The England women's football team secured their place in the quarter-finals with a 6-1 win against Argentina. Kelly Smith who grabbed a brace, conducted a post-match interview with the BBC which you can see here.

The United States and North Korea are favorites to advance from group B and the group winner will face England, while the second-placed team will play against Germany. You can see the North Korea game against Sweden on BBCi from 1300 on Tuesday.

Labels: football, world cup 2007

Our friends over at Street League thought you might be interested in the following women's only football goal setting day.

Labels: football

The Addicks website has announced that a senior Charlton women's team will compete in the 2007/08 Premier League National Division.

The Charlton women's website states that "The club confirmed on Wednesday morning that all necessary sponsorship is now in place to enable the Addicks female set-up - incorporating the women's first team, the academy and the centre of excellence - to reopen under the umbrella and management of the Charlton Community Trust."

Trust chief executive, Steve Waggott, said: "While this is a tremendous boost to all those involved in the women's game at Charlton, there is an awful lot of hard work now to be done to enable us to field teams at all levels, and we will need the support of an awful lot of people.

"Training will commence next Tuesday, August 28th at 8pm at Sparrows Lane under the watchful eye of community coach and former player Paul Mortimer. Anyone interested in being part of our new set-up and in keeping women's football at Charlton alive, should email tina.johnson@cafc.co.uk or call 020-8850 2866."

Labels: charlton, football

Essex County Football Association
Girls’ and Women’s Football Development Officer
Full time contract until March 31st 2009
(Post continuation subject to funding)
Salary Scale: £19,000 — £22,000.

The post-holder will be responsible for the development of the female game within the London Boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Havering, Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest. The post will be based at the Association’s Chelmsford Office. The successful applicant will join a highly-regarded Development Team reporting to the County Development Manager.

This will be an exciting and wide ranging role with areas of work including:

• Club development
• Education (School-Club links)
• Coach and volunteer development
• Football funding
  

The successful candidate will:

• Be a university graduate (or similar) who is able to demonstrate a knowledge of FA
  football development initiatives and an appreciation of the issues specific to the
  East London area.
• Be able to communicate with a wide range of partners.
• Have experience of working within sports development and be able to
  demonstrate an ability to plan, deliver and evaluate programmes.
• Hold a full driving licence and have access to a vehicle.
• Be available to work evenings and weekends when necessary.
  

For a full job description and personal specification please contact Nick Perchard on
nick.perchard@essexfa.com or 01245 393077. Applications, in the form of a covering
letter accompanied by a C.V. and details of current remuneration, should be sent to:
The County Development Manager, Essex FA, The County Office, Springfield Lyons
Approach, Springfield, Chelmsford, Essex, CM2 5LB.
Nick.perchard@essexfa.com

Labels: football, job vacancies

The Telegraph discusses how Rachel Brown is calling for calm amid World Cup fever - http://tinyurl.com/2mnfuq

Labels: football, world cup 2007

Everton Ladies defender Lindsay Johnson has this evening been called up into England's World Cup squad, after Leeds United's Steph Houghton sustained a spiral fracture of the fibula in a training session today.

Johnson has been capped 19 times by England since making her debut against Holland in September 2004, and will wear the number 20 shirt in China, for the tournament between 10-30 September.

Speaking to TheFA.com less than an hour after hearing the news from Head Coach, Hope Powell, 'Johno' said: "I'm obviously gutted for Steph as she's had a fantastic season, and to happen just a couple of days before flying out is devastating for her.

"I'm naturally over the moon as when I found out that I hadn't made the original squad, it was really, really tough.

"I went away with the Everton girls for the First Qualifying Round of the UEFA Women's Cup and it was probably the best thing, as I couldn't sit at home dwelling on missing the cut, and the England girls in our team were brilliant to me.

"I came home with a fresh perspective then and was determined to get back into the next squad after the World Cup, and even today I was fitness testing with some of the Northern based girls in the squad in Manchester.

"Pippa, the Team Doctor told me this morning to keep my chin up, keep working hard, and that you never know what might happen, but I never thought i'd be getting on the plane on Sunday.

"My boss was expecting me back at work tomorrow, but i've had to tell them there's been a change of plan!"

England fly out to Macau this Sunday for a two-week training camp, before they arrive in Shanghai on 3 September, ahead of their first group game against Japan on 11 September.

All England's games will be shown live on BBC Two, with kick-off times at 1pm GMT.

For latest news from the England camp, and information on the tournament, log onto: thefa.com/WorldCup2007

The picture comes from theFA.com.

