I was delighted to hear that SSE Wildcats Centres will be up and running again this season following a successful pilot in the summer. Key to growing female football participation is engaging with girls from an early age, and the SSE Wildcats Centres do exactly that.

Aimed at 5-11-year-olds, the centres encourage girls to have fun and make new friends whilst playing football in a safe environment on a weekly basis. Over 5,300 girls have taken part in the programme so far, and I know the four centres we ran during the 2016/17 season were hugely popular with girls in Northumberland.

That’s why I’m delighted to say that facilities in our area can now register their interest in becoming a registered centre for the 2017/18 season.

There’s plenty of support available to you – both through the County FA and the national FA – so I strongly encourage you to email Nicola.Hepworth@NorthumberlandFA.com to register your interest or CLICK HERE for further information.

You may remember that I mentioned the four FA Referee Courses we have organised for next year in last week’s column. That ties in nicely with news of our exclusive Referee Academy, which is set to launch in September 2018. We’re running the Academy in partnership with Tyne Metropolitan College and you can find out more by attending an open evening at the College on Tuesday 12 December.

Again, this is an excellent opportunity and one which I’m sure will be hugely popular with our local referees. Please CLICK HERE for full details.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

John.

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