The Scottish FA’s East regional team recently supported Perth’s biggest girls’ football festival in history.
Despite the torrential rain for days in the lead up to the event, the Go Sisters World Series (GSWS) festival managed to escape the worst of the weather and play their games at North Inch Community Campus on Saturday 30th June.
The Go Sisters World Series festival is a Friend of EduSport event organised in partnership the Scottish FA, Perth and Kinross Council Sports Development and Jeanfield Swifts.
The Fair City played host to the biggest girl's football festival of its history with six under-9'sand seven under-11's teams from across Perthshire, Tayside, Fife and Central areas.
Sam Milne, girls’ and women’s football development officer for the Scottish FA in the east of the country, said: “This has been a fantastic event and shows how the girls’ game is growing more and more.
“The girls’ football scene in Perth and Kinross is incredibly vibrant and there is some great collaboration work going on between various bodies.”
Fiona Campbell, co-founder of Friend of EduSport, said: “It was an incredible spectacle with six games running simultaneously and all players sporting African styled facepaint and headbands.
“It’s incredible to imagine that this event, engaged over 130 girls in Perth plus spectators uniting girls in Perth with thousands of girls in ten countries from five continents around the world.”
The main focus for the Perth event was to celebrate girls’ football and with so much going on in Perth and Kinross, it's a great time for girls and women to get in touch to find out where they can play.
Derek Keir, football development officer for Perth and Kinross, said: “This event is the benchmark and the platform for football moving forward in Perth.
“There are a number of local teams who have girls teams including one of the hosts today Jeanfield Swifts.
“As a legacy to the first ever Go Sisters World Series in Perth we are organising a Ladies five- a-side event and its testament to the clubs in the area that a culture is developing that encourages more girls and woman to get active in football.”
The GSWS also included netball (hosted by Sport Development) and a soccer mums game to conclude the festival.
The proceeds from this year’s festival will be used to support local club and co-hosts Jeanfield Swifts to support their unde11 with a new away kit and registered charity and organisers, Friend of EduSport, which supports sport and education projects in Zambia.