Building a girls' football team: how to start a girls' section in your amateur club

Maybe the club board told you last week that the club finally needs a girls' section. Maybe you are a former player and are supposed to build a U13 girls' team in your home club. Or maybe you coach a mixed U10 and are wondering whether the three girls in the squad would actually be better off in their own team. Either way, you face the same question: how do you start a girls' team in an amateur club without losing your footing?

This article walks you through the first six months, drawing on the DFB membership statistics 2024/25, the Belgian RBFA association study on women's football, the club standards framework from Football NSW (Australia), and sports-science reviews on training female youth players. You get a roadmap, a list of hurdles, a 12-point self-audit, and concrete pointers to where the association and the DFB actually provide money and equipment.

Why now is the right time

In its membership statistics for the 2024/25 season, the DFB crossed the eight-million mark for the first time in its 125-year history, with growth of 3.86 percent year on year. The strongest growth by far comes from the girls' segment: plus nine percent in memberships of girls under 16, plus ten percent in registered girls' teams, and even plus 15.3 percent in first registrations of U7 to U15 girls. Almost 119,000 girls under 16 were active on the pitch.

The international picture confirms this. The Visa/UEFA study The Compound Effect in Women's Football (2024) shows that the UEFA Women's EURO 2022 reached 365 million viewers worldwide, up 215 percent on 2017. The English Women's Super League, with an average annual growth rate of 45 percent, broke through the one-million-viewers-per-season mark for the first time. UEFA forecasts a sixfold increase in the commercial value of European women's football by 2033.

For your club, this means two practical things. First, the demand is there, you do not have to invent it. Girls who want to play football exist in almost every primary school class. Second, the state football association and the DFB have made girls' development a strategic priority and, since 2023, provide significantly more programmes, contact people, and equipment subsidies. Clubs that start now benefit from the fact that the association is actively looking for someone to help.

Three ways a girls' team takes shape

Path 1: Board mandate. The classic. The board wants to lock in membership numbers, expand sponsoring options, or cash in on a funding commitment from the state football association, and delegates the project to the youth director or an experienced youth coach. Pro: backing, budget, a pitch. Con: the operational person often feels out of their depth, because girls' football is not part of their daily coaching routine.

Path 2: Personal initiative. A former player, a mother with a football background, or a young coach jumps in with energy but little political backing inside the club. Here, someone knows the football side, but struggles with board communication, training-slot allocation, and the equipment budget. Belgian data from the RBFA association study show that between 36.7 percent (Flanders) and 45.7 percent (Wallonia) of parents feel their club prioritises boys' and men's football. An engaged individual feels this structural imbalance very quickly.

Path 3: Organic growth. An existing boys' team has integrated two, three, or four girls who have played along for years. Puberty raises the question of whether the girls should keep training with the boys, or whether it is now time for a team of their own. This path looks easiest at first because players are already there, but parent communication is the trickiest: pulling girls out of the boys' team is often perceived as a demotion, not a step up.

In practice, these three paths blend. Do not let it stop you that you are wearing several hats at once.

Before you start: three hard preconditions

1. A written board resolution. Verbal promises do not survive the first conflict over pitch allocation. Have the board put it in the minutes that a girls' team is being founded, in which age group, with what budget for balls, bibs, and referee fees, and in which training slot. The Football NSW framework calls this League Compliance Minimum with registered coaches and a documented game-time policy. In Germany it is more informal, but the principle is the same: what is not in the minutes gets cut at the first bottleneck.

2. One person responsible, by name. Not the youth department, not the sporting director, but first and last name. Without a named owner, the project diffuses. The Belgian RBFA study and the French FFF model, which more than doubled player numbers in five years (from 58,350 to 142,037), both name a girls' football lead at the club as a necessary condition. This person does not have to be a coach. They have to be reachable, able to take decisions, and the point of contact for parents and the association.

