Most clubs recruited girls for the 2026/27 season between April and July 2026, through online expression-of-interest forms followed by invitation-only trial sessions. If you missed that window, it is not necessarily a year's wait: several Emerging Talent Centres take new players between training blocks, and a few clubs keep a register-of-interest form open all year.
This guide covers 28 clubs in England, grouped by region. Each entry says what the club runs for girls, how entry works, and when the last intake happened, checked against each club's own pages in October 2026. Club processes change every season, so treat the dates as a pattern to plan around and confirm on the linked page before you apply.
How Girls' Academy Recruitment Works in 2026/27
Two FA-licensed tiers sit at the heart of the girls' pathway, and most clubs run one or both.
Emerging Talent Centres (ETCs) are the entry point. The FA says there are currently 70 ETCs, and Premier League funding means they are now free to attend. Each runs at least one 90-minute session a week, and girls carry on playing for their grassroots club alongside it. When the FA launched ETCs in 2023 it set them up for players aged eight to 16, though in practice most clubs run their ETC for the younger end (roughly U9 to U13) and a separate academy above it. Our guide to Emerging Talent Centres covers how they work week to week.
Professional Game Academies (PGAs) are the top tier, for players aged 14 to 20 (U15 to U21). The FA lists 23 of them: 17 Category 1 and six Category 2. Between the ETC and the PGA, many clubs run their own U12 to U16 "Girls Academy" squads, often playing in the Junior Premier League.
Three things are common to almost every club below:
- Registering is not a trial invitation. Brighton, Wolves, Reading and Nottingham Forest all state that only shortlisted players are contacted. Hearing nothing usually means not selected this round, and clubs such as Charlton say they cannot give individual feedback.
- There is a travel limit. Liverpool, Reading and Charlton ask that players live within 60 minutes of the training venue; Leicester allows one hour for 9 to 11 year olds and 90 minutes from U12. Applying to a club two hours away is usually wasted effort.
- The paid foundation sessions are a separate route. Several clubs' community trusts run paid development centres that girls can join (Palace for Life from £224 a season, Fulham £12 a session). These can be a route in, but they are not the ETC or the academy, and paying for one does not buy a trial.
There is also the FA's own referral scheme, Discover My Talent. For 2026/27 it covers girls living in England born between 2011 and 2013. Anyone involved in her football can refer her, a coach, teacher or referee, but not a family member or friend, so this is one to mention to her coach rather than fill in yourself. The next referral window had not been announced at the time of writing.
For the age each tier recruits at, and why girls are often scouted later than boys, see what age girls' football academies recruit.
What Is Still Open This Season
As of mid-October 2026, these routes were still taking interest for this season or the next block:
- Manchester United: register-interest form for 2026/27 trials live on the Foundation's Girls Academy page.
- Liverpool: ETC expressions of interest open, with Talent ID nights after each 10-week block.
- Charlton: free ETC (U9 to U12) with an invitation-only open session for block 2 on 24 November 2026.
- London City Lionesses: Talent ID days running ahead of 2026/27 for U9 to U17, via two online forms.
- Crystal Palace: a Post-16 girls' Talent ID trial on 30 October 2026 through Palace for Life, plus a rolling register of interest.
- Manchester City: an always-open form to hear about future trial events.
Everything else on this list has either finished its 2026/27 intake or not yet published the next one. The pattern from 2025 and 2026 suggests most will open again between March and June 2027.
London and the South East
Arsenal
Arsenal holds an FA ETC and a Category 1 PGA. We could not find a current public trial or register-of-interest page on arsenal.com; older pathway pages now return errors. The FA's ETC directory lists Arsenal's talent ID contact, which is the most reliable route in.
Chelsea
Chelsea runs an ETC and a Category 1 PGA. Its most recent published trial, the Women's Academy October Trial Day in October 2025 for U12 to U16 at Cobham, required girls to register on the aiScout app and complete its drills first, with places allocated from the videos and playing history. Chelsea is also one of the few clubs to publish a scam warning (see the safeguarding section).
Tottenham Hotspur
Spurs hold an ETC and a Category 1 PGA, and also run paid girls-only Player Development Programmes. No current trial page was published at the time of checking. Spurs have historically found players through local grassroots clubs.
West Ham United
West Ham has a Category 2 PGA but no ETC. Below the PGA, the Foundation's Female Player Pathway runs four tiers for ages 5 to 18, from weekly Technical Development Centres up to U12, U14 and U16 Women's Youth teams that feed the U21 PGA. Entry starts at the bottom tier via the Foundation, with progression by selection.
