUNDATION

Recently the Bohemian Foundation has expanded their Mountjoy Prison programme to now include the prison’s women’s wing, the Dochás Centre. ‘Change Through Sport’ is the motto of the Foundation, but change isn’t strictly reserved for those who are behind bars. A six-week training programme was developed by long-time volunteers, Jeff Conway and Kenneth Coakley, for both the prisoners and the women of the Foundation team. The goal of the programme is not only to prepare both teams to face-off against one another but also for their own mental and physical well-being.

INTER CAMPUS

Inter Campus developed various projects all over the world such as Inter Campus Tunisia which promotes women’s football in rural and suburban areas in Tunisia. Inter Campus support sports and educational activities for children. Their projects share in common the general aim of promoting social integration, helping young people living in difficult areas, supporting the education system and training local instructors.

OL FONDATION

OL Foundation chose to support the ‘Streetfootballworld’ tournament (from June 29 to July 8) organised by the association for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019, with the semifinals and final to take place at Lyon’s Groupama Stadium. A team of six women footballers from Ranchi, which is supported by BookASmile, will be hosted by Sport dans la Ville to participate in this event. The women team of Olympique Lyonnais won the UEFA Champions League final against FC Barcelona. The social entities of both clubs are working together in our network.

ASTON VILLA FOUNDATION

ICYMI: We hosted a Girls' World Cup at Villa Park this week, using the #FIFAWWC to inspire pupils from five local schools.

The day was part of our #PLPrimaryStars programme.#PartOfThePride #UTV @PLCommunities pic.twitter.com/JhdVjGlZwm

— Aston Villa Foundation (@AVFCFoundation) June 30, 2019

Resources – EFDN Online Learning Platform

The rising participation of women and girls is an enormous growth opportunity for football. The resources you find below highlight the importance of getting involved in women’s football.

FIFA

FIFA’s Women’s Football Strategy charts the course for how FIFA will work with confederations and member associations, clubs and players, the media, fans and other stakeholders to confront and surmount the challenges. FIFA’s Women’s Football Strategy aims to empower the organisation to take further concrete steps to address the historic shortfalls in resources and representation while advocating for a global stand against gender discrimination through playing football.

EUROPEAN COMISSION

The European Commission conducted research called ‘Mapping and analysis of education schemes for coaches from a gender perspective‘. The aim of the study was to evaluate existing (formal and non-formal) training and education schemes for coaches in view of their gender equality elements, to evaluate their modules on gender equality and to identify good practices with regards to accessibility for women.

UEFA

The UEFA Women’s Football Development Programme (WFDP) has emerged through key decisions taken by UEFA. In this his document, nine projects have been highlighted using the best practices in their individual areas and allow organisations to see how the national associations are investing the funding, pick up ideas for a future project, and explore wider development in women’s and girls’ football across the national associations.

You can find more resources on our Online Learning Platform.