Mentorship for women in football
The women’s game is booming. Its pathways aren’t.
Clubs are bringing women into playing, coaching, refereeing and leadership faster than ever. Most leave when nobody shows them the next step. A mentor one step ahead changes that, and we run the whole programme for you.
The leaky pipeline
Millions play. Very few coach or lead.
The drop-off happens at every step up: player to coach, coach to head coach, staff to senior leadership.
Playing
5.5M
women and girls play football in England.
Source: The FA, 2024/25
Coaching at the top
of head coaches in the top two women’s leagues are women.
Source: The Times, July 2024
Coaching at grassroots
of grassroots football coaches in England are women.
Source: BBC Sport, October 2026
Why women mentoring women matters
Girls talk to women coaches.
1 in 2 girls who play would tell a female coach something they couldn’t tell a parent.
1 in 8 would tell a male coach the same.
Source: BBC Sport, October 2026.
Every woman who stays in the game and rises becomes that person for the next girl. Mentoring is how you keep them.
Who it’s for
One programme, four pathways.
Players
Dual careers, life after playing, moving into coaching.
Coaches
The next licence, the first paid role, confidence on the touchline.
Referees
Promotion, handling abuse, staying in the game.
Club staff
Commercial, ops, medical and comms staff stepping into leadership.
How it runs
Three months, four meetings.
Short and structured beats open-ended. Mentors are matched one step ahead, not ten, so the advice is current and the mentor is reachable.
Week 1
Kick-off
Get to know each other and agree one goal.
Week 4
Check-in
Progress, the first obstacle, one action.
Week 8
Deep dive
The hardest part: an application, a conversation, a decision.
Week 12
Close
What changed, what’s next, continue or swap roles.
- Sign-up, AI matching, meeting booking and reminders handled for you
- A dedicated human matchmaker who reviews every pair
- An impact dashboard your board, EDI team and sponsors can read
- Set up in 24 hours, then you just invite your people
- Branded to your club or organisation
- Works for one club, a county FA or a whole league
- Fixed-price or sponsor-funded models
- Reporting that shows retention and progression, not just sign-ups
OneUpOneDown in numbers
Proven in male-dominated industries.
Over 11,000 match proposals sent, across programmes of 100 to 2,000 members in 170+ countries. Motorsport, tech, energy and gaming. Football is next.
74%
of pairs hold their first meeting
89%
rate their match 4 or 5 (4.5/5 from 3,880 reviews)
93%
of mentees name a concrete gain after the first meeting
Case study: FIA Women in Motorsport
The closest thing to football we’ve run.
69
countries
280
matches in 9 months
93%
success rate
“The FIA is committed to the diversification of motorsport and ensuring increased and widespread accessibility for all. The FIA WIM Mentorship programme has helped to create a network of support and learning for women, opening up new opportunities in line with our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. The support and expertise of OneUpOneDown has helped us to launch this programme with great success and continue to grow the platform to meet increasing demand.”
Sara Mariani
FIA Sustainability and D&I Director
Free download
Mentorship Toolkit for Football Clubs.
- Who to match, and how
- A 3-month plan you can copy
- The first-meeting agenda
- What to measure so the board keeps funding it
- A launch checklist
Let’s build your club’s mentoring programme.
Tell us who you want to keep and grow. We’ll tell you honestly whether mentoring is the right fit.
A 30-minute demo with Dzhuliana, our co-founder and CTO.