Crystal Palace
Palace opened its 2026/27 academy expression of interest on 30 April 2026 for U12 to U19, with sessions in mid-May. One detail other clubs do not ask for: written permission from her current club. Palace for Life runs the ETC as the top of three tiers: an open-entry Girls Development Centre, an invitation-only Performance Squad, then the ETC.
Fulham
Fulham has no PGA and no ETC. The Foundation's Girls Development Centre runs for ages 8 to 16 at Motspur Park, Fulham Cross Girls' School and New Malden, at £12 a session. It is invite-only, with entry through trials listed on the Foundation's booking pages.
Brentford
Brentford announced a new club Girls' Academy at U14 and U16 in May 2026, playing in the Junior Premier League, and expanded its Community Sports Trust ETC at U10 and U12. Trials ran through June and early July 2026, and the club said players would not be asked to pay.
Charlton Athletic
Charlton runs the full ladder: ETC, Girls Academy (U12 to U16) and a Category 2 PGA. The ETC is free, for U9 to U12, on Tuesday evenings at the Community Trust's pitch in SE9, and takes new players between blocks (see "what is still open" above). Families must live within 60 minutes.
London City Lionesses
LCL holds a Category 1 PGA and runs U12 to U14 Junior Premier League squads, training in Ditton, Kent. Its academy page takes interest through separate U9 to U14 and U15 to U17 forms, and only contacts successful applicants.
Watford
Watford FC's CSE Trust holds an FA ETC (U9 to U13, free, at the training ground), with entry by coach recommendation from its trial-based Player Development Centres. Our Watford development centre guide covers both tiers in detail.
Millwall
Millwall has no PGA or ETC. The Community Trust's Millwall Lionesses Girls Football Academy runs U12 to U18 squads twice a week near Canary Wharf. Its 2026/27 interest form has closed.
The South Coast and Thames Valley
Brighton and Hove Albion
Brighton runs two free ETCs (U9 to U12) and a Girls' Academy (U12 to U16) above them, with the PGA at the top. Its two intakes come at different times: academy interest opened in March 2025 with June trials, while ETC applications opened in late August with September trials at Lancing and Whyteleafe.
Southampton
Southampton has a Professional Game Academy at U16 and U21, younger squads in the Junior Premier League, and a U10 to U12 ETC. Its 2026/27 recruitment opened in March 2026, through an online form and trials by invitation at Staplewood.
Reading
Reading's Community Trust runs the ETC (U10 to U13), with a Girls' Academy at U14 and U16. The 2026/27 ETC trials were on 6 and 13 July 2026 and applications have closed. Players must live within 60 minutes of the Select Car Leasing Stadium, which Reading says is an FA requirement.
Trust the process. Track the progress.
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The Midlands
Aston Villa
Villa's Girls Academy combines an ETC, a club pathway and a Category 1 PGA, from U9 to U21. Expression-of-interest forms for each age group sit at the bottom of the page, and U21 trials are by invitation. The Foundation's Girls Coaching Centres (ages 8 to 12) are a separate, community-level programme.
Wolves
Wolves asked girls in school years 3 to 10 to register by 1 May 2026 for summer open training sessions feeding its Girls Academy and ETC, with attendance by invitation. Below that, paid Girls Development Centres run in blocks of around £36 to £45.
West Bromwich Albion
The Albion Foundation runs a free Girls' Emerging Talent Centre on Tuesday evenings at Sandwell Academy. Its 2026/27 trial was a single date, 28 May 2026. There is no WBA girls' academy or PGA.
Leicester City
Leicester's Women's Academy runs from age 8 to 21 at Belvoir Drive, with the ETC inside it. The club's registration page sets travel limits by age: within one hour for 9 to 11 year olds, 90 minutes for U12 to U16. Its most recent published trials were in June 2024.
Nottingham Forest
Forest's Girls Academy (U9 to U16) is run as its ETC, and entry is by referral only: a PE teacher, grassroots coach or youth worker who is not related to the player nominates her for a Talent ID event. The window is closed and the club says it reopens in early summer. Forest also holds a Category 2 PGA for older players.
The North West
Manchester City
City's Girls Academy runs an ETC for U10, U12 and U13, Youth Development squads at U14 and U16, and a Category 1 PGA, all at the City Football Academy. Recruitment is mainly through scouts and links with local clubs, with occasional trial events, and an online form to hear about the next one.
Manchester United
The Manchester United Foundation runs the ETC (U9 to U15) and the Girls Academy up to U14, with the club's Category 1 PGA at U16 and U21. The register-interest form for 2026/27 trials is live, but no dates or venues are given.
Liverpool
Liverpool's Foundation ETC works in three 10-week blocks a season, with Talent ID nights after each block for new players, so intake is not limited to the summer. Girls must live within 60 minutes of the venue in L9. The paid Player Development Programme (£60 to £100 a block) is a separate tier below it.
