More women are taking up leadership roles in Irish football than ever before as the phenomenal growth of women & girls’ football continues.

In March, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) released its Women & Girls’ Action Plan as part of the Football Pathways Plan to outline clear objectives on how to strengthen the foundations to encourage and empower more women to get involved in the game.

The sustained positive impact of programmes such as In Her Boots, Kick Fit and UEFA Playmakers has been instrumental in helping more women to have active roles within their local grassroots club with over 800 clubs catering for women & girls’ football around the country.

However, the significant difference in 2025 was the increase in women taking on influential positions on committees and boards, as well as with teams, clubs, leagues and organisations. The Changemakers Programme has had a big impact with that as 30 different women have benefitted from an initiative tailor-made to provide women with the confidence and skills to be more effective leaders in different areas of the game.

Delivered jointly by The Game Plan and the FAI, the Changemakers programme is helping to ensure more women take up leadership positions in Irish football. Graduates from the first programme are now in roles such as League Chairperson, Head of Academy, Club Secretary and Committee Member as they represent grassroots, amateur, affiliate, refereeing and League of Ireland.

The FAI also worked with Sport Ireland to deliver a Mentoring & Coaching Skills Programme, while a pilot session of a new Young Leaders Forum took place in September with 10 female attendees (aged between 15 and 18) involved.

The success of these programmes can be seen through the increase in women taking up leadership roles at all levels of the game, including:

- 40% female representation on FAI Board and Committees

- 34% female representation on the FAI General Assembly

SUCCESS IN 2025
With participation levels continuing to rise, the development of women & girls’ football in 2025 was also visible through these different success stories:

- Ireland Women’s National Team (WNT) secured promotion to League A in the UEFA Women’s Nations League following a Play-Off victory over Belgium

- Ireland WNT had a collective attendance of 37,491 across four home games – putting them first amongst similar-sized countries in Europe and second from teams outside the top 11 in FIFA Women’s World Rankings

- Impressive TV viewership of the WNT v Belgium game in Leuven with a peak audience of 410,000 – making it the fifth most-watched game in the team’s history

- Ireland Women’s Under-17s won an International Tournament in Italy – scoring 11 goals and conceding one in three wins

- Ireland Girls’ Under-15s made their debut in a UEFA Development Tournament with 16 of the 20 players experiencing international football for the first time

- 142 different players featured for Ireland across 41 games between the five different international teams – WNT, WU19, WU17, GU16, GU15

- Attendances rose by 1% in the SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division as Waterford joined the league for the first time

- 172 games live streamed on LOITV and a record 17 live games broadcast on TG4 in the SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division, Sports Direct Women’s FAI Cup and Women’s All-Island Cup

- Athlone Town had two sold-out home fixtures in their six games in European competition across both the UEFA Women’s Champions League and UEFA Women’s Europa Cup

- Increase of 14 places for the League of Ireland in the UEFA Women’s Club Coefficient – from 35th up to 21st

- Ireland Women’s Deaf Futsal Team reached the semi-finals of the World Deaf Futsal Championships

- 98 girls from 48 clubs took part in the National Pathways Programme pilot, where high-potential players were challenged over an eight-week block

- Ireland WNT players pursuing UEFA coaching licences through the FAI, including Áine O’Gorman, Rianna Jarrett, Emma Byrne, Lily Agg (UEFA A), Katie McCabe, Courtney Brosnan, Louise Quinn, Grace Moloney, Ruesha Littlejohn, Stephanie Zambra (UEFA B)

- Female-only coaching courses provided for UEFA B, UEFA C and Youth B Licence, while an online community was established to help coaches discuss relevant topics

- UEFA Women’s Share Event, with representatives from seven different countries, visited FAI HQ to learn more about the Association’s approach to coach development

- 32% increase in women playing recreational football with Kick Fit

- 45% female participation in FAI Schools Primary 5s with 20,048 girls involved

- 1,500 participants took part in 55 workshops with In Her Boots

- 12,000 girls, aged between 5 to 8 years, took part in UEFA Playmakers

2026 PLANNING
Ahead of the new year, some key announcements have already been made, including:

- Lizzy Kent appointed as new FAI Head of Women & Girls’ Football

- Five new Women & Girls’ Lead roles to be created within the FAI to support development in leagues, clubs and communities

- Women’s Development League to provide a platform for 10 League of Ireland Academy clubs to create a senior team for the first time