Save Watford FC Girls Centre of Excellence

Parent of Ellie who played at Crewe Centre of Excellence for the last two years. We are fighting this total injustice also. Good Luck. Hopefully we can shame the fa into treating the girls fairly.

i think the decision is wrong.. i think there should not have been so close to trials. i think there should be an appeal procedure.

hi

Save Watfiord FC girls centre of excellence. They do a great job.

what an absolute scandal

we've supported women's football for years - and now it's suddenly fashionable, the FA finally bother to get interested, and as usual stumble in like idiots

it's an absolute disgrace

Another spectacular own goal by the FA!
Watford's predicament is a carbon copy of Crewe Alex who have two regular England U17s in their squad and an undefeated U10's squad (they comfortably defeated Arsenal, Aston Villa, Everton and Man Utd this season).
Combined with the FA's ridiculous mixed sex age ruling they are trying their best to make football increasingly less accessible for gifted young females. The FA should be ashamed of themselves.
I don't believe that Kay Cossington (head of Female CoEs at the FA) is very comfortable with what has occurred, however now is the time for her to show some balls and engage her conscience, and use what influence she has with her FA masters to highlight their poor judgement. She must draw their attention to the harm that this will do to girls football and emphasize the enormous potential this has in exposing the FA as incompetent. This is likely to be another public relations disaster for the FA (their continuing resistance in removing the silly mixed sex soccer age limit is testament to their astonishingly bad record of public relations disasters).
As a parent of a Crewe Alex player i share your frustrations and wish you all well at Watford. NO SURRENDER !

i think its a disgrace what there doing to thease girls some will give up there brilliant skills that watford have produced, my daughter has been with them for four years and got encouragement and progressed as a player and now feels it has been taken away from her discusting, shamfull the staff that work so hard to get good standards are also being let down .

Millwall CoE survive, Charlton CoE do not. Guess who has very close ties to Millwall CoE...Kay Cossington (Head of Girls Centres of Excellence at The FA) well there's a strange coincidence?
In the interests of impartiality and transparency may i make a polite and obvious suggestion to the FA. Appointing someone with a vested interest in a particular CoE to front such a savage cull, and be your fall guy is perhaps not the wisest move. As you can see it leaves you wide open to accusations of favouritism and injustice.
Come on the FA, we know this has nothing to do with sieving out the chaff youv'e just closed some excellent CoEs (recent inspection of Crewe Alex CoE rated the setup excellent with the U10's "the best they have ever seen" and they have 2 U17s playing for England). So come on what's the hidden agenda? mmmmm i wonder if its pounds and pence.
The 30 centres that have survived will receive £50,000 each per annum that equates to a total of only 25% of Mr Capello's annual salary well excuse my blunt northern wit, but i wonder which is the better investment. . .any ideas folks?.
How can the FA call for transparency and accountability at FIFA when they have orchestrated such a savage cull without revealing the true motives behind it? We look to the FA for governance and to promote our national game, a game that is accessible and open to all (unless you happen to be a gifted girl with no where to play at your standard).
The differential between 'grass roots' girls football and that of the CoE's is absolutely enormous and with nothing to bridge the gap it will effectively mean no more meaningful football for many girls up and down the country!
Good luck to all you girls at Watford, please please please sign our petition at Crewe Alex http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/wewantourclubbackplease/ Perhaps some coordinated action will prove more effective?

Population of Merseyside.............1,351,000 = 2 Female Centres of Excellance
Population of Gtr Manchester.........2,605,000 = 1 Female Centres of Excellence
Population of Cheshire.................673,000 = 0 Female Centres of Excellance
Population of Hertfordshire..........1,087,211 = 0 Female Centres of Excellence
(i thought Arsenal were a London club!)
So what was Kay Cossington saying about geographical spread? You dont need to look too hard to spot the anomalies.
Im sure the people at Liverpool must be feeling very relieved if not a little surprised. Mind you now my daughter has no club to play for at least she wont have to go their next season and beat them again on their shockingly poor pitches (their pitches are like waste grounds, the worst playing surfaces in all of the North West region)
So i ask again of the FA, WHAT IS YOUR HIDDEN AGENDA ? ....if you look at the anomalies of Merseyside having 2 centres, Manchester having only 1 despite having twice the population (and despite Man City putting in a very strong bid for a Licence) then that dismisses the FA's 'even'population spread criteria.
Then there are the criteria for favouring centres with excellent facilities. Crewe train on 3G surfaces and play on pitches that are second to none (unlike Liverpool).So what are we to conclude of the FA's methodology with regard to who survives and who doesn't?
Well its not rocket science, they have a hidden agenda and are not willing to reveal it.
Thanks very much all you arrogant fools at the FA i doubt that you have the slightest notion of the harm you are causing.