3. A reliable training slot. At least 75 minutes, ideally twice a week. Not let's see if we can find something on Fridays between 5 and 6pm. Girls lose interest quickly when sessions are cancelled or rescheduled. Football NSW recommends three sessions a week of 75 to 90 minutes and a 40-week season for its Junior Development League. That is unrealistic for amateur clubs, but two sessions a week is well within reach. If only one session is possible, make that one session sacred.

Finding players: getting the first twelve together

The RBFA study names too few participants per age group as the most frequently cited reason clubs give for not running girls' football. At the same time, the DFB demographic survey already showed in 2002 that six out of ten girls wanted to play football. The gap, then, is not a demand problem, it is a channel problem.

Source 1: Primary and secondary schools in your catchment area. An email to PE teachers offering a trial session is often enough. Combined with a DFB Girls Football Day (250+ districts cite it as the most effective tool for new recruitment), you get 20 to 40 girls on the pitch within two weeks, of which experience suggests 8 to 15 will sign up long-term.

Source 2: Sisters of existing players. Go through your club's youth teams. Roughly one in four players has a sister in the right age range. A direct word with the parents (we are doing something for girls now, bring her along next week) converts much better than a noticeboard flyer.

Source 3: Other sports in the club or in town. Girls from the gymnastics club, the riding stable, or the swim team who scale back their main hobby during puberty are an underestimated target group. Ask the instructors directly whether they know girls who would actually quite like to try football.

Source 4: The club's social media, locally. A post with a specific date (trial session for girls aged 9 to 12, Saturday 11am, free) on the club's pages plus shared in the primary-school parent WhatsApp groups reaches more girls than three months of leaflet drops.

Plan the trial phase with double the headcount you want. If you want 12 players long-term, invite 24. If you only invite 12, you end up with 6.

Finding a female coach, or stepping in yourself for now

The shortage of female coaches is real. France increased its number of female coaches by 501 percent in five years, which hints at the underlying gap. In German amateur clubs, it is highly likely you will not find a female coach at the start. That is no reason not to launch.

What you do instead:

Take it on yourself, but adapt your behaviour. Several studies on the coach-player relationship in female youth football name three adjustments that work in practice: a less authoritarian tone, more individual attention, more questions instead of commands. That does not mean lower standards or less discipline. It means that Run! works less well in a girls' team than Where could you run now to make yourself available for a pass?. The content stays the same, the language does not.

Recruit female coaches actively, in parallel with training. Former players from the region (state football association databases often have lists), sports science students, mothers with a football background of their own. Reach out, even if they decline at first. By the second or third approach, the contact sticks.

C-licence with a girls' football focus. Since 2023, the DFB and the state football associations offer coach training with an explicit girls' focus, often as a compact weekend. If you coach yourself, do this course in the first year. If someone else coaches, send them, with the club paying.

Grow assistant coaches from your own squad. The oldest players of the first girls' team are, two years in, the most natural assistant coaches for the next age group coming up. Plan that pipeline from day one.

Mixed or dedicated team: the transition question

The DFB youth regulations permit boys and girls to play together up to U17. In the new children's football reform for U7 to U11, mixed play is even explicitly encouraged and structurally supported through the festival format (see also the article on the new game formats for children's football).

The more interesting question is when a dedicated girls' team makes sense. The RBFA study asked players directly:

• 82 to 83 percent of girls who do not yet play at a club say they would prefer a girls-only team.
• At the same time, 77 percent of girls already playing in mixed teams want to stay in exactly that setting.

The naive reading is that girls want either one or the other. The correct reading is: girls who have not yet started find it easier to enter through a girls-only team. Girls who have already settled into a mixed team feel at home there and do not want to be pulled out.

For your club, this means: offer both wherever possible. A dedicated girls' team as an entry point, in parallel with the option for individual players to stay in the mixed boys' team. In practice this works from U10 onwards, because the training frequency there still allows two teams to warm up together and only the small-sided games to be separated.

By U14/U15 at the latest, however, the transition becomes biologically clearer: the differing growth spurt quickly widens the physical gap between boys and girls, and mixed play becomes injury-relevant. So plan the move to a dedicated team not for the moment when it becomes physically unavoidable, but as a calm switch at U12/U13.

