Burnley Women one of six clubs to join FA programme to boost diversity among female coaches

The initiative will see the clubs offer female coaches from historically under-represented groups the chance to gain invaluable coaching experience.

Doncaster Rovers Belles, Ipswich Town, Lewes, London Seaward and Norwich City are the five other clubs to take part.

In a statement, the FA said: “Each of the six successful applicants will be placed at one of the six clubs across the country as part of the FA’s long-term commitment to ensure exceptional female coaches operating at all levels of the game are representative of our society.

“Through the hiring of women from black, Asian, mixed or other ethnic backgrounds and lower socio-economic backgrounds, this initiative will help address a lack of diversity amongst coaches in the women’s pyramid.

“The women’s club placement programme will form part of the FA’s ongoing commitment to increase the diversity of the coaching teams, to help ensure that it is reflective of the current game and broader society.”

The programme has been successfully running in the men’s professional game for the last five years, but the application process is now open to female coaches who have or are currently undertaking a UEFA B Licence.

Lucy Pearson, the FA’s director of education said: “We’re delighted to be extending our successful club placement programme into the women’s game and providing six female coaches with a unique opportunity to develop their coaching skills, which we hope will help them compete for future coaching roles.

“This initiative is another step in our long-term commitment to provide high quality learning opportunities to female coaches and for us to address the lack of coaches from historically under-represented groups across all areas of the women’s and girls’ game.

“We are committed to being proactive in this area to encourage and develop a diverse pipeline of coaching talent.

“We’re very grateful for the support of the selected FA Women’s National League clubs to invest their time into this programme.

“Having seen a number of professional clubs across the men’s game reap the rewards of the club placement programme over the years, we’re excited for the clubs to get involved and to see the selected coaches realise their potential.”