Girls kick off a revolution

When Saturday comes, hundreds of young players flock to pitches across Oxfordshire - and at scores of venues there won't be a boy in sight.

Football is no longer the preserve of men and boys. More girls and women than ever before are playing the beautiful game, so much so that it is now recognised as the fastest-growing female sport in the UK.

In Oxfordshire, girls' football is big - and it's about to get bigger.

The Oxford Mail has teamed up with the Oxfordshire Girls' Football League to become its title sponsor, in a move which league officials say is "extremely exciting" and will enable the sport to develop even more.

Among the many benefits of the deal will be extensive coverage of each week's games, an Internet site dedicated to the league and an annual album featuring all the teams.

For Andy Bennett, secretary of the league, it is welcome news.

"The sport is already growing at a rapid rate," he said. "A sponsorship deal like this will mean we grow again.

"The more coverage the sport gets, the more girls want to play. The more girls we have playing, the more teams we can field and the better the opportunities become."

Oxford Mail editor Simon O'Neill believes it is an exciting time for the paper to get involved in girls' football.

He said: "The explosion in popularity of girls' - and indeed women's - football in recent years is down to the hard work of the coaches and administrators at grass roots level, who have put the game on the map in a very short space of time.

"Here in Oxfordshire, I believe we have one of the best girls' leagues around and we're proud to be associated with it."

The league was formed in 1990 when the number of girls showing an interest in football allowed a limited fixture list.

Back then, the game was still a novelty. School sport for girls consisted of the traditional diet of netball and hockey; media coverage of women's football was non-existent and the Football Association had yet to take much interest in the women's game.

But in the 1990s things began to change. The US hosted the women's World Cup in 1999, drawing worldwide television interest; girls began playing football at school and coaches of boys' sides started realising there was a growing demand for girls' teams.

In Oxfordshire, founder clubs in the girls' league included Barton, Chipping Norton, Coven Witches, Kidlington Youth, Northway and Quarry.

There were few teams in the league, most of them playing seven-a-side, in two-year age groups, ranging from under-12 to under-16.

But it soon took off, as anyone involved in the early days will tell you.

"The speed at which the game grew has been tremendous," said Mr Bennett. "Just a few years ago we had about 30 teams in the league. Now we have 70-plus.

"There are a lot of strong sides in the league, most of which now have their own facilities."

This season there are under-10s, 12s, 13s, 14s and 16s all playing seven-a-side, with the under 14 and 15s fielding full 11-a-side teams, but the aim is that within four years the league will have grown to such an extent that only the youngest teams will still play with reduced teams.

"The plan is structured so that more and more girls can play 11-a-side football," said Mr Bennett. "This way we can ensure that the girls get even more from their football."

The FA proudly boasts recent participation figures which show that 1.4m girls now play football at least once a week.

"It's great to have seen it boom like that," said Mr Bennett, who has two daughters who play football and a son who prefers cricket.

"People used to say 'I didn't even know there was a girls' team', but that attitude is changing. People just want to be part of it. The bigger it gets, the more girls want to play.

"Lots more is being done in schools to aid the development of the game, rather than it just being football for boys as it has been over the years.

"It has obviously been a predominantly male sport but it's increasingly becoming a more mainstream sport for girls and women. There are thousands of girls out there who want to play football and we want to give them the opportunity to play."

The league, now 16 years old, looks likely to have a bright future ahead of it, with plenty of talent to feed to established women's teams, many backed by the country's top football clubs.

And there are doubtless scores of young girls who, come tomorrow morning, will be pulling on their boots ready to play in the Oxford Mail Girls' Football League hoping, one day, to make the big time.

Katie aims for the big league

One young Oxfordshire footballer who has her sights set on football stardom is 17-year-old Katie Stanley, from Thame, who started out at Chinnor Ladies FC.

A talented midfield player, coaches spotted she had great potential and suggested to her parents that she should go for trials at the likes of Chelsea, Charlton Athletic and Arsenal Ladies.

Last month, she enrolled at the Arsenal Ladies Academy in London and now knows that her childhood dream of becoming a professional footballer is not far from being a reality.

She began playing football in 1996, aged five, as women's football was enjoying its first real boom.

"I used to play with all the boys back then, as not many girls played," she said.

"I always enjoyed it, so carried on to play for Chinnor, my local team.

"It used to be the case that if you weren't a boy, people thought you weren't any good, but that's changed."

She is now one of 28 girls at the Arsenal Academy, who attend college in the morning, where they study for a BTec qualification in sports science, and then go to football training sessions in the afternoon.

"It's a highly-regarded place to come," said Katie, who plays on right midfield.

"I was also offered a place at Chelsea, but Arsenal was the better opportunity.

"The women's game is going from strength to strength and I hope it will get bigger and better.

"I would love to make it, to be a full-time professional.

"Maybe then I could think about playing for England," she added.