Across the Waikato and Bay of Plenty, clubs and schools have hosted more than 28 events as part of NZ Football’s annual Girls’ and Women’s Month in 2025.

Girls & Women’s month exists to shine the spotlight on girls and women in football and grow female participation at the grassroots level. 

Girls’ and women’s participation has grown following the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, with a 27% increase since 2022 across New Zealand.

During the month, we posted a daily "did you know" fact our social channels. Here they are …

Did you know?

• The first recorded interregional women’s football match in New Zealand took place in 1921 between Canterbury and Wellington.
• Until 2000, New Zealand had separate men’s and women’s national football organisations that ran independently for25 years.
• There are more than 40,000 women and girls playing football and futsal across New Zealand.
• Maureen Jacobsen was the first New Zealand woman to play professional football when she signed for the Millwall Lionesses in England in 1989.
• Women were barred from playing football in New Zealand for 50 years, from 1921 through to 1971.
• Football is the second most popular team sport for women and girls in New Zealand (after netball).
• Women have been playing football in New Zealand since at least the late 1800s.
• In 2015, New Zealand referee Anna-Marie Keighley became the first referee to officiate five games in one FIFA Women’s World Cup.
• The New Zealand women’s national team was first formed in 1975 to play their first official international match.
• The first national regional women’s football tournament was held in 1976 in Christchurch.
• In 1994, the Women’s Knockout Cup, a national club knockout competition (now known as the Kate Sheppard Cup), was contested for the first time.
• The Wellington Phoenix became the first semi-professional women’s football team in New Zealand in 2021.
• In 2008, FIFA introduced the U-17 Women’s World Cup. New Zealand was the first-ever host country.
• Barbara and Michele Cox were the first ever mother and daughter to appear together in an international football team.
• Annalie Longo made her Football Ferns debut at just 15 years old in 2006, becoming New Zealand’s youngest senior football international.
• New Zealand’s Football Ferns have qualified for six FIFA Women’s World Cups: 1991, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019, and2023.
• The Waikato Women’s Football Association was formed in 1975.
• In 2023, New Zealand co-hosted the FIFA Women’s World Cup, the biggest women’s sporting event ever held in the country.
• In 2019, New Zealand Football elected its first-ever female chairperson, Dr Johanna Wood.
• New Zealand finished third at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in 2018, the first time any NZ team has won a medal at a FIFA tournament.
• New Zealand hosted 29 games in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup with a total attendance of 700,000 fans.
• New Zealand’s first-ever win at a FIFA Women’s World Cup was in 2023 when the Football Ferns beat Norway 1-0 in the tournament opener.
• The longer girls play sports, the more likely they are to hold formal leadership roles.
• The New Zealand women’s national futsal team, the Futsal Ferns, played their first international matches in 2017.
• Rebecca Smith won The Triple in 2012-13, the UEFA Women’s Frauen-Bundesliga, and the Champions League, the German Cup (DFB Pokal), playing for VFL Wolfsburg.
• In 2018, New Zealand Football introduced equal pay and conditions for the men’s and women’s national teams.
• Ria Percival has 166 international appearances for the Football Ferns, the most for any New Zealander, male or female.
• New Zealander Sarai Bareman was appointed as FIFA’s first chief women’s football officer in 2016.
• Amber Hearn has scored 54 international goals, the most scored by any New Zealander, male or female.
• Czech-born Jitka Klimková became the first female head coach of the NZ women’s national team in 2021.

Article added: Tuesday 08 April 2025