The Glasgow City Foundation is the beating heart of our club’s mission to make football accessible to every girl in Glasgow and beyond.
Whether it’s a player’s first kick of the ball or the first steps into coaching, our programmes are designed to remove barriers, foster belonging, and create real, lasting impact - on and off the pitch.
Research consistently shows that girls who play sport are more likely to grow into confident leaders. A recent Ernest & Young study found that 94% of women in senior leadership roles played sport, with 52% having played at university level or higher. But too many girls still miss out - due to cost, confidence, or lack of opportunity. We believe that football should never be something you have to opt into, it should be there for every girl, right from the start.
Glasgow City Foundation is committed to that vision. And when we get it right, the impact ripples far beyond the pitch.
2024/25 Season Foundation Highlights
The Junior Academy
The Junior Academy which includes players 8's, 10's and 12's age levels has grown from 35 players to 66 players between December 2024 and June 2025, a 90% increase that reflects both the demand for girls' football and the quality of delivery.
Weekly Training Access
We provide weekly training to 138 girls, running two to three sessions a week tailored to age and stage, ensuring consistency and progression.
School Sessions
We provided free football within local schools which reached 60 girls per block, with four full blocks delivered across the school year - bringing access to over 240 girls who might otherwise miss out.
Holiday Camps
Our Easter Camps hosted an average of 57 girls each day, with strong retention and positive feedback. Comments included:
“It was really fun and my daughter enjoyed it a lot.”
“X had never gone to any football camp in the past and after the 1st day was hooked.”
“We struggle to get all-girl camps so it was great not having to send her to a boys' one where it’s not always an equal experience.”
“The girls loved meeting the women’s team, it was so inspiring.”
You can still sign up for our July Summer Camps at the links below.
Visible Role Models
Players and staff regularly participate in local prizegiving's and events deepening connections with our linked communities.
Removing Barriers
At Glasgow City FC, we believe that talent and passion should never be limited by a family’s financial situation.
This season, the Glasgow City Foundation has provided five fully-funded bursaries for girls whose families would otherwise struggle to afford training fees and equipment.
These bursaries ensure that talented young players can continue to train, develop, and dream big alongside their teammates - without added financial stress at home.
In addition, for every paid soccer camp delivered, the Foundation puts on an equivalent camp, completely free of charge, ensuring up to 60 girls each time, can enjoy the same experience during their school holidays at no cost at all to their families.
It’s a small but powerful example of how we work to make football truly accessible for every girl in our community.
Mental Health in Sport
Over the past year, the Foundation has also offered free sports psychology sessions to other clubs across Scotland, supporting the broader women's football ecosystem.
Delivering 9 sessions so far, these experiences help players develop confidence, resilience, and a healthier relationship with competition, key to long-term participation and wellbeing.
Building the Ecosystem
Our commitment goes beyond developing players, we're building pathways, sister clubs, and a culture where women lead. Glasgow City is proud to be part of an informal network of sister clubs, offering support, shared resources, and learning across grassroots teams. We believe collaboration builds a stronger future for the women’s game.
Manager Spotlight: Pathways to Leadership
Our club doesn’t just produce players, we grow leaders. Both Leanne Ross (First Team Head Coach) and Leanne Crichton (First Team Assistant Coach) are former Glasgow City players who’ve moved into coaching at the top level. They are role models for every girl who dreams of staying in the game beyond their playing career.
At a national level, just 11% of head coaches in the women’s game are women, a statistic we are working to change. Through our Foundation and club structures, we’re creating intentional pathways into coaching, mentoring, and leadership for women.
Sarah Crilly, another former Glasgow City player, is our full-time Academy and Foundation Manager. Sarah brings UEFA Champions League experience and a degree in Sports Studies, combining elite insight with community drive. Under her leadership:
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The Junior Academy has nearly doubled in size.
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Girls now benefit from integrated support including strength and conditioning, nutrition, and psychology.
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Strong links with the SFA and local councils ensure long-term sustainability.
Sarah calls it “a huge privilege” to shape the next generation. A full-circle moment and a glimpse of what the future of football leadership can look like.
Championing Women’s Health: Pioneering Research for a Fairer Game
At Glasgow City FC, supporting women and girls goes far beyond providing a place to play, it means creating an environment where they can thrive as athletes and as people. A key part of this is our commitment to advancing research into women’s health in sport.
Over the past three years, the Glasgow City Foundation, in partnership with the University of the West of Scotland, co-funded a pioneering PhD for our Sports Scientist, Julia Donnelly. Her research focuses on understanding how the menstrual cycle affects elite female footballers’ performance, training loads and recovery, a field that has been drastically under-studied.
The gender gap in sports science is significant: a 2021 review found that just 6% of all sports performance research specifically addresses female athletes, despite women making up nearly half of all participants in sport. This lack of data means that, for decades, women’s training regimes, injury prevention plans and nutrition advice have been adapted from studies conducted almost entirely on men, without accounting for women’s unique physiological needs and hormonal cycles.
This knowledge gap can have real consequences: higher rates of preventable injuries, underperformance during certain phases of the menstrual cycle, and a culture where important aspects of women’s health are often treated as taboo.
Julia’s work, funded by the Foundation, is helping change that narrative. By gathering real data from Glasgow City players, she is developing practical, evidence-based guidelines to help coaches plan training that works with women’s bodies, not against them. This means adjusting session intensity, tailoring recovery, and creating an environment where players feel comfortable discussing menstrual health openly with staff, something still rare in many professional settings.
By investing in this research, the Glasgow City Foundation is not only helping our own players stay healthy and perform at their best, we’re contributing vital knowledge to close the gender gap in sports science and setting a standard for the wider game in Scotland and beyond.
Why This Matters - for Glasgow and Beyond
For girls, football can be life-changing. It builds confidence, social connection, leadership, and joy. But access still isn’t equal. Through every camp, school session, and training block, the Glasgow City Foundation is breaking down those barriers and proving that investment in girls isn’t just good for football, it’s good for Glasgow.
By creating more inclusive, welcoming, and ambitious spaces, we’re not only growing the game, we’re helping shape a more equal city.
For more on how you can support or get involved with the Glasgow City Foundation, contact sarah.crilly@glasgowcityfoundation.org
A PDF version of this Impact Summary can be downloaded here.