The five biggest hurdles in the first months

Hurdle 1: Pitch allocation. The girls' team gets the worst slot, far from the clubhouse or at times when parents cannot come. Countermeasure: quote the board resolution, escalate in the youth committee, or swap slots with another youth team. If nothing works, communicate the slot offensively in positive terms (we train early, you still have the rest of the day) rather than defensively.

Hurdle 2: No local role models. Girls who do not know another player in their immediate environment start playing less often. The Belgian RBFA study makes this clear: in Wallonia, fewer than one in two active players had a female football idol at all. Countermeasure: use professionals from the women's Bundesliga or the national team as an external visibility source, but above all invite a player from the nearest women's amateur-league team to a trial session. 90 minutes of effort, big impact, because the role model is suddenly within reach.

Hurdle 3: Parents with reservations. Football is really for boys, she will get hurt, will that look good on a CV later. These reservations are real, even in 2026. Countermeasure: a parents' evening with a clear message. Women's Bundesliga professionals often come from amateur clubs, girls' football is a DFB strategic priority, injury risk can be reduced with Knee Control programmes. Keep the evening short, keep it factual.

Hurdle 4: Puberty drop-out. Between 14 and 16, many girls drop out of their sport. The RBFA study sorted the reasons: time pressure clearly leads, injuries follow, the not-welcome feeling is far rarer than perceived, but is the only one of the three that is directly steerable by the club.

Countermeasure: do not raise training volume when players turn 14, put weight on the social side (shared meals after the match, one team trip per season), and design substitution rules so that the weaker players also get enough playing time.

Hurdle 5: The not-welcome feeling. Girls who have to change in a shared room without a fixed place, pick up old club banter from the men's section, or see only first-team men's photos in the clubhouse pick up the missing signal: this is not their home. Countermeasure: a dedicated changing room with their own door sign, a visible female coach or female team manager in everyday club life, a team photo of the girls on a prominent clubhouse wall. Small investments that build belonging faster than any extra training session.

Girls' training is not boys' training with a ponytail

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Girls and women have a two- to sixfold higher risk of ACL injuries compared with male players in the same age group. Structured warm-up programmes like FIFA 11+ or the Swedish Knee Control cut the risk in studies by up to 50 percent. In practical terms: 10 minutes of Knee Control warm-up before every session, not as a replacement for other warm-ups but as their integral part.

Plyometrics and growth plates. Drop jumps from tall boxes should be used cautiously in adolescence (roughly U11 to U14) because they carry the risk of early growth-plate closure. Use low-impact variants: bilateral jumps with ground contact, mini-hurdles up to 20 cm, single-leg landings on soft surfaces. Only after peak height velocity (roughly U15 to U17) do classic plyo sets make sense again.

Recovery between matches. Sports-science reviews on female youth players show that U13 and U15 players still display elevated creatine kinase values and muscle soreness (DOMS) 168 hours after a match, while U17 players recover more quickly. In practice: two matches in one week is too much for U13/U15, with one match plus one training session being the maximum. Schedule indoor tournaments at the weekend so that the following week is a recovery week.

Menstrual cycle. Research here is still developing, and a clear training plan adjusted to cycle phase is not yet available at youth level. What does prove itself in practice: give the topic space, let players say without taboo when they cannot give 100 percent on a given day. A female coach on the staff makes this clearly easier but, as said above, is not a mandatory starting point.

Nutrition and hydration. Studies show that a significant share of adolescent female players are dehydrated before matches and have nutrient gaps (iron in particular). This is not the primary coaching topic in everyday club life, but it belongs in the parents' evening.

First match day: a friendly tournament, not a league fixture

Once your squad has trained together for three to four months and at least 8 players turn up reliably, organise a friendly tournament. Not the official association girls' tournament, but your own small one, with teams from your immediate area.

