More than a game: how football is helping London girls thrive 

Image © Bloomsbury Football Foundation

When Ava-Marie was in primary school, she was one of only two girls who played football.¹ “I’d only get to play football at school, but it wasn’t really training,” she says. 

Ava-Marie’s passion for the beautiful game was fulfilled when she joined a girls’ team with Bloomsbury Football Foundation, a charity that operates football programmes across nine London boroughs. Its aim is to ensure that the magic of football is accessible to all young people in London who want to play, and it reaches thousands of young people each week.  “Here at Bloomsbury, seeing other girls and women playing made me really excited for the future,” says Ava-Marie. 

Bloomsbury Football founder and CEO Charlie Hyman was also hooked from a young age – the passion, community, and excitement all led him to share his love of football through kids’ coaching. “Football helps girls and young women to build the confidence, community, and life skills that help them thrive on and off the pitch,” he says.  

Nonetheless, he noticed there were financial, social, and cultural barriers that stopped many from playing. Sessions were expensive or poorly organised, and kit, teams, and pitches were often inaccessible to people from lower income communities. “By removing the barriers, we’re giving girls and young women a better shot at life,” he says.² 

Bloomsbury Football kicked off in 2018 when Charlie coached the first session in Camden Town. Two players paid, two attended for free. Today, the same ethos of ‘no player turned away’ remains, and 7,000 boys and girls now train with Bloomsbury each week across nine London boroughs.³  

As well as making sure that young people have a safe place to play, trusted adult role models support them, and football creates a sense of community where they feel they belong. Each training session incorporates social and emotional learning, which helps young people to develop resilience, communication, and other life skills. “In a match, if I am not doing good, my coach always encourages me to never give up and do my best,” says 13-year-old Kayla.⁴ 

In addition, Bloomsbury launched its Girls Participation Strategy in 2024, which hopes to increase girls’ and young women’s engagement in football. It aims to boost its girls’ participation rate to a 50:50 split with boys by 2028. Progress has been rapid with female participation increasing from 35% to 42% over the last year alone. If Bloomsbury reaches its wider participation targets, this will mean 10,000 girls like Ava-Marie improving their fitness, skills, and emotional wellbeing each week across London. 
 
The potential for the strategy is already evident. A 2017 study by UEFA and the University of Birmingham found that teenage girls who play football report higher levels of self-confidence than those who play other sports. This has been borne out in Bloomsbury’s own evaluation, where 91 per cent of their female players over 13 reported increased confidence⁵. 

“Bloomsbury has done a fantastic job in making high-quality sport opportunities available to girls,” says a parent involved in the Girls’ Football Academy. “They’ve changed the landscape for girls’ sport in the capital. It’s so inspiring to see so many girls smiling!”⁶ 

Oak supports the Girls Participation Strategy at Bloomsbury Football Foundation through our Special Interest Programme. Driven by the interests of our Trustees, it provides the space and flexibility to make grants outside of Oak’s other programme strategies.

References:

_{¹ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6JlzZIgrQg 
² Who we are statement on homepage https://bloomsburyfootball.com/ 
³ https://bloomsburyfootball.com/our-story/ 
⁴ https://wp.bloomsburyfootball.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Bloomsbury-Football-Foundation-Impact-Report-2024.pdf 
⁵ https://wp.bloomsburyfootball.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Bloomsbury-Football-Foundation-Impact-Report-2024.pdf 
⁶ https://bloomsburyfootball.com/our-story/}