Chelsea and Nike are getting girls into football

Even a single loss for Chelsea Women right now would be a bolt from the blue. Heading into the current Women’s Super League season as five-time defending champions, they’re top of the league with nine wins out of nine and the biggest win to boot. They even banged in six against Twente in the Champions League earlier this month, including a 40-yard screamer from Mayra Ramírez. Silverware galore awaits. Cole Palmer, who?

Now, the club is sharing its success with another generation. Launched last month, Chelsea Foundation’s new five-year initiative, Inspire Her, aims to increase girls’ participation in football, both off and on the pitch, teeing up the next Women’s Super League ballers with support from Nike, the project’s official partner.

Promising educational activities and wellbeing sessions, the scheme arrives as women’s football enjoys an overdue uptick in popularity, with record viewing figures and ticket sales. Participation is on the rise, too, with the number of women and girls playing football in England increasing by a whopping 56 per cent in the last four years, according to the FA’s report. The number of female coaches in training, meanwhile, is up by 88 per cent. The number of female refs in work? Up by 113 per cent!

We’ve undoubtedly got the nothing-short-of-iconic Lionesses to thank for a lot of this, who won the Euros in 2022 and came agonisingly close to lifting the World Cup in 2023. Plus, there’s the crossovers in the world of fashion, too. From Leah Williamson’s moment as a postergirl for Gucci to Nike’s women-led kit collabs with Martine Rose and Ambush’s Yoon Ahn in the early 2020s, fashion is entering sports mode, making the beautiful game even more democratic.

But major obstacles remain. Per Sport England, there remains a striking gender gap in terms of participation, with 69 per cent of boys aged five to 16 engaging in team sport compared to only 47 per cent of girls of the same age. The key area of improvement is better supporting the transition from primary school to secondary school, which is when more than one million girls fall out of love with sport, including footie. This drop-off in interest is driven by outdated attitudes. While boys gain clout for getting stuck in and having a kick about, 61 per cent of teenage girls still feel judged when playing sport.

It’s why Inspire Her has set a goal to change the game, heading to primary and secondary schools in the local area to help galvanise girls aged nine to 14 to get into football. The project’s flagship sessions will cover topics spanning wellbeing and career opportunities, backed by Nike’s Body Confident Sport coaching, which focuses on inspiring teenage girls to feel more connected with physical exercise.

Each term, Inspire Her will culminate in an action-packed festival bringing everyone involved to Chelsea FC’s Cobham training ground, providing competitions and creative workshops. And, most importantly, prizes, including match-day tickets to catch Chelsea Women – hopefully seeing them score another six. The same programme will be continued across the five years, bridging that all-important gap between primary school and secondary school.

Alongside Nike, a star-studded team of ambassadors are helping to make it happen, including Millie Bright, Chelsea Women’s captain and trustee of the Chelsea Foundation; and Sam Kerr, Chelsea Women’s ceaseless goal machine. ​“I’m very proud to be part of this journey and watch these girls become the next generation of Chelsea superstars,” said Millie in a statement.

To kick things off, the Chelsea Foundation has released a very cute short starring some of the Inspire Her cohort, featuring some spoken words of wisdom. ​“Turning a stranger into a sister. Turning a patch of grass into a school of life,” the voiceover recites. Whoever you support, it’s impossible not to clap your rolled-up match-day programme in appreciation. A class act from Nike and Chelsea – enough to shake any winter blues away.