Liverpool County FA, in partnership with St Helens Council Sports Development team, is delighted to announce details of the inaugural Lily Parr Girls’ Football Festival, which will see Year 5 and 6 pupils from across St Helens take part in a day of fun-filled football action on Thursday 26 April as part of Girls’ Football Week and the national School Games programme.

Liverpool County FA is also pleased to confirm that the festival will be the county’s Showcase Event as part of Girls’ Football Week, meaning that it will be highlighted on a national level.


The festival will be held at Ruskin Drive Sports Ground between 1.00pm and 3.00pm and will see 7-a-side matches played among teams made up of a combination of Year 5 and 6 pupils. The competition will comprise of two divisions, ahead of the winners of both divisions playing in the festival’s final. Every girl taking part will also be presented with a Girls’ Football Week water bottle.

Girls’ Football Week runs between Monday 23 and Sunday 29 April and is a national campaign to get as many girls as possible playing the beautiful game. It’s a great opportunity to get active, meet new friends and have fun, whilst taking part in football.

Named in honour of Lily Parr, who in 2002 became the first woman to be named in The FA’s inaugural Hall of Fame class, the Girls’ Football Festival is to take place on the 113th anniversary of Lily’s birth.

Anna Farrell, Football Development Officer at Liverpool County FA, said: “It will be fantastic to see so many girls from primary schools in St Helens coming together to play football and celebrate the memory and legacy of Lily Parr during the FA’s Girls’ Football Week. 

“Lily Parr was from St Helens and played for the successful Dick Kerr Ladies Football Club and represented England in an international football tournament in London in 1920. St Helens as an area is currently a hotbed for girls’ football. This is a borough that has seen a huge increase in the number of females playing the game both in schools, colleges, clubs and in our Wildcat Football Centres, so I’d like to think that Lily’s legacy is continuing throughout the area. 

“We hope that both Lily’s legacy and Girls’ Football Week will inspire those girls to continue playing the game and encourage those girls not yet playing to get involved.”

Cllr Sue Murphy, Cabinet Member for Libraries and Leisure, added: “It is fantastic that the Sports Development team is hosting this event to recognise the vital role that Lily Parr, originally from St Helens, played in the development of the women’s game, both during and after the First World War. The uptake from schools has already been fantastic, with over 20 schools already registered to take part.”

If you would like more information on the Year 5/6 Lily Parr Girls’ Football Festival, or the wider School Games programme, please contact Danny Bacon, Sports Development Officer, via email at dannybacon@sthelens.gov.uk