Hampshire Football Association [FA] has landed the Diversity and Inclusion Award at the 2020 County FA Recognition Awards for its Find Your Feet project.

The Awards, which were hosted online for the first time due to Covid-19 restrictions, recognise and endorse the best projects, products and services launched by County FAs over the past season while sharing best practice and learnings from around the country. 

Over 125 submissions were entered from the 50 County FAs operating across England, highlighting continuous improvements and showcasing how they are innovating to improve football and increase participation across all levels of the game. 

The ten categories recognised at the awards were: 

• Brand Engagement
• Digital Engagement
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Football Development
• Insight & Data
• Partnership
• Women & Girls
• Respect
• Youth Council
• Special Recognition.

Hampshire FA was handed the Diversity and Inclusion for Find Your Feet. Find Your Feet is aimed at encouraging women aged 18+ to get involved in football, this can be your introduction to the beautiful game or your return to the beautiful game! 

Neil Cassar, Hampshire FA CEO, said: 

“We are delighted to be recognised by The FA as the winner of Diversity & Inclusion Award in the second annual County FA Awards. The winning project – Find your Feet – aimed at providing new opportunities for women to play football to include more casual, weekly sessions but also to bridge the gap between the sessions and the affiliated game.

With Southampton being selected as a host city for UEFA Euro’s 2022 (formerly 2021), we will build on the success of the Find Your Feet brand within associated women’s football recreational delivery which forms a vital part of the legacy. 

We are also pleased that one of our hub sites - Stoneham Lane Football Complex - has been shortlisted as potential training venue for the competition which will have a positive impact on participation levels within the women’s and girls’ game. 

We record our congratulations to our Women & Girls Football Development Officer, Flo Lunn, our Women’s & Girls Football Committee and our supporting volunteer workforce on this outstanding achievement and equally delighted that our work was recognised as a finalist in five of the other nine categories demonstrating that football in Hampshire is certainly on the map nationally.”

The FA’s Director of Football Development, James Kendall added: 

“It gives us great pleasure to recognise and reward our County FAs for the vital work they continue to deliver across their local communities, and I want to thank each and every one of them for the resilience and leadership they have shown over the course of the year.

"In what has been an unprecedented year of challenges, we now have the highest number of males playing affiliated football recorded to date, and we have delivered on our collective ambition to double participation in the female game. This is testament to the hard work of all our County FAs and everyone should be congratulated for these achievements.”

View the full County FA Recognition Brochure HERE 

For more information on the work of County FAs, visit www.thefa.com