Volunteers helping growth of women's football

Jess Hawkins said volunteers have helped the growth in popularity of women's football

A football coach says volunteers are the lifeblood of women's amateur football, as new figures show more girls are taking up the sport.

Jess Hawkins, head of girls' football at Abbeymead Rovers said volunteers who give up their time are "gems".

She said she hugely values the support that parents and grandparents provide.

BBC analysis has found that there are now twice as many registered female football teams in England as there were seven years ago.

Ms Hawkins said: "It's not just about the coaching, it's those parents that help put up the goals.

"Any volunteers who give up their time are gems that help grow the sport."

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She added: "Traditionally we have seen slightly less appetite on the women's side of things. We all think about boys' grassroots football when it's fathers taking the child in the morning and he'll muck in and help out.

"In the women's game we do notice that there are more grandparents involved, and mums, aunts, and it's a bit more of a wider community."

Ms Hawkins acknowledged that there is currently a lack of female coaches and access to qualifications but is hopeful this will change.

"We're really lucky that we've got some great parents who have stepped up and gone through their coaching badges and we support them as a club to try and take on these teams so that we can get as many girls playing as we can," she said.

The success of the Lionesses has helped fuel a surge in popularity in the sport

It comes in the week that former England Lioness Ellen White received her MBE for services to football from the Prince of Wales at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle.

She said: "It's been a pretty incredible couple of years for women's football; we got to the World Cup semi-finals in 2019 and then the Euro success; we all know the boom that happened after that.

"So it's not surprising the growth is in partnership with that success on the world stage."