Women’s Walking Football is the new category this year in the FA People’s Cup and it’s now giving more “older” women the opportunity to get involved in playing the beautiful game. Men’s Walking Football has been around for a long while and while there have been some long running groups available to women only, there has also been a shortage of available opportunities for women to play with their own team of women. We know of plenty of women who have struggled to find a team to play in and have been playing in a mixed team with their male counterparts. As much as that’s fun, it’s now time for Women’s Walking Football to start growing and entering a team into the FA People’s Cup’s new category is a great place to start. The new category is open to women 40+ and is a fantastic opportunity to enjoy another way of playing and learning to play football. It also gives women’s teams the opportunity to meet other teams who they may go on to organise games against.
We have a great affection for the FA People’s Cup, as it’s now our fourth year of entering it. The first one we entered was a special time for us, as it was the first ever competition we played in. We hadn’t played a match before that but we had a great time playing and making friends with the other 4 teams who entered. A night in Sheffield also added to the great time we had!
Since then, we have had some great times playing and socialising with the other teams who have entered into the Female Vets category. In 2016 there were only 6 teams in total who entered the Female Vets’ category. In the space of a few years the number of teams to enter reached 52, which is an incredible rise for Women’s Vets’ & Women’s Recreational Football.
Walking Football is obviously a bit slower than your average game of 5 a-side and many women may prefer the thought of walking rather than running! In its first year, the Women’s Walking Football category will be a great place to get a new team together and enjoy the FREE amateur competition, which will include teams of different abilities. Why not give it a go?
We took great pleasure in being able to help the FA and BBC Sport promote Women’s Walking Football, this week, when we were invited to join the BBC Talent Team to practice some walking football skills and then play a game, which was so much fun! We met with Adele Roberts, Kate Holderness, Lauren Layfield and Abbie McCarthy, all amazing women, who work for the BBC, and we just had such a laugh!
We were also joined by “Jurgen Klopp” from the Kloppelgangers’ team, who managed to help out with some tactics, while coaching the BBC Talent team. You can just imagine the advice! He even tried to claim he was fouled, at one point in the warm up!
It was a brilliant day and reaffirmed that everyone who wants to play football, whether you have played before or not, can join in the fun and play. It was also a chance to wear our new tracksuit tops! 6 down, 55 more to order!
The First Round of the FA People’s Cup is on the 23rd February so get your mates together, get a team organised and get on the website to enter your team. It’s as easy as that!
There are 15 categories this year and all the details, along with some inspiring stories, can be found here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/get-inspired/fa-peoples-cup
or go straight to the FA Website: http://www.thefa.com/competitions/the-fa-peoples-cup
If you’re interested in joining a Women’s Walking Football team, check out our “Links & Other Teams” menu on the website to find out if there is a group near to you. If not, you could always start your own!
If you know of a team which isn’t listed on the link, please let us know and if you enter the FA People’s Cup, have a great time!