Footy Addicts and Bloomsbury Football are really excited to announce our new partnership. Weâre both driven by the mission of making football more accessible because we know the positive impact playing the sport has on mental and physical wellbeing. Bloomsbury Football and Footy Addicts recognise that there are currently not enough spaces for girls and women to play football in London. By working together, we will provide more opportunities to play.
Bloomsbury Football seeks to improve the lives of young people in London with the power of football. The organisation delivers sustainable programmes that support active lifestyles and allow children to pursue their full potential. Bloomsbury Football work with 400 children each week aged 3-14. Of these 400, over 250 are entitled to Free School Meals. Across the foundation football, academy football, schools programme and holiday courses, Bloomsbury Football provide 70,320 hours of football to children in London over the course of a year.
Footy Addicts has a growing community of over 100,000 users in London that have signed up and over 450 grassroots games organised every week. As an adult, unless you have a team or large group of friends to play with, it is sometimes difficult to find chances to play. Footy Addicts was developed to solve this problem and makes it more convenient for people to organise, find and play matches. The focus is on participation and enjoyment of the game, creating a welcoming atmosphere for people to play, meet new people and stay healthy.
This partnership will connect the Bloomsbury Football and Footy Addicts communities with the aim of strengthening the pathway between youth and adult football in London. Parents and older siblings of children that are members of Bloomsbury Football will be invited to play in local Footy Addicts games through a voucher scheme. Footy Addicts will also be promoting Bloomsbury Footballâs fundraising campaign to ensure that every child has the opportunity to play football regardless of their ability to play.
Charlie Hyman, CEO and Founder of Bloomsbury Football, welcomed the partnership saying that
âWe’re excited to be partnering with Footy Addicts, an organisation that shares our vision that football should be for everyone and our belief in its power to bring people together. Our work together will ensure that our young people have access to the Footy Addicts platform. This will support them to continue playing football as they transition into adulthood. As always, we are doing what we can to equalise access to sportâ.
Jonathan SuĂĄrez, Director and Co-Founder of Footy Addicts, said that he is
âExcited about the opportunity to work with a forward-thinking and impactful organisation like Bloomsbury Football and assist in the wider mission of giving access to football to young people as well as adultsâ.
Footy Addicts and Bloomsbury Football both played a key role in facilitating the safe return of football in London after the first lockdown. We heard from many of our participants that over lockdown they recognised how important playing football was to their physical and mental wellbeing. Sport England recently launched âUniting the Movement‘, their new 10 year strategy, which commits to adapting and rebuilding from the huge disruption caused by the pandemic.
The strategy encourages all of us to reimagine how we keep movement, sport and activity central to the lives of everyone. Footy Addicts and Bloomsbury both committed to enable children and adults to get back out on the pitch and to work together to find new ways of making this possible.