Birmingham City Ladies have teamed up with campaign group "JUST A BALL GAME?" -MEDIA RELEASE

Birmingham City Ladies have teamed up with campaign group "JUST A BALL GAME?" for their upcoming fixture against Manchester City Women�s Football Club on Sunday 29th June at Solihull Moors, KO 2pm.

“JUST A BALL GAME?” will be in attendance on the day, along with their mascot CASTRO to raise awareness about equality and diversity, combat discrimination and homophobia within football. The Lottery funded campaign will be at the game along with a pop up exhibition where supporters can pick up resources and meet CASTRO.
Ann Morgan, Co-Chair of “JBG?” says “This is a huge step forward in helping raise the profile of the campaign work we do, and we would like to thanks BCLFC in being the first FA WSL team to take this forward”.

Blues Captain, Karen Carney acknowledges the importance of raising awareness of equality within the game and says “The Club is excited about our upcoming fixture against Manchester City and it is also a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness of the campaign work that “JUST A BALL GAME?” do. It is important that they continue highlighting diversity within football and putting a stop to homophobia at grass roots level and through to the professional game.
The match against Manchester City will be Blues return match to the second half of the FA WSL season, to purchase your online tickets click here






 From BCLFC FAWSL website.

Media release: JUST A BALL GAME? Ladies Futsal Team-Pride Games 2014 CHAMPIONS!

JUST A BALL GAME? Ladies Futsal Team- PRIDE GAMES 2014 CHAPMIONS!

Very pleased to announce that our JBG? Ladies Futsal Team are Winners of the Manchester Stingers/ Pride Games 2014 Ladies 7’s Tournament in Manchester this weekend (7^th June 2014) after a thrilling final and penalty shoot -out.

The Futsal team have only been together since January and play in a JBG? kit to help raise awareness of our campaign work. It’s believed that they are the first ‘out and proud’ LGBT Ladies Futsal Team in the country, (with straight player allies) and they have recently been affiliated to Manchester County FA as an official Futsal Club.

Around 18 months ago LGBT Role Model of the Year 2013, Manchester City Ladies goalkeeper Andie Worrall ‘came out’ being the first women’s player in the elite game in England still active, Andie also became one of our patrons, this inspired a group of other women from the Manchester area to follow suit and contact us asking if they could play in a Futsal League under our name.

The team quickly gelled and won the Winter Futsal league to qualify for the Regional Semi-finals of the Futsal Cup, which they took part in at the beginning of June. The team unfortunately did not progress any further in the competition but it gave then valuable experience to go into the Pride Games event.

The event saw 12 teams compete in torrential rain but undeterred JBG? Futsal Team braved the elements and only conceded for the first time in the final minute of their semi-final fixture.

The final against Reddish North End Ladies proved to be a cagey affair with both sides defending astutely early in the game, then RNE took the lead just before half time. But the never say die attitude and a will to win saw JBG?  equalize with just 20 seconds to go. So it was to be penalties. Perhaps the England team should have been watching as part of their World Cup 2014 preparations as both teams gave everything they had. Thankfully JBG?’s  heroic goalkeeping and powerful spot kicks edged them as winners 4-3 and Just a Ball Game? LGBT Futsal Team became tournament winners 2014.

Around 18 months ago LGBT Role Model of the Year 2013, Manchester City Ladies goalkeeper Andie Worrall ‘came out’ being the first women’s player in the elite game in England still active, Andie also became one of our patrons, this inspired a group of other women from the Manchester area to follow suit and contact us asking if they could play in a Futsal League under our name.

The team quickly gelled and won the Winter Futsal league to qualify for the Regional Semi-finals of the Futsal Cup, which they took part in at the beginning of June. The team unfortunately did not progress any further in the competition but it gave them valuable experience to go into the Pride Games event.

The event saw 12 teams compete in torrential rain but undeterred JBG? Futsal Team braved the elements and only conceded for the first time in the final minute of their semi-final fixture.

