The 2017 Girls Football Festival at Platt Lane.

Manchester FA Women & Girls' Working Group

Meet the members of our Women & Girls' Working Group

The members of our Women & Girls' Working Group are all passionate and active members of the female game in Manchester, with a desire to improve the Women's and Girls' football in Greater Manchester.

The group identifies opportunities to support the hundreds of volunteers already committed to developing the game here in Greater Manchester. Lead by Kate Ramsey and Katherine Jones, the group regularly hold meetings to ensure 'Our Game in Manchester' sits alongside the FA's Gameplan for Growth strategy to double female participation by 2020. 

You can find out more about each member, below.

meet the team

The Independent Chair of this group, Kate brings to the role a wealth of knowledge and leadership. Her daughter plays for Liverpool Ladies and has been capped for England a number of times in their youth squads.

Kate Ramsey at the 2017 Manchester FA Grassroots Awards.

A full-time Football Development Officer at Manchester FA, Kath is responsible for the Women's and Girls' girls game in Greater Manchester and along with Kate will run and oversee this group.

An avid Manchester United supporter and midfielder for Stockport County Ladies, she has been involved in football for a number of years. You can contact her direct by emailing Katherine.Jones@ManchesterFA.com

Kath Jones

Callum is a student at the UCFB Etihad campus studying Football Business and Marketing. Since August 2015 he has been a Coach and Media Officer at Oldham Athletic Girls and Women’s Football Club.

He also has a desire and passion to ensure the female game can be the best it can be whether they play, coach or spectate. (Pictured with Mike Phelan)

Callum Irving

A qualified FA Level 1 Coach, Welfare Officer and Club Committee member, Jane got involved in grassroots football as her daughter and son both wanted to play. Researching suitable options and clubs for them to join it became apparent that there was inequality between the provision for girls and boys and very different attitudes towards the two. Her research showed that there were plenty of girls who wanted to play, but that the environment had to be right for the individual girl at what ever stage they were at in their football career.

She formed Didsbury Girls which launched in the Autumn of 2015 and has seen over 200 girls participate. From this grew the FC Bluestar Girls section that now has girls playing in teams from U7 to U12 plus their novice Wildcats and development group. The club now caters for girls from beginners to those aiming to enter the MCWFC Academy and MUFC RTC, and as a result now enjoy Manchester City 'FA Sister Club' status.

Jane Carroll

From as long as she can remember Kelly has loved football, both playing and as an avid Bolton Wanderers supporter. In the 1980’s, she joined a girls only training session during the school holidays but other than that, there were very few opportunities for her to play and once she started high school, they fizzled out completely. Her efforts were put into other sports, excelling in athletics, but football was always her first love. 

Fast forward to August 2016 Kelly's efforts to promote the girls game through social media led her to being approached by the Bolton, Bury and District Football League who were keen to set up a girls only league.  

In October 2016 she organised and ran a girls only tournament and the league was also born from this. In only 18 months, the league grew from just four teams to thirty teams between U8 and U11, playing football on a weekly basis.  

During this period, she was also involved in the pilot of the FA Wildcats Football Centres and introduced 70 girls between the ages of 4 and 12 to football, many of whom are still playing to this day.

Although she no longer runs the BBDFL Wildcats Centre, Kelly is currently in the process of setting up a number of girls teams as part of CMB FC in Bolton by providing free weekly football training for girls aged 4-12, who are new to the sport, because never again should any girl should be told they can’t play football!

Kelly Boag

Previously coaching a local girls’ team at a Greater Manchester Chartered Standard Club. This then led her to work on the Premier League Girls Community Programme within schools and clubs.

Shannon's other experiences in girl’s football include coaching at the Cheshire FA Player Development Centre.

In 2015, she went to Namibia as part of the UK Sport IDEALS Programme with Liverpool John Moores University, spending two months with the Namibian FA volunteering on their 'Galz & Goals' programme to promote a healthy active lifestyle to girls through football, which included administering a local girls league.

Nowadays, her involvement means she is on the committee for the South Manchester Girls Football League.

Shannon Howarth

Suzanne is a Senior Broadcast Journalist for BBC Sport and writer of the Guardian's weekly women's football blog. She is also a member of the very proactive Women in Football group as well as Women in Journalism, the Sports Journalists' Association and the Football Writers' Association. 

Alongside this she is a part of the London FA's 'London Leopards' scheme, and is currently doing her Level 1 coaching qualification and working with Leyton Orient to coach 7-11 year-olds.

Suzanne Wrack