As women’s football continues to capture the world’s attention with record-breaking attendance and growing popularity, charities like Bloomsbury Football are at the forefront of ensuring grassroots opportunities keep pace with the sport’s rapid ascent.
Central to the organisation’s mission is its Girls’ Football programme, launched in 2024, designed to tackle the unique challenges young women face when stepping onto the pitch.
In the second part of this interview with Insider Sport, Bloomsbury Football Founder and CEO Charlie Hyman discusses the impact of this initiative, the organisation’s ambitious plans for 2025 and how the charity is adapting to broader changes in the football ecosystem.
Insider Sport: The girls’ football programme was a major launch in 2024. What challenges and opportunities did its launch present, and what are Bloomsbury’s goals for expanding this initiative?
Charlie Hyman: Girls Football has been a key part of Bloomsbury Football since its creation in 2018. Football is a game for everyone, regardless of gender, but the sad reality is that girls face more barriers than boys to getting on the pitch.
Research by Women in Sport shows that girls exercise less regularly and for less time than boys, and girls are more impacted by low confidence and academic pressure.
To overcome these girls-specific barriers we need girls-specific solutions. That’s why we launched our Girls Strategy – to formalise our knowledge and expertise in the women’s game into actions that will encourage more girls to play football. In practice, for example, this means hosting educational events for boys and girls that tackle damaging stereotypes in the women’s game and providing free period products to all young women who come to our girls’ sessions.
Part of the Girls Strategy is our pledge that by 2028, there will be a 50/50 gender split across our programmes. That means 10,000 young girls playing organised football every week. We are confident that by addressing these girls-specific issues head on, we can continue to champion women’s football and provide safe, inclusive environments for all footballing abilities.
IS: With the new Independent Football Regulator Bill making headway, how do you see this affecting Bloomsbury Football and grassroots initiatives more broadly?
CH: Bloomsbury Football is at heart a firm believer in football sustainability and wants to play its part in protecting the national sport for future generations.
All professional football clubs play a key role in both providing a community hub for their fans and upholding the wider football ecosystem. Any new initiatives, such as a Football Regulator, are welcome as long as they can assist in the creation of a financially sustainable sport and continue to recognise the importance and value of grassroots clubs in the balance of that ecosystem.
IS: As you look ahead, what trends or innovations do you believe will most impact the accessibility and inclusivity of grassroots football in the coming year? How is Bloomsbury positioned to lead or adapt to these changes?
CH: Within the sector, there’s an increasing focus on measuring and quantifying the impact that a charity has. Given the impact sport can have – studies show how for every £1 invested in sport for good, £6 is returned in social value – this presents an incredible opportunity for sports organisations.
Bloomsbury Football’s ability to both measure its impact on young people and communicate the positive effects means the charity is well positioned to lead the way in this arena.
As we scale our programmes numerically and geographically, effective use of Artificial Intelligence will also be invaluable in helping us optimise. Already, AI tools have helped us scope and analyse potential new areas of London based on census data and improve onboarding processes for new coaches.
IS: As competition grows for funding and partnership opportunities, how does Bloomsbury plan to differentiate itself and secure new revenue streams in the coming year, and how do these strategies change from industry to industry?
CH: Bloomsbury Football’s brand positioning is key to differentiating ourselves from competitors. Though our mission is and will always be charitable, with all our profits reinvested into our programmes, we do not want to be defined by this. To maximise our impact, it is essential that Bloomsbury Football is above all else a high performing organisation.
At present, no one is running grassroots football sessions in a way that everyone can access, at scale with quality. If we can confidently establish ourselves as the leaders in the space – by consistently proving our ability to deliver quality coaching and social impact to those young people who otherwise would not have access – we recognise that we are better placed to secure our funding in an increasingly competitive environment.
Plus, because we take a two-way approach to our partnerships, ensuring that there is mutual benefit to those who support our charitable aims, we know that we can offer genuine value to our partners, present and future.
IS: Finally, what are you most proud of from 2024, and what unique business opportunities or challenges do you anticipate for 2025?
CH: Bloomsbury Football’s consistent growth year-on-year, culminating with record outreach in 2024, is what I’m proudest of. Knowing that 5,000+ young people are getting to safely play the game I love every week is an amazing feeling – I know how football has had such a positive impact on my life, and so it’s so rewarding to be able to share that with others.
Looking forward to 2025, the biggest opportunity for the charity is developing more authentic long-term partnerships to broaden the scope of our programmes.
The challenges we are likely to face are familiar but at a larger scale; the balance between providing enough sessions to fill demand but keeping delivery quality high, the digital challenges presented by running at scale, and the difficulty of finding enough excellent facilities.
Partnerships build the brand credibility and execution capacity to deliver the ambition we are working towards, and will definitively improve our ability to overcome the challenges we’re up against.
Overcoming these challenges will not be simple, but with the team’s support, I am confident that we can continue the progress towards our 2028 goals and keep making a positive impact on the lives of our young players.
For the first part of Insider Sport’s interview with Charlie Hyman, where he explores the role of brands and charities in shaping grassroots football, click HERE.
