Women's Football Awards 2024: Weymouth eye grassroots award

Weymouth have for the second year running been added to the shortlist for an accolade at the Women’s Football Awards.

Both times, the Terras have been nominated for the ‘grassroots initiative of the year’.

In 2024, Weymouth must beat 10 other candidates including Disney and big-name clubs Chelsea and Fulham.

Speaking ahead of the awards, set for Thursday, May 30, Wilson told Echosport: “Personally and as a club, it’s absolutely incredible.

READ MORE: Weymouth Women shortlisted for grassroots award at Women's Football Awards 2023

“These awards are Europe’s biggest celebrating achievements in women’s football.

“So, to be nominated once was incredible. To be nominated twice is amazing. We were quite happy just to be nominated but we’ve been shortlisted both years. No-one else in our category has.

“There’s a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes that nobody really sees.

“Our aim is to continue growing the women’s game right from youth level and grassroots. There’s ways and means we’ve got to do that.

“We try our best to remove boundaries to playing, including the cost. For example, we pay no subs and the club will help us with some travel costs.

“We know how difficult that can be, especially with the cost of living crisis.

“We do a lot of work in the community, like visiting schools, holding assemblies, coaching sessions.

“We do so much with the youth and youth teams, just to make sure they’ve got a safe place to come in to football.”

Highlighting the work that goes on behind the scenes, Wilson added: “There’s loads of conversations.

“Even socially, we know our struggle when we wanted to start playing.

“With the women’s game growing, we want to make sure that we continue to push young girls of today into a safe and encouraging environment to play football.

“We do a lot, we try and get more female coaches so there’s more representation not just on the pitch but on the sidelines as well. That’s really important.

“We as women are actively involved in all areas. We’ll go along to a few of the youth training sessions, we go round to a lot of schools.

“Also, we’re trying to push that football isn’t just for the players, it’s referees and more. We’re trying to make sure we offer access to referee courses as well as access to teams locally.”

The Women’s Football Awards will be hosted by ex-England international Eni Aluko and men’s pundit Jamie Carragher, a former England and Liverpool centre-back.

Judges include legendary players such as Anita Asante and Toni Duggan, while broadcasters Hayley McQueen and Seema Jaswal are also on the panel.

You can vote for Weymouth Women via: https://womensfootballawards.com/shortlist/ or scan a QR code on the team’s social media pages.

Scan this QR code to vote for Weymouth Women (Image: WEYMOUTH WOMEN FC)