Fern Whelan hoping new PFA initiative can help boost diversity in women’s game

Former England defender Fern Whelan hopes to help young girls believe “the dream can be achieved” with a new Professional Footballers’ Association initiative addressing ethnic minority under-representation in the women’s game.

With the ‘See It Achieve It’ campaign, the PFA aims to create a network for current Women’s Super League players from ethnic minority backgrounds, in which they will receive peer-to-peer mentoring and be given bespoke support, and it says increasing the visibility of diverse role models is a primary goal.

The union says there are 29 black, Asian or mixed heritage players out of 300 in the WSL, while the figure in the England squad for this summer’s home Women’s Euros is three out of 23.

Spearheading the campaign is Whelan, who became the PFA’s first women’s football equality, diversity and inclusion executive last September.

The former Liverpool, Everton, Notts County and Brighton player, who won three England caps and retired in 2020, told the PA news agency: “Before I got the job at the PFA it had already become apparent to me that representation and diversity across the Women’s Super League and the Lionesses was not what it could be.

“We want that representation to increase. When I first got into the role, it was something where I thought ‘what can personally I try to do about this, how can we at the PFA do something about it?’

“It was identified to me that the EDI team at the PFA was already, as part of their overall strategy, trying to increase representation in all parts of the game – women’s, men’s, coaching, players – and for me, See It Achieve It could fit in in terms of inspiring the next generation of young girls to want to get into the game from diverse backgrounds.

“I think for me the