The FAW’s BE.Cymru project aims to pair mentors involved in football, and mentees who want to be involved in football to get the next generation of women into the game.
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00:00Yeah, it's all about inspiration, isn't it? Because, you know, there's lots of people out there who'd like to work in football, but it's quite a tough business, you know, in my experience. I mean, it's still a very overwhelmingly male business at whatever level you work at.
00:15The FAW, of course, play a major role in women's football here in Wales, but behind me here at Dragon Park, today is a Be Cymru event, trying to get women and girls involved in football where possible, with mentors and mentees all engaging and all looking for avenues to get involved in the women's game here in Wales.
00:32The programme was initially formulated because there was a real need for a space that women and girls could see themselves working in football and to really meet that need, I think, to bridge that gap between maybe knowing that there's roles, players and coaches, but what actually else is going on behind the scenes.
00:52And, you know, if you can't see it, you can't be it. So creating that visibility around there is a place for women in football, and this programme helps facilitate that by bringing mentees and mentors on a journey to navigate the next stages of their career, find out what they want to do, and as mentors, how we can help facilitate that and learn a lot about ourselves along the way as well.
01:12When you think about the football industry, you think of being a player, being a coach, and being involved in the sport first hand, but there's so much more to the sport, and people are wanting to be involved in various different ways.
01:24Amy, who I spoke to, wants to be involved in the media side of things, and this event here behind me is an opportunity for her to network and get involved and learn from people who are already a massive part in football in Wales.
01:35It's not really been accessible to women in that sense, and to just know that there is a way that there are options now for women to enter this industry that's very male-dominated is just really nice, and it gets you that networking to make sure you make the contacts to get into those positions that you want, like, as a potential career.
01:55I think for me, personally, I want to be a presenter or go into, like, a presenter, so to get you on a David as a mentor, like, that's really good for me, and I'm hoping to just build on my talent, and then hopefully get some connections within the media and work away from it.
02:11Laura McAllister, a former player, is an absolute icon of Welsh women's football and Welsh politics.
02:16She's a name that a lot of people recognise, and I spoke to her about the growth of football here in Wales and what it means to be at events like this, and, of course, the Euros in the summer.
02:25For me, as someone who played for the first official FAW team, we couldn't be happier and prouder of these girls, you know, because they carry forward the work that we did back then, and they're also very conscious about the generations that will follow.
02:40Oh, they're very committed to the young girls and boys who look up to them, and they're such fantastic role models.
02:46They're kind of symbols of everything that's good about powerful, sassy, proud women, you know, on the pitch, and I think that's a great, great inspiration for the next generation.