Over 400 girls left without football league this season

'Please just let us play competitive soccer,' urged young teenagers who have seemingly been left without league football this season.

Over 400 girls from 27 teams in North Dublin and East Meath have been left in limbo and coaches fear they may not be able to play a competitive match until next September.

The girls were part of the Dublin Metropolitan Girls League (MGL) and many of the clubs transferred to the Dublin District Schoolboys/girls League (DDSL) when the MGL collapsed.

The remaining teams then discovered there was an insufficient number of clubs left to form a league this season and they were too late to join the DDSL after its club transfer dadline of August 20th had passed.

The clubs include Balrath, Laytown and East Meath United in Meath as well as Dublin teams such as Tyrellstown and Rush.

The issue was raised in the Dáil by Sports Minister and Meath East TD Thomas Byrne who has met with the FAI on a number of occasions to get the issue resolved.

"This is one issue which has brought the Government and the Opposition together and that is the girls access to the DDSL League and I hope the message goes out that Dail Eireann is united in that every girl deserves to participate and people in committees shouldn't be deciding that some girls teams can't go into a league which other clubs in the area belong to," he said in the Dail.

Now the girls themselves are appealing for help just to 'kick a ball' competitively.

15-year old Ava Murphy-Hatch of the U16 East Meath United (EMU) said the girls had all been playing together for the last four years and friendships had been formed both on and off the pitch.

"It's very hard to describe how we are feeling. We are feeling neglected. We come together to play as a team and