A good format for the first twelve to fifteen months: 5 to 7 teams, 5-a-side on a small pitch, three hours of indoor or pitch time, every team plays every team. The practical match schedule for 5, 7 or 10 teams covers exactly this format, including break times and substitution rules. That is not a random cross-link: a girls' trial tournament has the same operational logic as a mixed mini-tournament, just with different marketing.

Send invitations to the girls' football leads at neighbouring clubs, to the district contact for girls' football, and to PE teachers at primary schools in your catchment area. The latter bring girls who are not yet at a club, which secures your next recruitment wave at the same time.

Anyone who wants to minimise planning effort and not drown in spreadsheets uses a scheduling tool like AreaCopa and has the fair-play mode, match times, and break times ready in 15 minutes, instead of shuffling them back and forth by hand.

More important than the sporting result is that the tournament becomes visible outwards. A few photos on the club website, a short report in the local paper, a video clip for Instagram. That is marketing for next season, not vanity.

What the association and the DFB concretely offer

Full-time contact for girls' and women's football. Every state football association has one, often with an additional district representative. That is the first person you call after the board resolution. They know current funding programmes, pilot projects, and equipment subsidies that do not all appear on the website. An email is enough, most contacts reply within a week.

Girls Football Day. This DFB-initiated action day takes place once a year, usually in spring, and is one of the highest-reach recruitment campaigns in German girls' football. More than 250 DFB districts take part. Register your club, get the material package (balls, bibs, promotional material), and use the day as a visible kick-off for your girls' team.

Equipment funding. Many state football associations subsidise the kit of new girls' teams per season with a fixed amount or a material package (training bibs, balls in the right size, first-aid kit). Applications are often informal. Ask your state football association contact.

Female-coach training with a girls' focus. Since 2023, many state football associations offer a C-licence variant with an explicit focus on girls' and women's football. Often as a compact weekend, often combinable with a club subsidy. The DFB-Mobil service additionally comes to the club and provides free training sessions, an effective form of coach training especially in the launch phase.

Club minimum standards: 12-point self-audit

Organisation and structure

1. Written board resolution to launch a girls' team (with budget and resources).
2. Named girls' football lead at the club.
3. Club-adapted game-time policy: every player gets at least 50 percent playing time per match (at least in the launch phase).

Training and match programme

4. At least one, ideally two, fixed training sessions per week of at least 75 minutes.
5. Dedicated changing room or clearly assigned changing area.
6. Dedicated equipment (balls in girls' size, dedicated bibs with the club logo).

Coach and qualification

7. At least one qualified coach (DFB basic licence as a minimum) on the coaching staff.
8. A plan to recruit or train a female coach within 24 months.
9. Knee Control (FIFA 11+) in the warm-up, at least at every second session.

Safety and well-being

10. Extended criminal-record certificate (Führungszeugnis) for all coaches and team managers, documented in writing.
11. At least one club safeguarding contact for players to turn to in conflict, named on the club website.

Visibility and growth

12. At least one externally visible action per season (friendly tournament, Girls Football Day, or school cooperation).

Print this list, walk through it with the board, and mark each point green, amber, or red. The red points are your task list for the next six months.

Roadmap for the first six months

Month 1: Foundation

• Week 1: Talk the board resolution through, name the person in charge, fix the training slot.
• Week 2: Contact the state football association lead, apply for equipment funding, start the female-coach search.
• Week 3: Write to schools in the catchment area, set the trial session date (4-6 weeks ahead).
• Week 4: Tap sisters of existing players internally, post in parent WhatsApp groups.

Month 2: Recruitment and first session

• Weeks 5-6: Social media posts, club website entry, brief the local paper.
• Week 7: First trial session (1-2 dates one week apart).
• Week 8: Collect binding registrations, regular training starts.

Month 3: Stabilisation

• Regular training, training plan with Knee Control warm-up, dedicated balls and bibs sorted.
• First club friendlies against neighbouring clubs, short distances.
• Coach training date booked (C-licence with girls' focus).

Month 4: Identity

• Team photo for the club website and clubhouse wall.
• Establish team rituals: a greeting ritual, a goodbye ritual, one shared evening per month.
• Parents' meeting, clarity on car-sharing and equipment.

