The opportunities and challenges facing participation in different types of women’s football in England

Paul Downward and Cristina Muniz

Sport Management Review, 2025, vol. 28, issue 3, 498-522

Abstract: UK Sports Policy identifies the development of women’s football as extremely important for helping to address the long-standing gender inequality in sport participation. Though women’s football authorities identify the growth and development of the women’s game, no formal statistical analysis of the factors that are associated with participation and its provision has been undertaken to inform planning. Motivated by a socio-ecological framework, which is developed with insights from economic theory, this research focuses on analysing participation in different types of football for women and men in England, identifying both individual characteristics and local authority facility provision variables that are associated with participation. Making use of multi-level regression models, the study analyses a unique large-scale hierarchical data set for England, comprising 88,142 women and 68,104 men across 309 local authorities. The results note challenges facing women’s football participation but also opportunities through the development of women’s small-side football participation.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/14413523.2025.2467473

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