Girls Football Takes a Step Forward

One of the most exciting footballing events coming to India in the next year is the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup. Slated to start on 2nd November 2020, this biennial football extravaganza has been brought to India with the purpose of giving girls and women’s football in the country a much-needed boost.

While boys have always had the chance to play football, girls in our country have historically been confined to non-contact sports like badminton and tennis, if at all. Previously limited to urban pockets because football requires girls to play in shorts, it’s been encouraging to see more girls from semi-urban and rural areas to enrol in football training programs runs by several grassroots academies and not-for-profits. Even though the doors to football pitches are opening gradually, there have simply not been enough opportunities for girls to train and compete on a regular basis.

Girls Football Coaching at Footie First

Girls & women’s football training has been high on our list of priorities at Footie First ever since inception. We have made every effort to give our girls the same opportunities as our boys with exactly the same standard of coaching, facilities, care and tournament exposure. This approach has reaped benefits with our girls teams performing well at several leagues and tournaments across the city. Most recently, the Footie First Girls U16 team were runners-up while the Footie First Girls U14 team were champions in their respective categories at the Community Cup in Mumbai.

To reaffirm our commitment towards girls football and to ensure our children’s safety, we have recently recruited a new female Head Coach for Girls so that we have someone who can guide our daughters through the myriad challenges of becoming skilful, tenacious and confident young sportswomen. The objective of our girls football coaching program is to allow girls to train regularly in secure locations under the guidance of a female coach while giving the best among them a chance to showcase their talent in Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA) leagues as well as private tournaments.

Footie First Girls Teams

Footie First has Girls Under-12, Girls Under-14, Girls Under-17 and Senior Women’s teams that train regularly at our Centre of Excellence at Priyadarshini Park (PDP), Napean Sea Road. This centre is closest to Grant Road railway station on the Western Railway line. Here, girls train on a natural surface, full-size football ground all year round so that they can learn and improve their skills on a consistent basis.

If you have a daughter who’d like to start learning football or wants to compete more regularly at a higher level, please do call 9819337766 / 9819227766 or write to kick@footiefirst.in