You can only play mixed football up to the age of 11 and I think that has hampered the development of really talented young girls.
Kelly Simmons
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As our State of the Game series continues, we take a look at the future of female football in this country.
Currently girls' football is the fastest growing sport for females in the UK and the number of female footballers has increased dramatically from 11,200 in the 1992/93 season to 150,000 this year.
However, there are only 1,250 women's teams in this country, a figure dwarfed by the 32,000 men's sides. There is also a problem for young players as there are just 4,500 girls' teams compared to 34,300 boys' sides.
Girls can only play alongside boys until the under-11 age group and it appears many youngsters are having to quit the game after that age because they cannot find a team to play for.
Kelly Simmons, the FA's Head of Development, said: "You can only play mixed football up to the age of 11 and I think that has hampered the development of really talented young girls who can hold their own in boys' teams and would probably be more challenged in boys' teams.
"That's why we're piloting mixed football up to the age of 14. There are a number of leagues across the country that are running mixed football up to 14 and I think that's a big step forward."
Investment
The FA have recruited a team of dedicated women's development officers across the country, but even they admit more investment is desperately needed.
Northants FA Womens Development Officer Kathryn Hall said: "Facilities are a major problem. Some of our girls don't have facilities to play on or even toilets on their training ground or on matchdays."
Another factor is that young girls do not have as many role models as their male counterparts, perhaps due to the fact that there isn't a professional women's league in the UK.
In 2000, the FA's then Chief Executive Adam Crozier promised a professional women's league within three years, but it never materialised and the top female players are still amateur.
England's women footballers were also critical of the FA last year when they only received £40 a day to represent their country for five weeks at the World Cup.
From our investigations, it appears that the FA needs to tackle some of the inequality surrounding the women's game of more girls are to be attracted to the sport.
Let us know what you think by joining the State of the Game debate here.
Join us throughout the day on Sky Sports News and at 7.30pm for the live studio debate. Our chief news reporter Dan Roan will be joined by Rachel Pavlou, head of Women's Development at the FA, and Chelsea and England player Eniola Aluko.
