International Women's Day

For International Women’s Day we started and funded a women’s 5-a-side football team. As you can see they have already won a trophy.

We wanted to make a positive statement for International Women’s Day. We considered organising a sit down tech event, however we wanted to help women to exercise.

We decided to start and fund a women’s 5-a-side football team for IWD. We picked the Withington name due to the response of the Marcus Rashford mural after Euro 2020.

Withington sits on the pink Metrolink line so we chose to use pink shirts as no one else uses those colours. Thinking about sustainability meant no kit clashes with the other teams and no change kit required. We felt that was better than using blue or red to raise tribal football tensions.

**Trophy winning new women’s football team Withington**

We utilised the network of Manchester Women’s Football Meetups, Manchester Football Plus and Footy Addicts to find women players without a team.

We purchased each of the 16 players their own perfectly sized shirt, shorts and socks. The Adidas kit was made with 100% recycled materials. Pro Direct Sports used recycled plastic to deliver the kit. Another helpful item was a OneLove captains armband as worn by Harry Kane and Leah Williamson.

We covered the cost of their fees in the PowerLeague Women’s League 10 game season. At this point in time many women are unable to afford to participate in sport.

Each of the players has their own background. One has not played football since school. Others have fallen out of the habit and another was a goal keeper who wanted more exercise by playing outfield.

We also paid to enter team into the Those Who Play 5-a-side competition. The team had to go through a gruelling three games back to back. They won the first match 4-1 and then lost, 1-0, but that was good enough scoreline to qualify for the final.

The final was an exciting game.

Withington were always ahead, but opposition pulled the score back to 5-4 near the end.