Month 5: Friendly tournament planning

• Build the match schedule for 5-7 teams, invite neighbouring clubs, reserve the hall or pitch.
• Distribute tasks inside the club: catering, referee helpers, photo documentation.

Month 6: Outward visibility

• Run the friendly tournament.
• Local press report, social media review, list of interested new players.
• Walk through the 12-point audit again, build the to-do list for the second half of the season.

After six months, you have a working girls' team, a recruitment network, and a first handful of prospective new players for the second season.

Download the checklist

The 6-month roadmap and the 12-point club audit from this article as a printable PDF. Walk through it with the board and your co-coaches, marking each item red, amber, or green — the red ones are your task list for the next six months.

Sources

All figures, percentages, and frameworks in this article come from the following sources:

1. Deutscher Fußball-Bund (July 2025). DFB membership statistics 2024/25. Source for the growth figures in German girls' football: for the first time more than 8 million memberships (plus 3.86 percent), plus 9 percent in girls' memberships up to age 16, plus 10 percent registered girls' teams, plus 15.3 percent first registrations in U7 to U15 girls, almost 119,000 active players up to age 16.
2. Visa / UEFA (2024). The Compound Effect in Women's Football. Study on the commercial and sporting development of European women's football. Source for the UEFA Women's EURO 2022 with 365 million viewers (plus 215 percent on 2017), the CAGR of the Women's Super League at 45 percent, the FIFA World Cup 2023 with two billion cumulative reach, and the UEFA forecast of a sixfold increase in commercial value by 2033.
3. Royal Belgian Football Association (2020). RBFA Study 3 on Women's Football. Association study surveying clubs, playing girls, non-playing girls, and parents in Belgium. Source for: 36.7 percent (Flanders) and 45.7 percent (Wallonia) of parents feel the club prioritises boys' football; 82 to 83 percent of non-playing girls prefer girls-only teams; 77 percent of girls in mixed teams want to stay there; drop-out reasons time pressure (37.95 percent / 29.17 percent), injuries, not-welcome feeling (13.25 percent / 12.5 percent); role-model gap (49.2 percent in Wallonia). Also contains the FFF data (France 2011-2016: players 58,350 to 142,037, female coaches plus 501 percent).
4. Football New South Wales (2025). Club Standards & Benchmarking Framework 2025-26. Australian club-standards model with five pillars (League Compliance, Club Championship, Football Criteria, Technical Qualifications, Progression & Retention). Basis for the 12-point self-audit in section 11.
5. Adams, T.G. (August 2025). Physical Characteristics of Youth Female Football Training. Master of Science (by Dissertation), Department of Sport, Rehabilitation & Exercise Sciences, University of Essex. Source for the sports-science findings on injury risk, maturation, and recovery: U13 and U15 players still display elevated creatine kinase values and DOMS 168 hours after matches, while U17 fully recovers; plyometrics and growth-plate risk in adolescence; dehydration and nutrient gaps in adolescent players.
6. Vandermey, A. (2017). "It's so much better playing with all girls": Examining gender politics within a women-only association football club in Melbourne. Master of Arts thesis. Qualitative source for the puberty drop-out dynamic and the self-efficacy argument for girls-only spaces.
7. Deutscher Fußball-Bund (as of 15 July 2024). Youth Regulations, Annex IV: Provisions for small-pitch matches for female and male juniors. Source for the eligibility of girls to play in boys' teams up to U17.
8. FIFA / F-MARC and the Swedish Football Association SVFF. FIFA 11+ and Knäkontroll (Knee Control). Structured warm-up programmes for the prevention of ACL injuries. Studies show a reduction in knee injuries of up to 50 percent under systematic application.
9. DFB initiative Girls Football Day. Nationwide action day in which 250+ DFB districts take part; the material package and promotional items are provided by the DFB. Described in the RBFA study as the most effective recruitment instrument for new girls' players.

Current programmes, funding conditions, and regional contact people are listed on the websites of your state football association and at dfb.de.