Female footballers will be gearing up their powerchairs and heading to Hertfordshire on 25 January to compete in the first-ever all-female Powerchair football festival.
A joint initiative by the Wheelchair Football Association, Muscular Dystrophy UK and the Football Association, this event seeks to champion females in the UK’s fastest-growing disability sport.
Muscular Dystrophy UK Sports Development Officer Ryan Sipple said
This festival is something I’m very excited and passionate about. The festival is open to players of every age and ability. We have two dates arranged, in Hertfordshire (south) and Leeds (north).
A passionate Powerchair football player and key team member for the Hertfordshire match, Rosie-Laura Hodgson has watched as girls have become slowly more involved in the sport. She said:
I first became involved in 2010, I was only 12 at the time and football mad! I remember there was only me and a handful of girls there and I was shocked, coming from wheelchair basketball where it was mixed gender it was a huge difference. Slowly girls have become more involved in the sport; I think the England woman’s team inspired many girls across the country to take up football, especially powerchair football, after their success in last year’s FIFA Woman’s World Cup. Now with popular campaigns like 'this girl can' it is more relevant than ever for girls to take up sport