Re-establishing Barnes Football Club

Aim

The project aim is to re-establish Barnes Football Club through financing its first season in the County FA competition.

Background

Barnes Football Club was founded in 1862 and had great importance in the development of football in 19th century. The club took part in first ever FA Cup in 1871-72 with 15 consecutive editions of the competition. Last records show Barnes FC was playing in local leagues from 1930s - 1960s, however the club was probably dissolved after this period with very limited subsequent news on its existence.

Our mission and initiative

Our initiative is to re-establish Barnes FC and to involve local passionate football fans and enthusiasts to support this community project. Our mission is to develop and promote community participation in healthy recreation by providing affordable activities that improve health and social welfare and to provide more social inclusive community that will engage all members regardless of ability or disability, race, religion, gender, age or sexual orientation.

Covid-19 challenges

The Covid-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on society, leading to a rapid closure of businesses, places of work, worship, social engagement, schools and universities. During Covid-19, the closure of grassroots football had a significant impact on young players and community as a whole. Lack of football and physical and social activity adversely impacted families and community including shortage of funds for normal operations of the grassroots football club,  loss of sponsorship and reduced support from families due to financial constraints (redundancies, furloughing). Parents were struggling to encourage their children to strike a healthy balance of playing football digitally and physically, with many preferring to play online, rather than getting out and playing on the pitch. 

There are three main contributions of our project to the community:

1. Given the likely cuts to local authorities to pay for the C-19 crisis, this project carefully considers the impact this will have on provision of sport and physical activity for those who cannot afford private gyms, personal trainers and similar. We plan to offer no match fees to our adult players and free training for youth teams. 

2. The second legacy of C-19 crisis on sport is likely to follow the growth of remote working and the use of online platforms to operate business. For example, exponential increase in usage of online fitness platforms will definitely make a mark on sport and physical activity in the future. Whilst many people debate whether to invest in the office space at home with additional room for gym  or similar to replace their prestigious exercise regimes, our project considers investing in easy and fair access to municipal sport and recreation for those less fortunate in society.

3. Overall trend with younger population is characterized by online gaming and unhealthy habits, in terms of physical activity and food consumption, which was even more evident during C-19 crisis. Our project will return adults and children to the pitch, with adequate social and physical activity that will make strong positive mental impact and recovery after a number of lock downs and unusual circumstances for most of us. 

Management and members

Barnes FC is run by a volunteer management committee and is registered in Companies House as a company limited by guarantee, with not-for-profit goals and owned by its members. The chairman, secretary, treasurer, community, marketing and legal representatives are experienced in finance, sport administration, legal, marketing and IT fields and have successful careers in corporate and private environment. 

Our manager will be a key factor to our success and will be the paid role,  with minimum of the FA level 2 qualification.

The idea of successful community club is to be open, equal, diverse and inclusive. We hope the local community will recognize our ideas and efforts and that will take an active part in club's operations, events and activities. We plan to recruit and retain volunteers of all ages for club activities who share the same vision and who want to take responsible roles and become a heart of the club.

Club colour, badge and home ground

Whilst there is no historical records of the club's badge or logo, Barnes FC home kit was with dark blue and white stripes or hoops - we plan to keep it that way, with a new branded design.

Barnes FC will be playing on his historical ground at Barn Elms Park! We will use Barn Elms Sport Centre with their dressing rooms and training facilities. Parking is available free of charge, with disabled access.

Season expectations and the squad

Barnes FC will be affiliated to Surrey FA and will compete compete in Kingston & District Football League for Adults in its first season.

Whilst our efforts will be towards the organizational structure and successful running, safeguards, welfare and community objectives, we are aware the most challenging task will be to recruit the right, balanced mix of the players, both in terms of experience and talent. Our manager will be the key person for selection of players and we are already working on broad list of free players for trials. We use scouting developed apps and job adverts to attract experienced and talented players.

Development of youth teams

During the course of the first season, we plan to have a open call for different youth teams (both boys and girls) and meetings with the parents. One of our community efforts will be based on providing opportunities for children from local schools in increased sports participation and engagement. We assess this process should take a whole year in order for the club to be able to recruit appropriate youth coaching and development volunteers and to structure the training sessions in a safe and professional manner.

Absolute objective for the club's sustainability is to have the decent youth training facilities and coaching that it can recruit first team players from its own academy.

Community objectives

Our key community objectives are the following:

• To increase and develop new opportunities for community members to participate in sport and physical activity.
• To create and develop opportunities for everyone to engage in grassroots football.
• To increase physical activity levels and promote healthy lifestyles.
• To organize charitable events with fundraising component to support local community goals

Financing

We are grateful that we have already agreed general sponsorship agreement with Avanguardian Gallery in the amount of £1,000 which will cover our initial setup and marketing campaign costs. Our remaining budgeted costs, after deduction for expected player subscriptions and match fees for adult team for season 2022/23 are £4,650. This amount covers the following costs: pitch rentals, kits and manager fee costs (the only paid role in the club).

Final word

We hope our project will inspire local community to join our initiative. We are open for conversation with local businesses, but also individuals, who will find their interests or personal aspirations in supporting our mission - and with your support, nothing is impossible! Barnes FC can play FA Cup again!

This project successfully funded on 3rd November 2021