Mother’s campaign for mandatory toilets at youth sports events gains momentum

A local mother and football coach is leading a campaign to ensure that all youth sports venues provide accessible toilet facilities, highlighting a significant disparity affecting young female athletes.

Natalie Booth, 38, from Thornton, has launched a petition on Change.org titled “Mandate Toilet Facilities at All Youth Football Venues,” which has garnered over 27,000 signatures to date. 

Booth, a mother of two boys who play football on Saturdays, observed that toilet facilities are consistently available during their matches. However, she noted that when girls’ teams play on Sundays, these facilities are often locked or unavailable. This situation forces young female players to either leave the venue in search of a toilet or resort to using nearby bushes, leading to discomfort and embarrassment.

“As a female football coach and a mother of two boys, I have identified a disturbing disparity within our local youth leagues. Every Saturday morning, at my boys' matches, toilet facilities are nearly always available. However, when it comes to the girls' teams on Sunday mornings, there are often no facilities, or they are unfortunately locked."

"Our young female players, just like their male counterparts, deserve equal comfort and dignity during their games. Unavailable or inaccessible toilet facilities during matches not only breed discomfort but fuel inequality in the sport."

The petition emphasises that both boys and girls deserve equal access to basic amenities during sports events. Booth argues that the lack of facilities not only causes discomfort but also perpetuates inequality in youth sports. She cites a 2020 survey by Women in Sport, which found that 64% of girls stop playing sport entirely by the time they leave secondary school, partly due to inadequate facilities—a figure significantly higher than the 50% of boys who do the same.

Natalie continues:

"Being a Welfare Officer on the Fylde Coast for the last 5 years I have heard many varying complaints from coaches and parents.  You have your typical concerns over match time, children not being nice to their team mates and things as serious as parents scrapping on the sidelines.  None of those things have shocked me more than hearing parents tell me that there are no facilities for teams to use the toilet at some venues."

"Let's think about it, you're a child playing U7's football, sometimes your games are an hour's drive away, you have a 30 minute warm up and then 50 minutes for the duration of the game.  You are drinking plenty of water to stay hydrated and all that time there is no toilet. Now, I am mum to two boys, so I know that if nature calls they will quite happily find a secluded spot in a bush and do their business (to be honest they have been known to do this even when there is a loo!) but not every child is happy to do that and it is logistically a lot more challenging for girls."

"Now let's imagine you’re a 13 year old girl playing football, you've had the same journey, your matches are longer, to make things worse - you've got your period and there's no toilet.  Now what? You're in an impossible situation, you feel embarrassed, anxious, you don't know the area , neither do your parents, you need some privacy and there's no facilities available for you to use. This happens a lot, and so potentially you end up quitting football. I find it astounding that we are where we are, where the women's game is so popular, and yet this hasn't been addressed."

"This isn't just about girls, but the problem is more prevalent in the girls game, in part down to the female anatomy but that is not the sole cause.  I have personally experienced situations as a coach whereby there have been facilities on site, but they simply haven't been opened up because it's 'not busy enough' to justify having someone unlock a building.  Typically this effects the girls leagues as they play (in my area at least) on a Sunday morning and there are fewer girls teams than boys/mixed so less footfall."

"You also have the added issue of safeguarding our young people.  We go to great lengths to ensure all managers and coaches are fully trained and DBS cleared, doing all this to ensure the children are safe and protected, then we expect those children to expose themselves in a public space when they need the loo."

"I cannot accept that there isn't enough money in football to be able to provide basic facilities at all youth venues to keep our children both physically and mentally safe and allow them to continue in the sport they love. I am also going to give a mention to the parents and carers, who spend their days stood on the sidelines drinking brew after brew to keep warm in the winter months, we need the loo too, especially when you've had a couple of kids and your bladder is no longer holding up like it used to (one cough or sneeze and it could all be over!)."

"My role as a grassroots volunteer is a million miles away from my day job in IT, but they share similarities in the disparity between men/boys and women/girls, which is something that has possibly made me more aware of this kind of indirect inequality.  Here we have a big problem with a really easy solution. This isn't going to happen overnight but a plan to work towards getting facilities made available at all youth football venues, policy amendments, funding to help support clubs provide facilities, raising awareness of this issue not just in football, but in all sport would be a great start."

Booth is calling on local councils and sports associations to implement policies that mandate the provision of accessible toilet facilities at all youth sports venues. She believes that ensuring such amenities are available is a crucial step toward promoting equality and encouraging continued participation in sports among young people.

“Our young female players, just like their male counterparts, deserve equal comfort and dignity during their games,” Booth asserted. “Let’s ensure all our young sportspeople have access to toilet facilities, regardless of their gender or the day they play.” 

The petition continues to gain traction, reflecting a growing awareness and demand for change in the provision of basic facilities at youth sports events across the country.

You can see the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/mandate-toilet-facilities-at-all-youth-football-venues