The final against Reddish North End Ladies proved to be a cagey affair with both sides defending astutely early in the game, then RNE took the lead just before half time. But the never say die attitude and a will to win saw JBG?  equalise with just 20 seconds to go. So it was to be penalties. Perhaps the England team should have been watching as part of their World Cup 2014 preparations as both teams gave everything they had.                           Thankfully JBG?’s  heroic goalkeeping and powerful spot kicks edged them as winners 4-3 and Just a Ball Game? LGBT Futsal Team became tournament winners 2014.

Just a Ball Game ? receives £1,300 to fund team kit, accessories venue hire.

 From our media freinds:

 

Just a Ball Game ? receives £1,300 to fund team kit, accessories venue hire

Just a Ball Game ? has been awarded a small £1,300 grant from the Equity Foundation to fund our Ladies Futsal Team. The Team play in the Manchester Futsal Leagues and funding will be a great way for this newly formed club to be put on a more competitive and professional level.

Just a Ball Game ? is a Not For Profit Voluntary Community Organisation serving South, South East and East Manchester with an 18+ Ladies Futsal Team. Our organisation was formed in 2011 and has been at the forefront of raising awareness around inclusion and visibility of LGBT people and challenging homophobia in football (and other sports) this funding has enabled us to branch out locally and provide a safe space young LGBT women and LGBT friendly women to play the ever increasing participation sport of the small sided games within football.
The Equity Foundation grant will be used to provide a team kit to play in and a set of training shirts, accessories like balls and training bibs first aid kit. Other monies will see us able to affiliate with Manchester County FA enabling us to compete in local leagues and tournaments, and the remainder will pay for venue hire, league fees and coaching.

Female Co-Chair, Ann Morgan said, “Women’s football is on the up but stereotyping and bullying and a macho male environment often put off young people who identify as LGBT from being involved in the beautiful game, the work we do at JBG? helps to break down some of the barriers faced and visibly showcase that if you are female and you have a love of football you can be involved even when you hail from a different culture or communities to your peers.”

Read more: http://mysocalledgaylife.co.uk/pub/2014/06/09/just-ball-game-receives-1300-fund-team-kit-accessories-venue-hire/#ixzz34ivKEBcn
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27 year dream for Manchester City Women's keeper and JBG? patron Andie Worrall

This years elite football league FA Women's Super League kicks off in April for its fourth season boosted by a second tier for the first time along with promotion and relegation. Long term established grass roots Women's team Manchester City WFC have a squad in the top flight for the very first time and 27 years on from first keeping goal our patron Andie Worrall will be stepping out  with her team mates into the big time as a proud Mancunian.

 

Here is a bit of an insight through Andie as to what has been going on in the build up to this season kick off from a Manchester City (and FA Wales) perspective.

February 2014 saw Just a Ball Game? have our pop-up exhibition displayed at the National Football Museum in Manchester for 6 days as part of LGBT History Month 2014 celebrations. On that Wednesday evening we hosted a panel Q&A with some of our patrons and guests from within football including the Professional Footballers’ Association, Kick it Out and the FA which was open to the public to attend and was also recorded by a BBC5Live team lead by Math of the Day presenter Mark ‘Chappers’ Chapman for one of their radio specials.

 Our patron and LGBT ROLE MODEL of the YEAR 2013 winner Andie Worrall was one of the guests on that panel. As everyone took their seats for an intriguing and mature debate on Homophobia in football and the inclusion and visibility of LGBT people who play the game Andie was presented with a FA Wales cap which she had earned some 12 years earlier playing as goalkeeper and captain for the Welsh women’s team (one of 6 she gained at that time) a cap which back then had been sent to her Merseyside club and had gone missing. Very few people ever get to play international sport and representing your country at what you do is a huge honor within the women’s game, and it was sad to see that a memento from that place in  history wasn’t with it’s right full owner, so we at Just a Ball Game? decided to track it down and re-unite Andie with  the said cap. 

                                                                                   (c) Paul Prole Photography.

The Welsh FA have also been keeping tabs on Andie through the close season and her fitness, and we are proud to say that several weeks ago she was approached by the manager and coaching staff and asked back into that fold, albeit it only as a standby keeper for recent international due to full time work commitments.

