March’s Inclusion Ambassadors are Inter Me Gin FC, a football group helping to increase the number of women playing the game. We spoke to Elissa Matley from the club, who helped start a weekly session aimed at Mums whose kids play for Rothwell Juniors FC. The session has grown fantastically, and the group is now looking at a range of other opportunities to grow even bigger. The team now play in the newly launched West Riding WBL.

What is your group and how did you start?

We are a group of primarily football Mums and are part of Rothwell Juniors FC. After lots of discussion we decided to start a Mums team, as we were all spending lots of hours on the sidelines watching our kids play and wanted to play ourselves. We agreed we would call ourselves Inter Me Gin FC after our love of gin and football of course! We started in the summer of 2019 with a really small group of us from Rothwell Juniors and there was 6 or 7 of us at the start, but we now have over 20 Mum’s on our books, although being a Mum isn’t an actual requirement to take part.

How can someone join the group?

We meet weekly at Rothwell Juniors on a Thursday 7.30-8.30 to train and play in the West Riding WBL, set up by Steve Conboy at WRCFA, against other like-minded teams. If someone wants to join or just find out some more information they can get in touch with me directly either via email (intermegin@rothwelljuniors.co.uk) or via our dedicated Facebook / Instagram/ twitter social media accounts.

What advice would you give somone thinking of joining?

Don’t worry if you have never kicked a ball before, the majority of us are brand new to playing football and are a really supportive and friendly bunch so just come down.

What are your plans for the future?

We’ve entered some galas over the summer with more to be booked! We are also hoping to register as an official team soon with the WRCFA and have also started putting together a sponsorship package for local businesses to get involved in what we do.

What's your best bit about being involved with the group?

I would say it’s getting active, meeting new people, learning new skills and our kids watching us and saying we are getting better! We also have our weekly trainer of the week presentation (which is a gin and tonic as a prize!)  and of course the social get togethers we have.

If you would like to get in touch with the club then feel free to contact them via their social media accounts:

Facebook: @intermeginfc

Instagram: @inter_me_gin_fc

Twitter: @Gin_FC  

Find out more about the WBL

We are always looking for new players and new teams to join the league so if you are interested in getting involved please contact us on info@westridingfa.com or 0113 282 1222.