A coach has sparked a grassroots movement to improve inclusivity in football: by demanding that toilets are opened for girls.
A petition calling on the Football Association to “Mandate Toilet Facilities at All Youth Football Venues” has more than 28,000 signatures on Change.org, after Natalie Booth became frustrated by the absence of facilities for her local team.
Booth volunteers as a coach and welfare officer and runs the FA-supported Wildcats team at her local club, Thornton-Cleveleys FC in Lancashire. She says she was struck by the absence of facilities wherever she travelled with her team, with even existing toilets locked on Sunday mornings, when her girls play.
“Every Saturday morning, at my sons’ matches, toilet facilities are nearly always available,” she said. “When it comes to the girls’ teams on Sunday mornings, there are often no facilities, or they are locked.
“Our young female players, just like their male counterparts, deserve equal comfort and dignity during their games. Unavailable or inaccessible toilet facilities during matches not only breed discomfort but fuel inequality in the sport.”
The FA has responded to Booth’s campaign, saying it recognises its importance and is encouraging providers to think about how to improve the provision of facilities.
An FA spokesperson said: “We recognise that access to toilets is important for all of grassroots football, including both players and spectators. We’re actively working with partners at the Football Foundation to improve this situation and improve the quality and access to grassroots facilities.”
Booth said the issue came into focus for her more than two years ago after a training session for 30 girls, where they were left without facilities on a hot summer’s evening. “I was telling people the clubhouse was locked,” she said, “and I was told we can’t justify opening it when it’s only you down there.”
She regards the issue as central to improving inclusion and showing girls and women that football belongs to them too.
“Statistics show that participation among girls drops off dramatically when they hit a particular age in the way it doesn’t for boys,” she says. “I know girls that have quit football because of this, I know women my age who quit football because of this when they were kids so it’s not something that’s new.
“I just can’t get my head around it. How we can say it’s fine for girls to just go and wee in a bush, because ultimately that’s what they have to do? How is that protecting our kids? What’s the point in having everybody DBS [Disclosure and Barring Service] checked if you’re going to go and do that?”
Booth says she has received feedback from hundreds of parents around the country on the issue. “I don’t think anybody has said: ‘Oh, we’ve never had this problem,’” she said. Although she is sympathetic to the demands placed on other volunteers at local clubs, meaning facilities are in her experience often not staffed when only girls are playing, she says simple solutions such as adding a key safe to the front door could make a big difference.
“With a key safe, there is always going to be a home coach [that can know the code] – it’s not like you have to share it with strangers,” she says. “It’s really easily fixed in most cases. There are going to be some cases where it’s not, and it will mean building a toilet or something, but in most cases the facilities are there and they’re just not available.”