As part of the build up to an intense training package for the new team mates at Manchester City which include a mixture of the existing players and the inclusion of a string of Internationals, four of whom play for England, captain Steph Houghton, Goalkeeper Karen Bardsley, Midfielder Jill Scott and Striker Toni Duggan and New Zealander Betsy Hassett the team were taken off to warmer climate of La Manga for a few days training and bonding.

We caught up with Andie a few days in to ask how things were going?

JBG?- “ What’s going on out there with you girls? What’s the winter weather like out there as we know you don’t go much for the cold? And what else have you been getting up to, is there much free time etc to see anything of the surroundings? Tell us what it’s like pre-season for an FA WSL team”

Andie, “It’s a little bit wet and windy if I am honest not the sunniest of days but not cold either although I am still wrapped up when we train, and the pitches and facilities are first class which actually make for great  pre-season training conditions after all we are here to work.”

“We have all been roomed with another player so there is quite a bit of bonding going on as we all get to know each other, and there are a few high jinx to be found when we have our relaxation time.”

“We are pretty much isolated out here miles away from anywhere really, no shops or bars,or sightseeing, but this makes a perfect place to get on with things with no distractions. We do have our down time to let our bodies recover so we are having to make our own entertainment and the girls seem to be enjoying the tunes blasting out (which are not to my cup of tea) give me Arcade Fire and Indie tunes any day as opposed to the music they have on which is very poppy and rap or R& B orientated.”

“The food is great out here the caterers are doing a great job of building up our strength with some tasty pasta, chicken and fish, and they also do a mean cake!”

                                                                                                                      (c) Paul Prole Photography.

Lindsay England   -Founder Just a Ball Game?

JUST A BALL GAME? support -LGBT History Month 2014

        

                JUST A BALL GAME?-LGBT History Month 2014.

Well that was another hectic LGBT History Month for us all at JUST A BALL GAME?
 

Firstly our new banners which formed part of our JBG? pop-up exhibition were on display for the first week of the awareness raising  month at the National Football Museum in Manchester, the same venue then hosted our very first patrons evening, when two of our patrons Manchester City WFC’s goalkeeper Andie Worrall, and former player and PFA chairman now author and TV pundit Clarke Carlisle were joined by other invited guests to interact with members of the public in a Q&A and debate around LGBT inclusion and the effects of homophobia in football, all of which was recorded by the BBC for their news reel camera team and audio from the event hosted by Mark Chapman was put out as part of a BBC 5Live special a few days later.

One of the guests we had for the event was Liam Davis a Gainsborough Trinity player who announced publicly a few weeks earlier that he was a gay man, thus becoming the highest level (at Conference North) active player in the English game. We are very proud to say that Liam has agreed to come on board as one of our patrons, and we will  have him inducted in to our exhibition in the near future.

                                  (Liam Davis  with JBG? volunteer Carol)

Following on from this we were pleased to be able to team up with some local female footballers who are now playing in the FA Futsal 5’s league in our JBG? t-shirts under the name of JUST A BALL GAME? and  the women have got off to a great start lying in second place at the end of the month with a least a game in hand on all other teams.

We are also pleased to announce that as part of this year’s LGBT History Month our good friends and partner club AFC Rushden & Diamonds have added our campaign logo to the back of their first team shirt for the remainder of this season to showcase their support towards an LGBT community.

Our JBG? mascot ‘Castro’ and same sex partner ‘Milk’ were part of the To Russia With Love sporting event  evening in February arranged by Pride House Manchester and a number of LGBT and local businesses from Canal St  which brought together activists and the general public to show support to the LGBT community in Russia many of whom were local to the Winter Olympic Games held in Sochi, but are unable to live their lives freely and openly due to recent laws brought in by the Russian government.

     (Our JBG? mascots Castro and Milk supported by Serenity Security)

Our profile being raised once more by these events has also seen a call for us to distribute the remaining rainbow laces we had in stock and many more individuals and sports teams across the country are now supporting our campaign and raising awareness alongside us.