FA campaign to keep more girls playing football
Last updated on .From the section Women's Football
| Women's World Cup: France v England |
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| Venue: Moncton Stadium, Moncton, Canada Date: Tuesday, 9 June, kick-off 18:00 BST |
| Coverage: Live on BBC Two and Online, on mobile, the BBC Sport app and Connected TV. Live commentary on BBC radio 5 live, live text commentary online. |
The Football Association hopes to encourage more girls to take up the game after finding that 25% stop playing "due to peer pressure".
Its 'We Can Play' campaign is aiming to increase the number of girls aged between seven and 11 playing football.
The FA's director of women's football, Kelly Simmons, said: "It is crucial to increase girls' confidence that football is a sport for them."
England play France in their Women's World Cup opener in Canada on Tuesday.
The FA, which says women's football is the fourth-largest participation sport in England, will also tackle derogatory material online.
"Currently, the search term 'football girls' generates a series of sexual images and videos that the FA does not believe provides a platform to inspire girls to play the sport," the FA said.
FA research showed that almost 50% of girls asked do not think football is a game for them and 80% of girls who do play do not feel confident doing so.
Simmons added: "We need to ask ourselves - why do these perceptions still pervade? The profile and professionalism of the women's game has never been greater.
"We are doing our part to ensure the game is an attractive mass participation sport for girls and women and now it is the turn of society to ask itself, why does it allow antiquated attitudes to persist?"
