UEFA aim to make women’s football number one
UEFA is launching a strategic plan to make women's football the number one played sport across Europe within five years. The plan, which commences on 1 June at the UEFA Women's Champions League final, focuses on driving participation and reducing drop-out.
Ensuring each of the 55 National Associations has a strong local participation programme – UEFA is working with each FA on a 1:1 basis to develop a local plan to drive participation. Workshops are planned with all FAs and best practise sharing encouraged through the KISS, GROW programmes.
Launching a new marketing campaign to change the image of women's football and make it cool for the key youth female audience. This major new campaign launches on 1 June and monthly marketing campaigns will follow to encourage more girls into football and to change perceptions.
Using new types of content to engage girls, utilising famous ambassadors and celebrities to support the campaign. UEFA is increasing investment in content creation and also working with new digital partners to provide content on platforms to engage girls e.g. a new partnership with Buzzfeed.
Using new media channels to share content with girls who are not viewing traditional male football channels. UEFA is using new digital partners to reach girls e.g. Giphy, SnapChat and Instagram as well as a new website for girls: WePlayStrong.org.
Working with a network of sponsor partners to further expand the programme's reach.
Supporting each National Association to have the resource and support to deliver the plan through extensive toolkits. UEFA has a collaboration with the European Community to promote the #WePlayStrong campaign and especially around the September European Week of Sport.
The launch follows the release of a study involving more than 4,000 girls, which has confirmed that teenage girls who play football report higher levels of self-confidence, and that football can have a greater positive impact on the self-confidence of teenage girls than other popular sports.