Bognor Regis football team on the hunt for more girls after England's Euro win

The town football team, which competes in youth divisions across a range of ages and experience levels, hopes the England women’s 2022 Euro win will inspire more girls to take up ‘the beautiful game’.

The club currently has ten teams for girls under 7 to under 16, a number which itself represents years of growth for the club.

Manager of the Under 14 girls ‘green’ team Lauren Bromley said: “The Bognor girls started in 2017 with only 12 players. But now, we are at just over 150 girls, which is really good.”

That's a lot of growth in a short space of time, but Mrs Bromley said she’s hoping to make the club even bigger.

"The maximum scope for individual teams, especially for 11 a side games, is 18 players. But obviously, if you get more players, then you just develop another team, so there’s really no maximum.”

The call for players comes after the English women’s team won this year’s Euros, beating Germany 2-1 in the finals on July 31.

Mrs Bromley said the historic win has already inspired a number of players to lace up their boots.

"From the minute the girls won the Euros up until the morning, I had nine messages on Facebook from parents whose kids wanted to play,” she said. And that’s sort of unheard of. You occasionally get one or two, but to get nine over night is loads.

"And at the same time, Bognor’s women’s team will have their first ever season this year, which presents a bit of a path way for all these young players. Before, once they got to 16, they had to start looking for other clubs because there wasn’t a proper women’s team.”

And just as well. Mrs Bromley says girls have plenty to gain from playing football: “Confidence is a big part of it. When I started, we had girls who would really struggle whenever they made a mistake, but now they know how to get up, brush themselves off and get on with it.”

To find out more about the Bognor Regis Youth Football team, visit their website.

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