Gift of Kit and Starling Bank grant £200k to women’s football

Gift of Kit has sealed a deal with Starling Bank to provide £200,000 worth of kit, equipment and coaching to more than 180 women’s and girls’ football teams, following England’s triumph at last year’s Euros.

Based in the South West, Gift of Kit has connected high profile brands with grassroots sport since 2013, and their Kick On with Starling promotion was launched in early February at Astley & Tydlesley Women’s FC by former Lioness Jill Scott.

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Co-founder Jonathan Green said: “We did a survey of 1,000 clubs on our database in November and asked if they had seen an increase in the number of girls wanting to play football and more than 70 per cent said yes.

“We asked them what the biggest barrier was to providing football through growing existing teams or starting new ones and 72 per cent of clubs said it was affording kit and 56 per cent said it was also buying equipment. Another 31 per cent said it was funding coaching courses for their volunteer coaches.

“We are thrilled that this promotion is helping clubs overcome all of those barriers and the fact that more than 1,000 clubs entered shows how vital a promotion like this is.”

The teams selected for the promotion can now choose their match kit and equipment online and will receive a voucher for free coaching from the Football Association.

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