Jenny Wilkes – Chair of Wolverhampton Wanderers Women’s Football Club
“It isn’t women’s football. It is football. It is football for everyone: girls, women, whatever age you are, whatever ability, whatever ethnicity. It is brilliant that this ball is going all around the world spreading the word about football for everyone. One Ball, One World.”
On Monday, 18.07.2022, we were invited to present #TheBall2023 at Birmingham County Football Association’s Grassroots Football Awards. Wolverhampton Wanderers Women FC’s chair Jenny Wilkes guided us through the night. The awards recognise and celebrate the people who put their heart and soul into the grassroots game across England. In Birmingham county alone we are talking about 1200 clubs, with a combined 5,200 teams and 77,000 players. Without the commitment of numerous volunteers, the beautiful game that we love so much could not exist, especially grassroots.
This year, for the first time, a prize in the category of Sustainability in Football was awarded. As a key focus of our journey is on visualising climate actions that are taking place all across the world, we were very honoured when Richard Lindsay, the initiator of the Save Today, Play Tomorrow Campaign asked us to present the award. The inaugural runners up were Attleborough Sports JFC. In addition to implementing a boot recycling scheme, the club have taken steps to standardise their playing strip across the age groups so shirts can be exchanged as needed as the players grow.
The first winner of the Sustainability in Football award is Cradley Town DC. Actions they implemented as early adopters of the Save Today, Play Tomorrow programme included switching to reusable bottles across all ages to eliminate plastic waste from training & matchdays. They also have started raising awareness among their membership of the small changes they can each make that will add up to making a big difference like litter picking around the clubs facilities to reduce waste and keep the venue looking appealing.
A big round of applause and a massive thanks to these and all the other clubs and inspiring individuals in football taking action to protect where we play today so that we can play in the future.
Are you also taking climate action in your community? We would like to hear from you!
One Ball, One World!