Everton
Everton holds a Category 1 PGA but is not on the FA's current ETC list. Its 2026 academy trials for ages 14 to 18 took applications for less than a week, closing 4 May, with trials at Goodison Park on 9 and 16 May. A window that short is easy to miss without following the club's women's news.
Yorkshire and the North East
Leeds United
Leeds has no PGA, but the Foundation's girls' pathway has more tiers than most: paid Technical Centres, an ETC (U10 to U12) at the Hunslet Club, an invite-only Performance Centre, and a Girls Academy (U14 and U16) in the Junior Premier League. New for 2026/27 are U11 and U12 "Pre Academy" JPL squads, and Leeds notes that under FA rules a player registered on the ETC cannot also join those squads. The same announcement carries the application forms for the U11/U12 and U14/U16 trials.
Newcastle United
Newcastle's Women's Academy holds a Category 1 PGA at U16 and U21, and the Foundation's ETC has grown from U9 to U12 in 2023 to U9 to U15 by March 2026. No current trial dates were published at the time of checking.
Sunderland
The Foundation of Light's pathway runs from Wildcats through a Player Development Programme to the ETC, with Sunderland AFC Women's Category 2 PGA for 16 to 21 year olds above. Places on each step are decided at pathway trials in June; in 2025, 451 girls trialled and 361 were offered a place at some level, which shows how broad the lower tiers are.
Durham
Durham Women FC holds a Category 1 PGA and runs ETC and pathway squads below it. Unusually, its 2026/27 trials began with an open session for U9 to U14 in early June, followed by invitation-only sessions a week later. There were no U16 trials this season.
Sheffield United
Sheffield United runs an ETC (U9 to U11), a club-funded Youth Academy (U12 and U14) and a Category 1 PGA at U16 and U21, at the Women's Academy. It ran a second round of ETC trials in late August 2025, so a summer miss is not always final here.
Choosing Between Clubs
Many girls near a city are within reach of two or three of these clubs. A few practical points are worth checking before you apply.
Check the clash rules before accepting two offers. The Leeds rule above is the clearest example: some combinations of ETC and Junior Premier League squads are not allowed in the same season. If she is offered places in two programmes, ask both clubs whether they can run alongside each other before you say yes.
Count the weekly hours. An ETC is often one session a week; a Girls Academy squad can be two or three sessions plus weekend fixtures, often on top of her grassroots team. Our guide to girls' football trials covers what the trial sessions themselves look like, but the commitment after selection is often the bigger decision.
Look at the people running it. The girls' programmes at the same club can be run by different organisations, the club, its foundation or a separate women's club, with different staff and different standards.
Look for a club that is active in its local community and uses qualified, well supported coaches. It's also worth checking that staff genuinely understand women and girls in sport and actively advocate for a positive, inclusive environment.
Missing out this year is common. Not getting into any of these programmes leaves her where most girls in the game are: playing grassroots, the level every club on this list recruits from. Girls develop at different rates through their early teens, and our piece on late developers in girls' football explains why a no at 11 says little about 14.
Safeguarding and Parent Checks
Real club trials are free and are announced on the club's own website. Chelsea's scam warning sets out what a genuine process looks like, and it applies to every club: trial information is published only on the official site, families are never asked for payment or bank details, and staff do not make first contact through social media or a personal email address.
Before she starts at any programme, it is reasonable to ask:
- Who is the designated safeguarding officer, and how do you raise a concern?
- Are all coaches DBS checked and safeguarding trained?
- How do coaches communicate with players, and are parents copied in?
- What is the policy on photos and video of players?
The FA's guidance for parents and carers lists the contacts if something worries you, including the FA's safeguarding team and the NSPCC helpline. If a programme cannot answer them clearly, take that as a reason to look elsewhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can my daughter apply to more than one club?
Yes, there is nothing stopping her applying to several clubs' trials in the same window. The question comes later: if she is offered places in two programmes, check whether they can be combined, as some ETC and Junior Premier League combinations are not allowed.
Does she need to play for a club to trial?
Not always. Durham's 2026/27 trials started with open sessions for anyone in the age group, and Forest takes referrals from school PE teachers as well as club coaches. Most clubs do ask for her current club and level on the form, and Crystal Palace asks for written permission from her club.
When should we start looking for 2027/28 trials?
From March 2027. On the 2026 pattern, Southampton's interest form opened in March, Everton's and Palace's in late April, Wolves' closed on 1 May, and Durham, Brentford, Sunderland and Reading trialled in June and July. Following each club's women's news page from early spring is the simplest way not to miss a short window.
