Female Coaches for Girls Fund
Small grants are available for football, tennis, and cricket coaching courses to help increase the number of female coaches delivering sport to girls across the UK. Two coaching grants are available per club as a contribution towards a Level 1 coach qualification, as follows: Cricket (up to £200); Tennis (up to £200) and Football (up to £160).
The Sported Foundation (Sported UK) has partnered with Barclays to provide further rounds of the Barclays Community Sport Fund (previously the Barclays Community Football Fund), offering small grants to not-for-profit groups in the UK that are active areas of high deprivation to make football, cricket and or tennis more accessible to women and girls. The programme is running from 2025 to 2027 with an annual budget of £1.4 million.
The Barclays Community Sport Fund aims to help reduce inequalities in football by supporting community sports groups who need it most. The programme focuses on groups operating in areas of high deprivation by supporting young people from the following underrepresented sectors. Please note that applicants must operate in an area of high deprivation as defined in the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD - these have recently been updated for 2025. Only organisations located in or supporting people from IMD areas 1-3 are eligible to apply, although there is some flexibility where this applies to organisations working with people with a disability.
The Fund is designed to support:
- Girls (Sported is especially keen to support girls football teams)
- Women
- People from racially diverse communities
- People from the LGBTQ+ community
- People from lower socio-economic groups, and
- People with a disability
The Female Coaches for Girls Fund (opened at 9am on Wednesday 8 July with a deadline of 5pm on Friday 4 December 2026) and offers funding for football, tennis, and cricket coaching courses to help increase the number of female coaches delivering sport to girls - two coaching grants are available per club as a contribution towards a Level 1 coach qualification, as follows: Cricket (up to £200); Tennis (up to £200) and Football (up to £160).
Further information, guidance, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and details about how to apply is available on the Sported Foundation's website. New applicants to the Fund will be required to register before they can access the application form.