Farrer & Co Women in Sport - Report - Page 7
If we could tap into
sport’s desire to
win on this issue,
we’d move forward
very quickly.
Jacqueline Winstanley
Founder and CEO, Universal Inclusion
Farrer & Co roundtable
Jessica Ennis-Hill crosses the line during the Women’s Heptathlon 800m, winning gold for Team GB, London 2012 Olympics.
Active sponsors and sport
governing bodies
Developments in the world of
commercial sponsorship are also
benefitting efforts to encourage more
women to participate in sports at a
grassroots level. Here, as on so many
counts, football is a bellwether for
UK sport. As part of Barclays’
sponsorship of the Women’s Super
League, the brand will work together
with the Football Association to drive
the growth of the women’s game.
Barclays will be the lead partner
of The FA Girls’ Football School
Partnerships, a nationwide scheme to
help develop girls’ access to football
at school. The brand will also work
with The FA and The Youth Sport
Trust to support the development
and delivery of 100 Girls’ Football
School Partnerships.
More widely in football, The FA
has been working on its four-year
“Gameplan for Growth” since 2017. The
Gameplan aims to double the number
of players and fans in women’s football.
Farrer & Co
The strategy covers participation,
awareness, performance, coaching, and
the success of the national team. One
year in, The FA was able to demonstrate
it was hitting interim targets to achieve
its goals.
There have also been noteworthy
developments on the world stage.
In October 2018, FIFA launched its
first-ever global strategy for women’s
football, with which it said the
women’s game was a top priority.
With this strategy, FIFA aims to work
with 211 member associations around
the world to increase grassroots
participation, enhance the commercial
value of the women’s game, and
strengthen the structures in women’s
football to make success sustainable.
The approach taken both by The FA
and FIFA implies that success will come
as a result of combined improvements
at grassroots level elite performance,
boosts to commercial revenue and
better structures and governance.
At a glance
In the UK, sport’s “participation gap”
remains significant, but is closing
National campaigns have an effect
of growing participation in sport
and physical activity
Football, the bellwether for
UK sport, shows how active
commercial sponsors can
grow games at the grassroots
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