FA to raise girls' football limit from 16 to 18

Girls will now be able to play with the boys' teams until the age of 18

The Football Association is to raise the age limit at which boys and girls can play football in the same teams from 16 to 18 from next season.

The change will enable the FA to conduct further research into mixed football at this older age group.

The FA board, FA executive and FA council all agreed to the proposal.

Denmark has no age limit for mixed teams, Netherlands and Switzerland split players at 19 while Germany and Italy do likewise at 17.

"Uefa annually asks all European countries to declare their mixed football age limit," said the FA's national development manager for women's football Rachel Pavlou.

"All these countries feel strongly, like we do in England, that mixed football is an important additional choice to their female-only provision."