The growth of women and girls' football shows no sign of slowing down in Ireland.

There are now more girls playing football than ever before around the country, but also more female coaches, female referees, female administrators and female volunteers involved in the game.

Building on the continued good work at Grassroots level and aided by the impact of the Ireland Women's National Team (WNT), there are now more women and girls enjoying the game at various levels with more visibility of the female game than ever before.

Ahead of the WNT hosting Cymru in the Second Leg of their UEFA EURO 2025 Qualifying Play-Off and the 2024 SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division Awards at Aviva Stadium on Tuesday, December 3rd, it is clear to see the positive advancements being made, including:

- 95 women have started their journey to becoming referees by completing Referee Beginners courses

- 608 female players are accessing flexible, inclusive and accessible playing opportunities through FAI Football For All programmes

- 848 women are currently engaging in the FAI Coach Education pathway

- 1,500 coaches have attended an In Her Boots workshop learning about how to best support female players

- 2,500 women over 18 have started playing recreational football through the Cadbury FAI Kick Fit programme

- 5,000 girls (Under-5 - Under-8) have taken their first kick as part of the UEFA Disney Playmakers programme

- 7,000 girls have enjoyed taking part in FAI Football Camps

- 26,572 girls took part in FAI Schools Primary 5s (5-a-side competition)

- 45,000 women and girls are registered on FAI Connect as playing regular competitive football

These statistics also showcase the continued growth that soared on the back of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup with over more girls starting out in football, more clubs setting up girls' teams for the first time and over 1,000 females coaching at different clubs.

There is also an increased level of diversity with 93 different countries represented from female players registered through FAI Connect.

This year has seen a number of new initiatives and programmes launched to support this continued development of women and girls' football, including:

- Hannah Dingley appointed as FAI Head of Women & Girls' Football

- In Her Boots, in partnership with Aviva, a football programme set up to provide parents & coaches with key insights to the training & development of girls

- Player to Coach Programme launched with Áine O'Gorman, Stephanie Zambra & Rianna Jarrett involved with Ireland female underage teams

- Change Makers Programme started to help develop future female leaders within Irish Football

- Ireland Girls' Under-16s won the UEFA Development Tournament for a second year in a row

- Ireland Women's Under-19s qualified for a second UEFA WU19 European Championships

- Ireland WNT attendances continued to rise with a new record home crowd (8,745) at Tallaght Stadium and a first ever WNT Season Ticket package with 1,700 tickets sold

- First WNT game held in Páirc Uí Chaoimh with an attendance of 18,399 for the EURO 2025 Qualifying win over France

- Impressive TV viewership of WNT games - 363,000 peak audience for Ireland v England, 326,000 peak audience for France v Ireland, 280,000 peak audience for Ireland v France

- Increased national TV coverage with RTÉ and TG4 broadcasting 14 games across the SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division, Sports Direct Women’s FAI Cup and Avenir Sports All-Island Cup 

- Average TV viewership for the SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division rose 70% on TG4 with the average peak audience jumping from 24,009 to 33,608 this season

- SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division attendances rose by 5% this year - new League record of 2,861 watched Galway United v DLR Waves in Eamonn Deacy Park in May

- Waterford FC granted licence to compete in the SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division for the 2025 season