Football’s Future - Everyone’s Game

Next Gen of Lionesses is already out there. (published August 2022)

We’re really proud of being club sponsor of Youngs FC Girls.

Huge congratulations to the England Womens’ Team on winning the UEFA Euro 2022 crown.

The nation is buzzing today, one day after a brilliant win at Wembley Stadium. Something is definitely right with English football when both the men’s and the women’s teams fight through all qualifiers to the last kick of the tournament (forget the haters and entitled pundits - it’s competition and every country entered wants to win.) The stadium was at 90,000 capacity and 23 million people tuned in to watch on various platforms.

I’ve been involved in youth football in various ways since I was a kid myself, playing and even coaching a team at 16 years old that later went on to tour and win in Europe - Chalkhill Dynamos. It’s a lasting passion, and one that dove-tailed perfectly with the relationship Slenky is developing with the FA.

In my day we had Claudette and Claudia Parker, twins you’d pick on your side before many an upset boy, but outside of playing with us on the estate, there was zero outlet for their talent, so they were forced to become winners in other ‘girls’ sports.

Rachel Pavlou - Women's Development Manager for Diversity & Inclusion at the FA

Access to football

A couple of years ago, I met up with Rachel Pavlou, who leads the women’s game for the FA.  Rachel is about as passionate as you can be about making the game, the sport, the universe of football accessible to women and girls, creating pathways and touchpoints in different kinds of communities around the country. The tournament win is no coincidence, it’s the result of creating access to a sport identified with and dominated by men, on and off the pitch.

Then during 2020’s lockdown, and in totally unplanned circumstances we met Youngs FC, a football club and coaching school training and playing in the shadow of Wembley Stadium. After a few conversations and meetings, we decided to sponsor Youngs FC, with a particular focus on attracting players to the new girls teams.

One of the things I’ve always placed importance on is walking onto the pitch looking and feeling like champions, as I always remember at primary school turning up to other schools whose new kits we always noticed. Our school didn’t buy new kits in every year and it sometimes took us 10 minutes to get past the optics, and to then take the opposition apart.

The FA kindly put us in touch with their supplier Kitlocker, and Youngs FC stepped out probably looking as tight as any youth team in the country over the last 2 seasons. Their social media is popping and very quickly the girls set up has doubled in size with extra training nights, new coaches and new teams.

Youngs FC Girls - Developing that winning culture

Lion Cubs

I’m confident I’ve already seen a couple of future Lionesses in NW London. One young footballer, playing up a year group, and in the boys’ team ended the season with pretty much all the individual trophies; Manager’s Player of the Season, League’s Top Goal scorer AND Players’ Player of the Season - voted for by the boys. Needless to say, a club has snatched her up and she’s now getting professional coaching.

Her story has already inspired other girls, recruitment has stepped up again, more girls teams have been registered and the girls have developed a winning culture that’s scaring the opposing team whenever they arrive and step out in red. Slenky has also provided Youngs FC its own hub, supercharging their engagement of young girls (and boys) just discovering a passion for football.

You Can’t Be What You Can’t See

As part of the FA partnership, the club has been provided with tickets to games at Wembley, including the qualifiers that got the team into the finals; and the amount of local girls who’ve been to games through their connection to Slenky and the FA in the last couple of years is unprecedented. #achangeisgonnacome

I’m very confident we’ll see the impact of 2022 in coming tournaments. As young girls aspire to become Lionesses, I believe the challenge is now with the rest of the world to keep up with women’s football in England.

PS.

Finally, I’ve also got to comment on the phenomenal fitness of the team. Since my earliest memories, I’ve been used to players, my footballing heroes even, going down with cramp and commentators referencing the heat, size of the pitch, extra time, previous games etc. Not one of the girls went down with cramp through 120 minutes of football played in a summer tournament. Wow!