A game of two halves? How to bridge the inequality gap for grassroots women’s football

Some sporting moments stay with you for ever. Chloe Kelly’s winning penalty against Spain in the Uefa Women’s Euro 2025 final is definitely one of them – a match that was viewed by record-breaking TV and streaming audiences. But it was more than just a moment. One of the most significant legacies of consecutive Euro wins – after reaching the Women’s World Cup final of 2023 – has been the explosive growth in grassroots participation in women’s and girls’ football. The day after the Euro 2025 final, online searches for female playing opportunities were up 196%. FA data shows that the number of girls participating in football has increased from 1.2 million in the 20-21 season to 2.7 million in 24-25 and when you combine women and girls, the numbers go from 2.5 million in 2015 to a figure teetering on 6.5 million by October 2025. The general interest in women’s football has never been higher, supported by increased mainstream media coverage of games – even behemoth football comedy Ted Lasso has pivoted from the fictional men’s team to spotlight AFC Richmond Lady Greyhounds. But while footballers such as Jill Scott and Hannah Hampton have become household names, the success story isn’t necessarily trickling down to grassroots level. “It’s chronically underfunded, there’s a severe shortage of female coaches and access to the limited number of pitches is a continuous struggle,” says Leon Walton, football coach, scout and founder of HER Soccer, a training academy that helps bridge the gap between girls’ grassroots and club football. “My three daughters have played grassroots football so I’ve seen the inequality between the women’s and men’s game first-hand, particularly when it comes to funding.” A 2026 survey of female players and clubs commissioned by the digital bank Starling highlights the gap, with 40% of female players questioned saying their team gets less funding than their male counterparts, and grassroots female football club coaches almost unanimously (97%) confirming their team needs more funds. “As a result, women’s teams don’t have the money to block book pitches – losing out to men’s teams who already tend to get priority,” says Walton. “They have to cancel games and turn players away, which contributes towards high teenage drop-out rates and impacts player progress, causing a skills disparity between grassroots players and those at professional club academies – stalling that pathway.” Starling’s research backs this up, with female players reporting to have spent on average £212 of their own or their parents’ money to play football in the last year. Depressingly, 76% of players surveyed say they will have to drop out of their team or the sport altogether if more funding is not secured in the next five years. Walton points to social and cultural barriers such as low self-esteem, puberty-based anxiety, body image issues and the low number of female coaches as other contributors to drop-out rates in the girls’ game. He adds: “It’s important to have visible female role models who create a safe space and normalise the place of women in football.” While the influx of female volunteers and coaches to the game peaked in 2022, a study from UK Coaching reported a 10% decline in female coaches and volunteers at grassroots level between 2022 and 2024, with cited barriers including the cost of training and participation, childcare, bullying, harassment and unequal opportunities. A drive for equal access While there’s much work to be done, there are pockets of progress, with 90% of schools in England now offering girls equal access to football in PE lessons during key stages 2 and 3. Elsewhere, the Football Foundation’s equal access mandate requires local clubs and councils to factor in priority booking slots for women and girls if new facilities are developed with government funding, while a number of retention initiatives, such as the FA and Sport England’s Squad Girls’ Football sessions, are encouraging teens to stay in the game. When it comes to shortfalls in funding, these are increasingly being plugged by community-led sponsorship. “Our kit across the girls’ teams is sponsored by local businesses, which helps pay for the new kit itself, with a little left over for other costs,” says Tori Mernagh, who plays for the Leigh Lionesses FC women’s team, in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, and is deputy coach of one of the U13s girls’ teams. “Sponsors include a local insurance company, estate agents, a cleaning products company and martial arts centre, to name a few. The teams get help with finances and in return the company gets marketing through their name on the shirt and the kudos of helping out. It’s a good community-building exercise, too.” But Mernagh admits that securing this sponsorship can be challenging, with the onus being on coaches, and some of their Leigh Lionesses teams don’t always manage it. However, initiatives such as Starling’s Kick On campaign can do some of the heavy lifting. Now, in its fifth cycle, Starling has provided more than 15,000 kits to female grassroots players since 2023, in partnership with Gift of Kit. This year, the initiative – which is part of Starling’s ongoing commitment to championing women’s football – is focusing on matching its small business customers with local women’s and girls’ teams to encourage further investment in the game, making it easy for sponsors. To this end, Starling is subsidising the cost of front-of-shirt sponsorship. Meanwhile, its online sponsorship guide gives other teams the tools to secure the financial backing themselves. It’s an important move towards securing the future of the women’s game. While infrastructure and cultural norms are playing catch-up with the huge growth in demand, increased community sponsorship can help bridge the funding gap and keep local teams in the game. Find out more about how Starling is championing women’s football