Brentford FC Community Sports Trust host Premier League 30th anniversary celebrations
Girls Premier League Primary Stars tournament featuring teams representing London clubs takes place at Gunnersbury Parks Sports Hub
The Premier League have announced the investment of over £5 million into Emerging Talent Centres (ETC) over the next three years, and after the Trust was recently selected as one of seven centres in London to be granted a licence by the FA, Gunnersbury Park has become one of the latest sites giving girls in football a safe environment where they are able to progress.
With the FA confirming the first 60 ETC licences, which are set to operate for at least 30 weeks per season, the female game has been given a further boost to capitalise on the success of the England national team this summer at the UEFA Women’s European Championships.
Since 2017 Brentford FC Community Sports Trust have been delivering the Primary Stars programme and it has become one of our most successful school programmes. The programme uses the appeal of the Premier League and professional football clubs to inspire children to learn, be active and develop important life skills. Delivered to children in both key stages one and two we delivered the programme to over 80 schools in the past academic year.
The tournament which featured clubs such as Chelsea, Arsenal and West Ham were all represented by one of the schools in which they deliver the Primary Stars programme. Representing Brentford FC and Trust was Collis Primary School in Teddington a school which we have worked with for the past seven years. The Brentford FC Community Sports Trust team did extremely well finishing second overall.
We welcomed a number of special guests to Gunnersbury Park which included former England internationals Ellen White and Anita Asante; every team had the opportunity of meeting the pair and both women took part in a Q&A session for all the young players in attendance. WSL referee Rebecca Welch was also in attendance as she briefed all the teams on the rules of the tournament and worked with our Post 16 girls who were the referees for the day giving them guidance on how to be successful referees. Our player of the match awards were linked to the Primary Stars’ core values; Be Fair, Be Connected, Be Ambitious and Be Inspiring and we had Brentford FC Women players, Lillie Elsbury, Kasey Clifford, Calli Weaver & Karen Abou-Abdallah on hand to give out the awards.
Our Emerging Talent Centre team are currently hosting trials with the next trial day scheduled to take place in October and the centre will officially begin this November. To find out more about our girls’ pathway click here.