Labels: football, world cup 2007

Street League are proud to present a free women’s football taster session. Click on the following link for more information - flyer.

Labels: events, football

In the build up to the women's World Cup, the BBC features two articles:

Firstly, an interview with England's Kelly Smith talking about England's chances of success in the World Cup and her hopes for the Olympics - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/women/6936618.stm

Secondly, the BBC have also published the World Cup fixture schedule -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/women/6226078.stm. They also announce that they will be covering the England games live on the BBC.

Labels: football

• The overall total of 265 million male and female players is almost ten per cent higher than the number recorded six years ago (242 million).
• Of the 265 million, 26 million or around ten per cent are women;
• Since 2000, the number of registered male and female footballers has increased by around 23 per cent to over 38 million;
• The growth in women’s football is particularly striking, with the number of registered players up 54 per cent to 4.1 million;
• In terms of regional differences, the AFC (85 million footballers) has a clear lead over the other five confederations (UEFA: 62 million; CAF: 46 million; CONCACAF: 43 million; CONMEBOL: 27 million; OFC: 0.5 million).
  
  The number of clubs (301,000) is similar to the figure recorded in 2000. That said, the total number of teams (1.7 million) has increased by approximately 200,000. The data for Big Count 2006 was collated in the first half of 2006 using a traditional questionnaire and an online survey and achieved a response rate of over 75 per cent.

Labels: football, research, team sport

The Arsenal women's team secured a historic quadruple by beating Charlton FC, 4-1 in the FA Cup Final. Having battled to win both the UEFA Cup and Premier League Cup by a narrow 1-0 margin, Arsenal showed off their attacking play, cruising to a 4-1 win against Charlton Women.

A cup upset was on the cards after a 7th minute Katie Holtham goal for Charlton, but Arsenal turned the tables to come back in true attacking style. Kelly Smith and Jayne Ludlow each grabed a brace to entertain the record crowd of 24,529.

An elated Smith told theFA.com: "It was a great big disappointment to miss that game, and it was completely my own fault. So I wanted to step up today and help the team lift this trophy, it wasn't just me out there it was all the players rising to the occasion."

"It has been a long hard season and there were some heavy legs out there, it is hard being unbeaten as you know that everyone is out to get you and you have to raise your game everytime you step on the field."I think today it was a great atmosphere and the fans really got behind us, and once we got the fourth goal I think that killed the game off."

Full match reports appear in:

• LEGEND LADIES - Daily Mirror
• Arsenal 4 - 1 Charlton - Guardian Unlimited
• Dominant Arsenal take a quadruple leap into history - Times Online
• Arsenal do the quadruple - Channel 4 News, UK
• Arsenal complete historic quadruple - Setanta Sports
• Akers to stay on as Arsenal coach - BBC Sport
• Arsenal complete unique quadruple - uefa.com

Image courtesy of theFA.com.

Labels: arsenal, cup competitions, football

Jacqui Oatley’s appointment to the MOTD team shows that times have changed. The following quotes from The Daily Mirror indicate someone who is proud of their rise from hospital radio to Five Live, before she made the leap to what so many people see as their dream job.

"I don't think of it as breaking down barriers for women in sport. I do it for the same reason any bloke does: I love football."

"I'm not asking anybody to give me a chance, they can make up their own minds. Hopefully one day people won't notice what sex the commentator is."

And what she says is true, perhaps the true indication of a major mindshift will come when appointments like this are only relevant to media junkies who read the Media Guardian.

Giles Smith also picks up on Bassett's comments in his piece in The Times.

The following story in the Daily Mail takes the issue head on. Matt Barlow (not this one) has taken a wide range of views and has even dug up a few dinosaurs, like ex-Premiership ex-Manager Dave Bassett, and Steve Curry who both resort to their divisive, sexist views to make the point that they speak on behalf of those 'in the game'. It is quite interesting that when their comments are put alongside those, who are in broadcasting and 'the game' that they are the ones who look out of place and out of touch with the average football fan.

Further reports and debate, also appear in the The Telegraph and The Guardian.

Reporters, bloggers, and various others will be claiming their bit of credit for the appointment, lobbying editors, writing letters and campaigning for change. We hope you’ll continue this and help us to unleash women’s potential in sport - allowing those who are good enough, like Jacqui, to get the same opportunity as their male counterparts.

Anyway, congrats to Jacqui and like the sporting geeks we are, we’ll be watching the highlights on Saturday night, and catching the final 20 minutes on the Sunday morning as well as we get in time for the World’s greatest marathon – good luck if you’re running.

Labels: football, Jacqui Oatley, sexism