Why I turned up to football practice Once and never went back

It's great to see all the excitement around the Lionesses competing at the Euros. I love a good role model and that team is packed with them. They've done a fantastic job of raising awareness of women's football and creating opportunities for young girls to get involved with the sport.

​Whilst it's important to talk about successes, it's also important to discuss the challenges. Things are improving slowly, but we still have many gaps, barriers, and challenges to tackle.

I want to share my experiences of football (this was before I became disabled) and how a negative incident can have an impact on participation rates. I've written about it in my latest book, Shoot for the Stars:

I signed up for football practice in my first week at secondary school. The empty changing room echoed hollowly as I pulled on my PE kit, hoping the other girls were running late. Nobody else turned up and I walked outside, alone. 
 
It turned out that football was very popular, just not with the girls. Over thirty boys crowded around the PE block. “Time for the warm-up. Get into pairs and we’ll jog around the pitch,” barked the PE teacher.
 
The boys moved away from me quickly. “I don’t want to be stuck with the girl,” one guy hissed. I pretended I hadn’t heard and turned towards another boy. “I’m with him,” he said, jabbing his finger towards the partner he’d miraculously found.
 
This carried on until there were only two of us left and the PE teacher stepped in, ushering us together much to the boy’s dismay. When it was time for the game, things didn’t get better. Nobody wanted me on their team. Nobody passed the ball to me. I trotted up and down the pitch, waving my arms and yelling to my teammates as I heard them say: 
 
“Girls can’t play football.” 
 
“She shouldn’t be here.”
 
“I can’t believe she thinks she’s one of us.”
 
I never went back. I didn’t love the sport enough to put up with that.
 
It’s a horrible feeling to find yourself in a place where you aren’t accepted or celebrated for all the brilliant things you can give. I wish I had been stronger. I wish I’d shrugged off the comments and catcalls and stood my ground. But it’s easy to look back and wish you’d done things differently. 

Whilst we are seeing improvement, barriers still exist. Many girls want to play football, and other sports, but are unable to access it or feel like they don't belong if they give it a chance. One negative experience can be powerful enough to stop them showing up again.

I think that sharing some of these stories is helpful because it makes us aware that these barriers exist. And once we are aware of them, we can do something about it.

So let's start the conversation! Have you ever experienced anything like this? Or maybe seen it, heard it, or have a brilliant success story?

---