Women’s football growing fast

The women’s game is definitely growing and will provide a lot of opportunities for Member Associations to improve themselves in the game and take part in the excitement of its development.

FIFA Head of Development Jurg Nepfer and Women’s Football Development Manager Mayi Turner-Kerr made a presentation on FIFA Women’s Football Competitions and Development Programmes 2012-2015 at the three-day conference.

Nepfer said Member Associations stand to benefit from several new programmes tailor-made for them.

“There is a number of new programmes and services standardised but tailor-made to the needs of Member Associations. In the centre of these are national competitions, the heartbeat of football in a country,” he said.

“There will be future materials and programmes including a manual for women’s football development and DVD for goalkeeping, both to be published in February 2012.

“The manual will assist all involved in the game’s development and guidelines on all aspects of women’s football.

“We are here to help you as much as we can as long as you have the desire to develop your game. If you do, FIFA does.”

Turner-Kerr said several key figures show the women’s game has been developing steadily over the years especially in the past decade, among them:

-- 29 million women girls play football worldwide, up from 22 million in 2000.
-- 12% of youth players are female.
-- Women and girls play football worldwide in one way or another.
-- Today, 129 women’s national teams have a FIFA ranking.
-- The number of teams for FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015 has increased to 24.
-- The opening match of the 2011 Women’s world Cup attracted 73,680 spectators to the stadium.
-- An average of 26,428 spectators per match in the 2011 Women’s World Cup.
-- 2,575 journalists registered to cover the 2011 Women’s World Cup, showing a growing interest from the media in the women’s game.

“The women’s game keeps growing,” said Turner-Kerr.