'They won't all make it': FA offers career support for aspiring female footballers
The Football Association’s head of performance for the women’s game, David Faulkner, has described a new set of dual-career guides as a “stepping stone” to help young players who more often than not face the question of what they will do when they retire from the game “too late”.
Designed to inform young players about the academic and vocational options open to them while they play and develop, the guides have been produced in conjunction with the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme – a Sport England-funded partnership between talented athletes, education institutions and national governing bodies of sport.
“Players might only be thinking about today but we’ve got to help them keep an eye on tomorrow, that’s the key element,” said Faulkner. “I’m really pleased with how the academies have embraced further education as well as higher education and that it’s on their agenda. It would be eye-watering if you did the salary comparison [between the women’s and men’s games] today.
“For me, this is a duty of care for us, as the FA. We’re not introducing a system that everyone has to follow, what we’re trying to do is give good practice and guidance and to make sure that mental health and wellbeing is constantly looked after. We’ve got around 25 players in the 12 WSL teams. Doing my maths, that’s 350 players and we’ve got thousands in the pathway coming through. They’re all not going to make it. That’s why this is important, in the first element, that there’s protection, that they make sure they get their priorities right. And secondly, if they do make it, that we make sure that they’ve got the option of continuous personal development so they’ve got something to step into on retirement.”
There are plenty of examples of players who have built for a future away from the pitch. Arsenal defender Leah Williamson has studied accountancy, Chelsea forward Erin Cuthbert has started a master’s degree, and her teammate Beth England is studying law.
“The academic profile of girls in football is A*-B and you don’t want to dilute that,” said Faulkner. “However there are different ways to do it and certainly from what I learned in my education experience is rather than dilute straight down from three Alevels to BTec, we replaced one of the A-levels with a BTec to take the pressure slightly off, because if you’ve got high-performing individuals you’ve got to support that in the best way possible.
“By doing that you don’t impact on their Ucas points, if they were still considering playing and studying in America it wouldn’t impact on Sats and it’s our job through the academy system to influence that.”
The FA has also announced that, on the 27-28 March, during the next international break for the men’s Premier League and men’s Championship, every Women’s Super League and women’s Championship match will be screened live across the FA Player, the BBC, BT Sport and on the BBC Red Button.