2024 HAS BEEN ANOTHER GROUNDBREAKING YEAR FOR THE FALKIRK FOUNDATION GIRLS & WOMEN’S PATHWAY.
Participation is at an all time high, and the exposure around Girls & Women’s football has continued to grow as we solidify ourselves as the largest Girls & Women’s Community Club in the Central Region.
Firstly, we’d like to give thanks to everyone who’s contributed to this year. May that be Players, Coaches, Parents, Sponsors and more, everyone has played a part in making 2024 another special year. Without the shared collaboration, none of what we achieve would be possible.
While the obvious purpose of the Pathway is to develop players, there are so many more benefits to our footballing offering. We recognise the physical, social and mental benefits that football brings. Our sessions & games provide 3 – 5 hours of physical activity a week, which is so important in keeping players active and healthy. During pre-season time, we provided teenagers at the club with mental health workshops which gave our players with the tools to help recognise when teammates may need some support. In all our sessions and programmes, we aim to implement the 5 ways to better wellbeing which is vital for positive physical and mental health.
| TEAMS AT THE END OF 2023 | TEAMS AT THE END OF 2024 |
| U9s | U8s |
| U10s | U9s |
| U11s | U10s |
| U12s | U11s |
| U13s | U12s |
| U14s | U14s |
| U16s | U16s Regional |
| U18s | U16s YPL |
| Development Team | U18s |
| Women’s 1st | Women’s 1st |
| Women’s Rec Team | Women’s Rec Team |
PLAYER NUMBERS
At the end of 2024, we currently have around 200 players training and playing on a weekly basis. This is an incredible number, and it’s amazing to see how the pathway has grown to such incredible heights over the past years.
POSITIVE DESTINATIONS
We take enormous pride in our pathway system, and aim to graduate players though the age groups, and into the first team. This season we have seen 10 youth players train, or play with the first team, with 2 of those players signing their first senior contract with the club. The aim is for all players to progress through the age groups and fulfil aspirations of playing for the 1st team at Falkirk FCF. We’re living through the fantastic rise of Women’s football and it’s an exciting time for players who aspire to become professional footballers.
COACHING TEAM
Within the Girls & Women’s pathway, there are 21 Male coaches and 13 Female coaches. There are 6 coaches who hold a UEFA License, and all others are SFA qualified, all have child wellbeing & mental health training, and are all PVG checked. In 2024, the standard and level of coaching has been fantastic, and that’s been shown by the results and performances on the pitch. The level of on field performance has been raised. Performance standards have been driven up while maintaining player and personal development as a top priority. The Falkirk Foundation Girls & Women’s teams at all levels have performed terrifically on the pitch, and players are reaching their potential, and improving on a weekly basis.
During the mid-season break, a club wide coaches’ meeting was held to get feedback and to open up discussions about how we want the pathway to look. In this meeting we discussed values and philosophies that we want all teams to follow, and we collaborated to create new codes of conduct which were shared with Coaches, Players & Parents. We’ll be hosting a pre-season meeting before the new season starts.
We have Youth Players from the 16s & 18s helping in the small sided teams. It’s important to have role models for the younger teams in the pathway, as well as provide a platform for players to learn how to coach and gain valuable work experience.
FACILITIES
We’re proud to have some of the best facilities of any club in the area. We have three artificial pitches available (The community pitch being our main pitch), as well as 5 grass parks. We have access to meeting rooms, and classrooms within the Falkirk Stadium, and at Woodlands Community Sports Centre. This allows us to host players or parents’ meetings and gives coaches the chance to put on analysis & classroom sessions for players.
We also have access to a professional sports gym in the South Stand for Senior players, and U18s. This adds an extra level of training and condition to our training offering.
We hope to have our new Community Hub built soon, which will provide extra meeting space, and additional changing rooms for Female Players.
WOMENS 1ST TEAM & PERSONNEL
in 2023, The Falkirk Foundation’s Women’s First Team narrowly missed out on promotion into the SWFL Championship on the final day of the season. This was a tough day for the club; however, the team bounced back strongly, and in 2024 Promotion was secured! a wonderful achievement, which was the culmination of several years work. Life in the SWFL Championship has started well, and going into the winter break, we sit one place of a play-off spot. The second half of the year will be an exciting one.
The exposure around the team has been heavily enhanced in 2024. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & TikTok have all been used to promote the team, and team content is regularly posted on socials. Our Girls & Women’s media pages now have over 3500 followers which has been vital in securing sponsorship deals and growing the off-field setup. The Women’s team is fully run by the Foundation, and relies on the generous donations from the team sponsors.
The team have started playing League Matches in the Falkirk Stadium. This creates an enhanced match day experience for spectators. Falkirk Stadium is one of the largest stadiums in Scotland regularly used for Female Matches, and the attendances of grown as the seasons gone on. Women’s 1st games have been a great opportunity to link that pathway together. Small sided teams regularly walk out as mascots, and some of the younger 11 aside teams do ball attendant duties
HALF TIME ACTIVITY
In 2024, all Girls children’s teams (5/7/9 a side) got the opportunity to play at half-time during a Men’s first team game. Parents were provided with tickets for the games and the Girls loved the experience every time. We recognise the importance in linking our teams to Falkirk F.C. where possible to provide these fantastic opportunities for players.
