OREANDA-NEWS. This time last year 100 school girls descended on Wembley stadium in London to mark the beginning of a special partnership as SSE was announced as the title sponsor of The SSE Women’s FA Cup.

Despite the fact we’re only just entering the second year of our sponsorship of the largest cup competition in women’s football a lot has been achieved already, including two record crowds for the women’s game. Last season’s final was the first to be played at England’s national stadium and a record crowd of 30,710 came out to cheer on their heroes. The 2016 final drew a larger crowd still with 32,912 in attendance to watch Arsenal defeat Chelsea 1-0 thanks to a Danielle Carter first half strike.

But The SSE Women’s FA Cup partnership is so much more than most sponsorships – it’s about bringing about change in sport and society. The FA SSE Girls Participation Programme is investing in the women’s game by creating a country-wide programme of girls-only football activity and although in the pilot stage at the moment, WPL and WSL1 teams as well as County Associations are looking at ways to increase participation in young girls.