Everyone's a winner

The Didsbury Girls’ Football Club initiative, Pay & Play, have been joint awarded the Best Participation Initiative at this year’s FA Women’s Football Awards. 

Representatives Jane Carroll, Roxanne Bennett and Madeleine Szwed from the club were at the awards on Friday evening to collect the award on behalf of the club following almost two years of running the local participation initiative.

Started in 2015, Pay & Play was launched to address the local imbalance between the participation of boys and girls in football and has gradually developed to offer girls a safe and accommodating environment where they can hone their footballing skills and meet new friends. 

The initiative has also worked with partner clubs from the local community, including Bluestar F.C. and the Manchester Respect league, to give girls the opportunity to join a club and play in competitive leagues. 

Since its launch, the initiative has gone on to welcome over 275 girls through its doors as well as offering parents and carers an opportunity to get involved – sending four parents on FA affiliated coaching courses and adding them to the coaching team. 

The Best Participation Initiative award was also won by Mums and Recreational Football, a Surrey-based initiative offering mums and carers the opportunity to participate in football exercises and coaching whilst waiting for their children during football training sessions. 

The FA Women’s Football Awards celebrated an exciting year for women’s football and recognised the achievements of clubs, players, staff and the excellent work done at the grassroots level of the game. 

The awards also highlighted the success of The FA’s Gameplan for Growth, launched earlier in 2017, which aims to double participation and the fanbase of the women’s game by 2020 and create sustained success at elite international level. 

Harriet Miller, City of Liverpool Ladies manager, has been announced as the winner of the Unsung Hero Award at this year’s FA Women’s Football Awards. 

Miller, a mainstay of women and girls football in Liverpool and the North West, was in attendance at the awards on Friday evening.

For over 30 years, Harriet Miller has been involved in football in Liverpool and the North West – playing in, coaching and managing women’s football teams, implementing grassroots and charity participation initiatives and promoting women’s football in the surrounding area. 

As a player, Miller represented Newsham PH Ladies FC, Runcorn Linnets Ladies and Mond Rangers Ladies where she became player manager in 1997, winning back-to-back promotions as well as a league and cup double. 

As a coach, Miller worked at Everton’s Girls’ football academy and school of excellence for over 10 years, nurturing the club’s future stars, before becoming the manager of newly formed City of Liverpool Ladies in the North West Women’s Regional League South.

Off the pitch, Miller has also been involved in a number of grassroots and charitable initiatives in the local area through clubs and partner charities including her work providing football sessions for the homeless.

The FA Women’s Football Awards celebrated an exciting year for women’s football and recognised the achievements of clubs, players, staff and the excellent work done at the grassroots level of the game. 

The awards also highlighted the success of The FA’s Gameplan for Growth, launched earlier in 2017, which aims to double participation and the fanbase of the women’s game by 2020 and create sustained success at elite international level. 

Dick, Kerr Ladies Football Club has been announced as the winner of the Contribution to Women’s Football Award at this year’s FA Women’s Football Awards. 

One of the earliest known women’s association football teams, 2017 marks the centenary of the formation of the Dick, Kerr Ladies in Preston in 1917. The team, started in a munitions factory, went over 320 games unbeaten, held the record attendance at a women’s football match and raised significant money for charity.

Now a member of the centenary club, Dick, Kerr Ladies has been awarded the Contribution to Football Award in celebration of its 100 years in football as well as its continued involvement in promoting the game and work with charities. 

The FA Women’s Football Awards celebrated an exciting year for women’s football and recognised the achievements of clubs, players, staff and the excellent work done at the grassroots level of the game. 

The awards also highlighted the success of The FA’s Gameplan for Growth, launched earlier in 2017, which aims to double participation and the fanbase of the women’s game by 2020 and create sustained success at elite international level.