SSE Wildcats Girls’ Football Centres from the FA will provide Bradford girls aged five to 11 with regular opportunities to play football.

The initiative offers organised sessions in a fun and engaging environment created exclusively for girls.

More than 200 clubs were piloted across England in 2017 and the scheme is now being extended to more than 900 centres, with 26,000 participants across the country.

The Bradford centre is due to launch on Thursday and run weekly through the summer on Thursdays between 6pm and 7pm at Bolton Woods JFC on Powell Road.

The centre will be run in conjunction with the local county FA and it boasts a qualified, all female coaching team.

As well as activities for girls, there will also be opportunities for attending parents, carers and siblings to engage with the sport at the same time through ‘Family Sessions’, including Soccercise and walking football.

The initiative is in line with the FA’s Gameplan for Growth, with the target of doubling girls’ participation in the sport by 2020.

Michelle Woollias, who is leading the Bradford centre, said: “I started playing football at a similar age to a lot of the girls taking part in these sessions and that’s when my love of football began.

"It’s so important to encourage them to enjoy the game from a young age and SSE Wildcats provide a great resource for that.”

Kelly Simmons, FA Participation and Development Director, said: “Since the launch of SSE Wildcats we have seen great enthusiasm from the girls taking part to continue learning and playing football.

"The centres have proved a huge success and we are pleased to be able to grow the size of the initiative in 2018, offering a much higher percentage of girls across the country the opportunity to enjoy football in a safe and inspiring environment.”