Foresters Girls’ under-18s have won the final World Cup prize by Fusion Lifestyle as part of an initiative designed to empower and nurture grassroots women’s and girls’ football teams.
Sports and leisure charity, Fusion Lifestyle, which runs Tunbridge Wells Sports Centre, awarded seven prizes throughout the Women’s World Cup. They chose Foresters Girls’ under-18s as the final winner and have donated £500 worth of support or kit, tailored to their needs.
Gary Clark, the under-18s girls’ team manager, said: “The whole club are thrilled with the win. We have 25 girls registered in our team and we plan to spend the money on training tops to help the team feel connected and together, both at practice sessions and before matches.”
Nominations poured in from supporters of the club and Foresters Girls’ under-18s were a firm favourite with the judging panel.
The club focuses on training 16 to 18-year-old girls – something the judges were particularly impressed with, in light of Women in Sport research that shows that by age 17 to 18, just three in 10 girls would describe themselves as sporty, compared with six in 10 boys.
Foresters Football Club was established in 1984 and has grown to be the largest English FA community-affiliated club in Tunbridge Wells and one of only eight clubs in Kent to have a 3-star accreditation with the English FA.
The club has seven girls’ teams from under-9 to under-18 that make up part of the 896 registered players, along with over 70 qualified FA coaches, who are all volunteers, dedicated to developing local football talent.
