Women and girls football

Football is now the top participation sport for women and girls in England and this important area of our work has been strengthened with the recent appointment of Emily Stephens, as our Women and Girls Officer.  This is an exciting time for women’s football in Bath with our participation numbers growing and Bath City FC having launched its women’s team this season. As Emily says: 

“I have worked with the Bath City FC Foundation for just under three years now and I am ecstatic to get the women’s and girls’ role. This was one of the major things that excited me in my initial conversation with Geoff before starting here and the potential that it offered both myself and the foundation.  

Growing up as a young girl extremely interested in football, my options were incredibly limited. I continually played with boys either at school, in the park, or on local teams where I would very often be the only girl. The number of girls’ clubs I attended at school both primary and secondary school I can probably count on one hand. For me, this just simply isn’t good enough. There are so many young girls missing out on something they enjoy purely because there isn’t the option for them to play. This is where my enthusiasm stems from, to inspire as many girls to get involved in football as we can. Having faced and attempted to hurdle a lot of these myself, I understand the barriers to participation first hand. Therefore, I am incredibly passionate about knocking down as many of these barriers as possible to unlock this potential.  Together we can create opportunities for girls football within Bath. “

Everyone at the Foundation would like to say a special thank you to the Medlock Charitable Trust for providing us with the finance to appoint Emily and to further develop this area of our work.  

Emily Stephens runs women and girls football for the Bath City FC Foundation