Trident Community Fund helps Green Lions girls!

By Mohamed Hamza

Guernsey FC hope to prove the perfect platform in allowing girls and women to follow in the footsteps of a local legend after receiving funding from a ground-breaking initiative.

The Green Lions were recently successful in receiving extra funding from league sponsors Pitching In’s Trident Community Foundation, which offers grants to clubs at Step 3 and 4 of the non-league pyramid to establish new or grow existing community projects.

And having witnessed local legend Maya Le Tissier star on the pitch for Manchester United and the Lionesses, Guernsey club director Nic Legg hopes to inspire more girls and women from the crown dependency to choose football - by using the grant to further establish a club women's team within the English footballing pyramid.

“It’s the first time we’ve had an application accepted and it’s really made a really positive difference on the club,” said Legg.

“The women’s team is brand new so there were obviously quite a lot of setup costs- in terms of equipment and the costs involved with booking travel expenses- in order to give the local girls opportunities to train. It’s the first time here in Guernsey for many years that there is actually a women’s football team, so it’s a fantastic opportunity for women and girls in Guernsey and getting the money from the Trident fund is a step forward to help us achieve our aims.  

Maya Le Tissier is from Guernsey and it’s really great timing- with the success of the Lionesses- that we can provide the opportunities for young girls and women here in Guernsey to aspire to follow in Maya’s footsteps.”  

The Trident Community Foundation has awarded more than £500,000 to clubs since its inception in 2020, with beneficiaries using the money to support all kinds of projects such as walking football, disability football, and women’s and girls’ football programmes.

Founded in 2011, Guernsey F.C are one of the younger members of the footballing pyramid, though the club are all too familiar with the everyday challenges faced by non-league football clubs, much less those crossing the Channel to compete. And Legg offered his thanks to the grant for enabling the Green Lions to waste no time in ensuring that football can be accessed by all within Guernsey.

He added: “It’s absolutely crucial we have access to funds we can apply for because without that we wouldn’t be able to provide opportunities.  

One of the things that has been really important for me is that, after being a relatively young football club,  we’ve seen that over the last decade people who were fans of the football club at seven or eight are now playing for the football club. They looked up to players and then got the opportunity to play for the football team, and it’s fantastic that women and girls in Guernsey will have the same opportunity.  

The great thing about Guernsey FC is that it’s more than just a football club. It really brings people together and for me it’s one of the things that make me really proud to be involved.”