The Irish Football Association will tonight launch a new strategy aimed at helping women’s and girls’ football in Northern Ireland to reach its true potential.
Together We Thrive: Elevating The Game For Everyone, which will be unveiled at an event at the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park, will boost the development of the women’s and girls’ game for the future - for the next generation of players, coaches, referees, volunteers and fans.
The strategic plan for women’s and girls’ football has a focus on strengthening clubs, sustaining Irish FA programmes and ongoing development.
Its objectives include making the women’s football ecosystem more sustainable, growing the game further than ever before, supporting the people engaged in delivering women’s and girls’ football, enhancing player pathways, supporting Northern Ireland’s international teams and giving the game more visibility.
The five-year strategy is aligned to the Irish FA corporate strategy ‘A Roadmap For Football (2022-2027)’, the UEFA women’s football strategy ‘Unstoppable (2024-2030)’ and the FIFA Women’s Football Strategy 2024-2027.
Angela Platt (pictured), Director of Women’s Football at the Irish FA, said: “During the last five years women’s and girls’ football in Northern Ireland has grown and evolved significantly.
“In qualifying for UEFA Women’s Euro in 2022, our senior women’s national team reached a major tournament for the first time and, as a consequence, helped to raise the profile and visibility of women’s and girls’ football.
“We have also increased our participation numbers from 1600 registered players in 2018 to 11,441 in 2024. However, there is still so much to achieve.
“This ambitious plan will require support from clubs and stakeholders, as well as local and national government. It will require us all to collaborate and work together more to enable sustainability of our football ecosystem, achieve further growth in our participation and enhance the game at all levels to reach our full potential at the highest level of our sport.”
She also noted the association’s previous strategy for women’s football, ‘Growing the Game: Maximising Impact (2019-2024)’, had provided a solid platform on which to build.
Together We Thrive: Elevating The Game For Everyone features five strategic pillars: fun football and the everyday game – making football enjoyable and accessible for everyone, regardless of age, ability, motivation or location; clubs and competitions – delivering a sustainable women’s and girls’ football pyramid; performance pathway – delivering successful national teams in a high-quality performance environment and support system.
Also: people development – recruiting, developing and retaining a skilled workforce, both professional and voluntary, to support growth and development of women’s and girls’ football; profile and visibility – raising the profile and improving perceptions of women’s football through increased visibility.
The enablers for these pillars include investment in the current and future workforce, both professional and voluntary, data analysis and insight, enhanced partnerships, developing more accessible and inclusive high quality facilities, investment and integrating sustainability into strategic planning.
The vision of the strategy is to create an inclusive and dynamic environment for women’s and girls’ football in Northern Ireland, enhancing participation, nurturing talent and achieving excellence on and off the pitch.