Won't make a bit of difference to the bean counters, They talk a good game but don't really want to back it up

The Centre of Excellence has been the most fantastic asset for promoting women's football in Watford. There are so few opportunities for women in sport we should be expanding such well run centre. We are shocked and angry about the FA's decision-when men's football generates such vast sums of money.

why why why a most horrendous decision ,all these dedicated young ladies thrown on the scrap heap....where are they supposed to go now with the limited number of places available to play????? ELTON JOHN please help them

Shocking behaviour by the FA! What is it with them support the so called big clubs. How are teams like Watford supposed to progress when this happens! Shocking

Crewe alex girls are going through the same! It is disgraceful! Please sign our petition.. www.ipetitions.com/petition/wewantourclubbackplease

I thought the FA were supposed to be encouraging girls into football - or is that not the case?? How can talented girls progress and improve if the good quality centres are closed. I thought we were supposed to be moving towards equality for all...........this is definitely a step backwards for sure!!

NO NO NO !!!!!!

#1: - We need equal opportunities for girls and boys in sport. This is a true centre of excellence for football, promotes fun and learning and is clearly a strong advocate for sport in the community. It is a role model for football and excellence in sport. This deceision needs to be reviewed and changed . If the FA are bold enough to change their decision it will send a strong signal that open, fair play is supported throughout football

 

I have coached girls' soccer (football) in North America, Central Europe and here in England. The quality of ball being taught and played by the Watford Ladies Center of Excellence teams is really remarkable. If you want to EVER have a chance of beating the American Ladies, you had better keep this center open - otherwise prepare to be bored as England's Ladies get relegated over and over again.

#106: -  

 from what i believe kay cossington was on the panel and IS the hatchett woman...

Somewhat ironic that the FA feature a photograph of Watford ladies/girls players in their Women's & Girls' Football Strategy 2008-12 Document entitled 'Championing Growth & Excellence'!

That document also states:

"The FA will lead the game forward in
communicating its vision both internally
and externally throughout the women’s
football pyramid.
This responsibility requires us to address
particular challenges faced by the female
game and we will continue to engage with
all our stakeholders to understand their views
and address any issues they raise............"

Shame they've completely failed to fulfill that responsibility.

"......FA Girls’ Centres of Excellence
need to be resourced, continually
monitored and evaluated to improve
the talent development pathway for
both players and coaches. Currently
41 of the 52 Centres of Excellence
have contributed players to the
international teams. The Centres are
a beacon performance environment
in every County, delivering long-term
player development principles."

So what do they do? Snuff out many of those beacons!

The document also points out that the womens game is desperately short of goalkeepers and goalkeeper coaches and pledges to address this.

Watford had an excellent  specialist goalkeeper coach and some fantastic keepers but the FA have got rid of them!

As the terraces would chant:

 

'You don't know what you're doing!"

 

 

 

Don't let such an excellent established initiative go to waste!

This is typical NGB cock up. I also suspect our friends at Sport England are involved in this matter, they cant leave well alone and change things to keep themselves in a job.
Sport England have a head of retention her name is Stephanie Maurel her brief is to act as Sport England’s advocate for retention strategies within sport in England. This person should be fighting your cause drop her a line.

During my FA Level 1 course they bang on about gender discrimination and widening participation in the game which is completely right and healthy for the game. Then the FA act like this. Completely irresponsible and hypocritical.

Its FA should be able to provide a Centre of excellence and a PDC in every County/area - disgraceful decision

I think the way this has been done is completley unfair, this is just a bad as FIFA