WSA Sports Industry Awards 2023 Winner Feature: FAW Our Wales: FOR HER Strategy
In 2021, the Football Association of Wales (FAW) launched its first Women and Girls’ Strategy, entitled Our Wales: FOR HER. At the WSA Sports Industry Awards 2023, the organisation was the winner of the award for Best Initiative to Promote Women in Sport & Physical Activity for the project.
“It really highlights the level of priority and direction the National Association has to improve, grow and sustain the Women & Girls game across Wales,” the FAW’s National Women & Girls’ Participation Manager, Bethan Woolley, told the Welsh Sports Association (WSA).
“The Women & Girls’ game has and continues to grow at an incredible rate across Wales, and this strategy was developed to support all areas of the game, its workforce, participants and infrastructures to thrive and have to platform to continue to grow.
“The strategy focuses on all areas of the women’s game to allow growth and visibility, whether you’re a player, volunteer or fan,” she continued. “With this strategy and vision, the game continues to thrive, grow and become an option for more women across the country. The youth female game has doubled in participants in the past 6 years, the Women’s National Team have reached a new record attendance of 15,000 and the introduction of the Adran leagues and FAW Girls academy have allowed our players feel more supported in a thriving environment.”
The impact of the FAW’s work in this space resulted in the award of that WSA Sports Industry Awards 2023 plaque last June.
“It was fantastic to be recognised for the work the FAW are doing to promote women in sport and physical activity last year,” Bethan stated. “We are on a journey to ensure that every woman and girl feels they are supported and seen within the football landscape and it was great to be recognised for the hard work the association has done to achieve such rapid growth in the past three years.
Bethan assured the WSA that this fantastic work is far from done, however, with the Our Wales: FOR HER continuing to have a large impact across Wales.
Learn more about the strategy here.
“The journey doesn’t stop for us at the FAW, as we continue to break down barriers and inspire and influence change for the women & girls’ game.
“We have seen continued growth in participation across both the youth and adult women’s game,” she confirmed, “with more clubs and partners delivering girls activity than ever before.
“We have been working hard to introduce new programmes and campaigns to inspire girls and women to be a part of the football community across all areas; players, coaches, referee’s, fans. We have developed a new Adran Referee’s Academy to support more females into becoming referees following Cheryl Foster’s recent success on the World Stage. Our FAW Girls Academies have continued to flourish, along with our youth female players transitioning into the Women’s National Team camps.
“We are excited about our future, as we enter a new qualifying campaign for the UEFA European Championships and will continuously work hard to inspire more women and girls to be involved in football across all levels of the game.”
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