Governing Bodies | inspiresport

English Schools Football Association

The ESFA is the governing body of primary and secondary schools football. It is responsible for organising inter-school competitions and festivals staged to celebrate the game. The Association runs a programme of national competitions from U11 to U19. Currently, over ¼ million young people are regularly involved in ESFA activities.

Supported by the FA as part of its commitment to the development of grass roots football, the ESFA ensures that its competitions are organised and administered to the highest professional standards.

As the industry’s leading provider of sports travel programmes, inspiresport is the Official Travel and Development Partner of the ESFA. The Association endorses and recommends inspiresport’s tailored sports development courses. We are also entrusted by the ESFA to organise the England U18 school boy squad pre-international competition training camp.

Scottish Schools Football Association

An affiliate of the Scottish Football Association, the SSFA is a charity that oversees football in primary and secondary schools across the country.

The SSFA runs 17 national competitions including the national trophy for regional select primary and U14 teams as well as the Scottish Shield for U12-U14 and senior levels. The Association is also operates a series of 5 and 7-a-side competitions.

As Official Partner, the SSFA recommends inspiresport sports travel programmes to schools in Scotland.

Welsh Schools Football Association

“The aim and objectives of WSFA, in addition to organising competitions is to inspire young people throughout our member schools to play the game and oversee development. Without question the football development experiences offered by inspiresport for junior players of all standards is of the very highest standard and complements activities we are undertaking within schools and junior clubs across Wales.”
(Chris Whitley, Chief Executive WSFA)

Schools football has been the bedrock of player participation and development for countless years. The Welsh Football Trust has recognised the importance of this by forming a strong partnership with the governing body for schools football, the Welsh Schools Football Association, to offer financial and professional support for the activities it undertakes, including most importantly, the National teams and Development squads.

They also offer schools throughout Wales a programme of support to attract the interest of young players to the game and assist teachers in establishing football in the curriculum, as well as after school clubs and festivals for pupils to play competitive games. This hopefully will lead them to further their interest and play on a more regular basis by joining a local junior club.

Welsh Netball Association

The aims of Welsh Netball have always been to promote, encourage and further the game of netball in Wales. Events organised by the WNA are numerous and include international matches; national championships; clinics for players; courses and seminars for coaches and umpires and an award scheme, which enables those coaches and umpires to gain qualifications.

Welsh teams play internationally at Open, Under 21 or Under 19 (depending on the European netball calendar) and Under 17 levels. The first international event played by a Welsh team was in 1949, when Wales lost to England but beat Scotland.

Since 2003 Welsh Netball has developed partnerships with many of the Unitary Authorities in Wales to employ local netball development officers, people on the ground to help organise and run community projects and increase participation, particularly with women and young girls.

Netball Europe

The Federation of European Netball Associations (FENA), now also referred to as Netball Europe, is the governing body for netball in the European netball region. The organisation was established in 1989/1990.

There are eight affiliated members at present. These are England, Gibraltar, Malta, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Switzerland, with Israel, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium as Associate members.

FAI Schools

FAI Schools was established in 1968 as the Irish Secondary Schools Football Association. Decades later, the Association boasts a membership of over 500 second level schools as well as 1,000 primary schools. Each year, the FAI Schools organises football for more than 50,000 students throughout the country.

FAI Schools established its first International Under 18s Boys' team in 1988 while it fielded its first International Girls' team at Under 15 level in 2002.