Blog Post

Green Light to Extend Girls Football for North East Hampshire Youth League

May 08, 2024

Hampshire FA have given NEHYL the green light to continue to grow girls football in this region and deliver girls only football from u7 to u11 from next season 2024/25.

In addition to this exciting news, NEHYL will be launching a new recreational 7v7 program for Girls aged 12+ which will focus on encouraging girls into football at an entry level for fun, providing a non-competitive introduction to the game.

September 2023 saw the league launch girls only football on a Sunday. Within weeks of their first festival for 6-8 years old girls, several new teams had formed and signed up for the season, allowing players new to the game and who wanted to play locally on the Hampshire, Berkshire, and Surrey borders the opportunity to enjoy football. Many of the girls were kicking a ball for the first time – and as the season has progressed, they have grown with confidence and are loving their football. From a standing start, NEHYL now has 205 girls playing across 22 teams.

From September 2024 we will ‘roll over’ our current teams into the next age group – and we already have new teams and clubs wanting to join. Our aim is to sustain organic growth year on year. Given some clubs are just starting out on their female football journey, we will continue to deliver fun festivals across all the U7 to U11 age groups to help nurture those early development shoots. Online registration for season 2024/25 opens in the coming weeks - and when we know the level of interest and numbers of confirmed teams then we can agree the divisional structure for our new age groups.

As a league we want to provide girls the opportunity to play football locally and will be working closely with Hampshire FA to champion girl’s football in this corner of the three neighbouring counties for players, referees, coaches, and managers. NEHYL have also committed to working with Hampshire Girls Youth League so that, together with joint purpose, we will continue to grow girls’ football, encouraging girls to have a go and find their feet having fun along the way.

NEHYL are keen to ‘onboard’ new teams and nurture the pathway through the development age groups from U7 to U11, helping with the transition to the County girls leagues in competitive divisions for teams who are established and have played in regular league matches.

Chair of HGYL Graham Moores and Chair of NEHYL Nigel Welch, both agree their league’s underlying philosophy is to encourage girls to play football and support initiatives to enable teams to play locally. Both leagues look forward to being aligned in purpose and supporting the growth and development of girls’ football.

In the meantime, please do spread the word. Our League officers have a wealth of experience in starting girls’ teams and establishing FA Wildcats centres from scratch – so please don’t hesitate to call us should you need help setting up your first girls’ team.