2022 has been an amazing year for women and girls’ football. Here we look back at some of our highlights…

JANUARY 

To blow away the festive cobwebs and welcome in the new year, the Bromley Belles, our Women’s recreational team took part in their first tournament of the year in Crayford.

FEBRUARY

The Trust appoints it’s first ever Women and Girls’ Development Officer to promote and raise participation in female football. Find out more here.

On the pitch, the Bromley Belles were invited to be flag bearers at the men’s game against Stockport…they even managed to pass on their knowledge to the gaffer!

MARCH

We celebrated International Women’s Day 2022 by showcasing the women within the club and the Belles attended a tournament with other like-minded teams. We were also invited to take part in the Sport Sister podcast, to talk about how you are never too old to start playing football. Listen here. 

#LetGirlsPlay day saw the Trust deliver free football sessions to over 120 girls. We were joined by players, Sophie Porou, Louis Dennis and Harry Forster.

We also hosted the National League Trust U11 cup with over 100 girls attending from local Bromley primary schools.

APRIL

Our Wildcats graced the stadium pitch before our men’s fixture against Chesterfield. Their first every friendly game with local team, Parkfield Panthers was a great success. We also started our second Wildcats session, running on a Tuesday evening from 5-6pm.

The Trust also featured on the England Football’s grassroots podcast ‘In the Box’ when they spoke about the winning mentality both on and off the pitch. Watch here.

MAY

Of course May was full of celebration. The women’s team won their league undefeated, securing their second successive promotion, and the men won the FA Trophy at Wembley.

A month after their first friendly, our Wildcats took part in their first ever tournament in collaboration with the Tandridge League. 

We hosted a training event for Bromley Primary teachers and had the pleasure of bumping into England Lioness Demi Stokes.

JUNE

June saw the launch of our newest project. Football for Absolute Beginners (FAB) saw women, who had never kicked a ball before take part in a 4 week introduction to the beautiful game. With over 50 women attending, from aged 18 to 60, the project was a huge success. Find out more here.

Bromley FC Academy girls supported Majorie McClure’s Girls’ Football day. The event, which saw over 70 girls participating in fun football activities was part of the Panathalon competition.

Our girls’ provisions also expanded with the introduction of our SQUAD Girls’ Training. The newest FA scheme, invited girls aged 12 – 14 to come along and try football.

JULY

The biggest highlight of July was of course seeing the Lionesses win the Women’s Euros Championship. That was not the only football in the Summer though.

Our very own highlights included over 30 Belles taking part in a Women’s recreational festival with over 450 women from across the country. The weekend was capped off with a trip to the England v Norway game which England won 8 – 0.
The Belles were also invited to take part in an exhibition festival in London’s fan park in Trafalgar Square before the England semi-final and made the national news!

At Hayes Lane we welcomed our girls to a Euro’s themed evening to celebrate their participation in community sessions.

AUGUST

In August we launched our first ever Women and Girls’ strategy. The strategy clearly sets out the Trust’s aims to increase female participation in football within our community. Our three clear objectives are:

• Providing football for all, both recreationally and competitively 
• Developing our female coach workforce
• Engaging with our local community

Read more here

Her Game Too campaign was also launched with a weekend of activities. The Mayor of Bromley attended both our men’s and women’s games, which were dedicated to the initiative which strives to create awareness and educate on sexism in football.

SEPTEMBER

Our two groups of FABs celebrated the end of their course with a graduation event. 

We started our tour of ten schools where we delivered assemblies to over 3,500 children. We spoke about the Lionesses success, the benefits of playing football as well as providing free tickets to our men’s and women’s games.

OCTOBER

We smashed our attendance record for a women’s game with 669 fans attending our Women’s FA cup game against Millwall Lionesses.

We also invited over 50 girls to play before the game in our latest #LetGirlsPlay event.

We hosted our first ever Girls’ Holiday camp during the half term, with nearly 50 children attending over the three days. 

The Belles won a prize to St George’s Park, the home of the England football teams where they took part in a training session and were treated to a guided tour of the facilities. They were even lucky enough to bump into winning England coach, Sarina Wiegman. To read more, click here.

NOVEMBER

We started delivering a girls’ lunchtime football club at Valley Primary School. With over 60 girls attending every week.

DECEMBER

There was no better way to celebrate our involvement with the local community than inviting over 350 of our participants to our first ever Community Christmas Celebration.