Over 500 girls to take part in annual Festival of Fun for Girls in Fingal

More than 500 girls will descend on the AUL complex in Clonshaugh on Saturday 17th August for the 17th edition of the Fingal Festival of Football, which has in recent years become a fantastic promotion for girls’ football in Fingal.

Now an annual event run by Fingal County Council Sports Office in collaboration with FAI/Fingal Development Officers Paul Keogh and Sharon Boyle, it provides opportunities for some girls to put on a club jersey for the very first time and also acts as pre-season warm up for the more established teams. This year’s Festival will see teams come from all over Dublin, Meath, Louth and we’ll have teams travelling to Donegal to take part.

Paul Keogh, FAI/Fingal County Council Development Officer, added: “We are delighted to assist Fingal’s Sports Office with this great event. It provides for a fun- filled day and helps harness the great work of the volunteers who put in hours of work to ensure girls have regular football as without them there is no girls’ football.

“We have seen great growth in girls’ football over the last few years, especially in the Fingal area and events like this are encouraging clubs to provide opportunities for girls to play on teams with their peers.”

Niall McGuirk, Fingal County Council Senior Sports Officer, added: “We made a conscious effort to include girls in the Festival of Football nine years ago and it has grown from four U13 girls teams to a girl’s only event with almost 60 teams and over 500 players from U18-U14 taking part in 2019. We hope that this event, combined with the work being carried out by the FAI, MGL and volunteers in clubs around Fingal, encourages girls to stay involved in football for many years to come.”

For more info contact [email protected] or 087-120-6431 or check out Fingal Festival of Football on Facebook