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A Thorogood visit from the Football Foundation

Football Foundation CEO Paul Thorogood visited the Tony Blair Sports Foundation yesterday and spent the day meeting key partners and discussing the foundations future vision for North East Sport.

In November last year, The Tony Blair Sports Foundation launched a joint pilot initiative with Wallsend Boys Club and North Tyneside Council to get more girls and women into football. With the help of the foundation, the Boys Club have already been able to double the number of female coaches at the club and have identified 9 young girls to be put through their Level 1 football coaching course.

Following this recent success, Tyne Met College, the Hat Trick project in Newcastle and Newcastle United Foundation have agreed to support the project and have promised to assist in bridging the gap in women's football development.

Jeanette Pickard CEO of the Tony Blair Sports Foundation said:

“Although women's football is very popular, we have found that many young girls are ceasing to play once they reach the 16-17 age group. If we can provide more structured opportunities for these girls and give the support and assistance they need, we hope to be able to sustain a level of growth in women's football for years to come."

Mr Thorogood met with the new partners and grabbed the opportunity to meet with, and discuss the work of the foundation with the girls directly involved. The girls had carried out their own focus group and presented the findings to him before receiving their Tony Blair Sports Foundation membership packs.

New coach Chelsea Cairns said:

“It was a little nerve racking but I think it went really well. The Tony Blair Sports Foundation has been fantastic and really supportive. Now that we have become trained, we are able to offer other girls an alternative to having no place to go - they can now enjoy coming to the club where it's safe and most importantly fun!"

Mr Thorogood said:

“It was great to visit the North East and to see the work the Tony Blair Sports Foundation is doing to recruit more coaches and officials into sport. What really impressed me was seeing how everyone is working together to help develop girls and women's football and I would urge anyone wanting to play football for fun or competitively to get in touch with the Foundation and find our how you can get involved."

To find out how and where you can get involved contact:

Wallsend Boys Club 0191 262 3051 or visit www.wallsendboysclub.co.uk

To find out how you can get help with funding for coaching or official qualifications contact:

Tony Blair Sports Foundation 0191 2760640

To find out more about North Tyneside Council's Year of Sport contact:

North Tyneside Council 0845 2000 101or visit www.northtyneside.gov.uk