'We want to show it's OK for girls to have short hair'

Antonia and Camille play for the under 12s girls' team at York Railway Institute AFC

A football team has begun a campaign to support young players with short hair after a junior girls' side were accused of "cheating" by fielding boys in matches.

York Railway Institute AFC's women's recreational squad made a social media video of players wearing T-shirts with the slogan "girls can have short hair - get over it" to show solidarity with the club's under 12 girls' side.

The juniors, aged 11 and 12, said they felt "upset" and "frustrated" by comments made by opposing teams and their supporters.

Kate White from the women's team said: "It's been horrible. It's the girls' basic personal choice, it's who they are. Some girls have short hair and this singles them out and they don't need that."

The women's football team wear T-shirts in support of the girls with short hair

One of the under 12s, Camille, said: "When we were playing football once we had an opposition that was quite mean about people with short hair playing football for a girls' team.

"They said: 'Why's there a boy on the pitch? You need to take them off because they're boys and it's cheating' and our coach told them off.

"When I heard this I felt quite upset because I don't really understand why they can't just get on with what they're doing rather than worry about other people's business."

Her team-mate Antonia added: "I felt quite frustrated because they were attacking them for no reason when they hadn't done anything wrong."

Camille said: "I felt quite supported when the adults did a video about it saying that we weren't alone," Camille said.

Antonia and Camille say they love playing football because they like making friends and have fun on the pitch

The women's recreational team said in their social media post: "No girl should have to justify their choice of haircut when playing the sport they love."

Jo Hollings plays for the team and told the BBC: "It's a really important issue because I think there's enough against girls being involved in sport generally and girls tend to give up when they get to their teenage years, so the fact that people are discriminating against girls who choose to wear their hair short is not acceptable."

Her team-mate Gemma Hardy agreed: "In this day and age things like this shouldn't be happening and as soon as I heard about it I thought we need to stand up and speak out because it can really damage their confidence."

Jo Hollings, Gemma Hardy and Kate White play for the women's recreational team at York RI

The under 12s side's assistant coach, Adam Cooper, said: "There's been a few occasions at matches where sometimes people will comment 'Is that a boy? Is that a girl? You're not allowed a boy to play' and things like that.

"The players find it hard because at first a little comment doesn't matter but when it happens a few times it just makes you anxious and on edge and football is meant to be inclusive for all girls to play. We shouldn't be stereotyping and saying what people look like and it takes your mind off the game.

"Football is meant to be good for mental health and mental health of children is really important."

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