Kent Girls Football League ban for young players

The Kent Girls & Ladies Football League (KGLFL) proposed a new rule that effectively does NOT allow girls to play for their grassroots teams in their league on a Sunday if they also play in the girls JPL league on a Saturday.

This rule has already folded at least 10 teams, therefore affecting at least 200 girls and this is just those I have been speaking to in the small circle of contacts I have within the girl’s football community. Looking on Twitter at all the posts and comments from parent’s, coaches, etc this has clearly affected hundreds more girls across Kent.

The children of Kent and the rest of the country has suffered enough in the last 16 months and their mental health, in some cases, is very fragile. They have been kept safe at home away from sport or any outside school activities, but in doing so they’ve been cut off from their friends. Football, to some of these children is the thing that they look forward to every week, which helps improve not only fitness and mental health for children, but also provides friends for life.

When the world football governing bodies are desperately trying to encourage girls to get into football, the young girls of Kent are now being forced to decide between playing with their friends or develop their skills further in a different league.

Why should they have to choose, when so many other girls in other leagues and boys too, do not. The rule is sexist unfair and takes away freedom of choice for young girls in Kent. Please sign this petition to attempt to get this new rule overturned by the FA. If you’ve made it this far thank you for reading and please share.

The facts of the decision:

• The KGLFL Constitution state that new rules can only be implemented by a majority vote. The vote was not a majority vote of member clubs with 45% for, 44% against and 11% abstaining.
• The vote was conducted on an online Zoom call without official unbiased verification and the vote was started then stopped then restarted, with some members being excluded at times.
• The committee suggested that boys from ANY league could sign for the teams in the girl’s league to fill the gaps left by those girls choosing to play in the JPL. No restrictions were placed on the male players, just the female ones, stopping many girls playing with their friends and teammates from the age of under 7.
• The effect of this rule change on the mental health of these young girls in such a difficult period, has clearly not been considered by the KGLFL committee. At no point have they spoken to any players in this situation or their parents.
• Equal time for teams to voice concerns was not freely offered, one clear supporter of the rule change was allowed to rant for nearly 10 minutes in an aggressive manner which could have potentially intimidated others on the call to support the decision.
• Several club representatives wished to speak but were denied the opportunity, including one of the actual girls affected by this change, to put her point of view across. Those that were allowed to speak were cut short or given the same repetitive answer and passed over.
• One club representative, who has now had to fold his team, actually begged the committee to give this rule more time to be discussed and research to be done by member clubs and was told “you have had the proposed rule changes for 6 weeks, and many of you have said nothing in this time.” The email that was sent out said that the AGM was the place to discuss the proposed rule changes and yet very little time was given to this topic.
• Two reasons were given for the proposed rule change. The first was there were too many fixtures cancelled last season due to JPL injuries or game clashes. The second was that they were concerned for the welfare of the players in playing too much football. No data was given to support either claim even though it was repeatedly asked for by member clubs on the night and in advance of the meeting.