Attend Football Beyond Borders immersive experience showcase in Kings Cross London

Football Beyond Borders (FBB) has unveiled a free immersive experience outside London Kings Cross train station to highlight the barriers preventing girls from participating in football. The installation will be open to the public for two days in the run up to the Women’s World Cup and will encourage attendees to make charitable donations to raise vital funding to provide teenage girls more opportunities to play the sport.

The installation will be live on the concourse outside Kings Cross train station on the 13th and 14th of July. There will be four rooms, all of which will dramatically showcase the experiences of young girls in football and bring their stories to life:

The first room will use turnstiles as a physical representation of the barriers teenage girls face, bringing to life the gatekeeping of men’s football. Here, young people will have the opportunity to tell their stories to the audience.
The second room is a changing room and will show the work that FBB has done and is doing to level the playing field and create a pathway to better things.
The third room will showcase the positive benefits that teen girls get from playing football, including success stories from the work FBB has done over the years.
In the last room, there will be a plinth with a replica EUROs trophy to celebrate the women’s football community, and show what the game can look like with support. There will be a showcase of a Lioness-signed jersey as a raffle and an in-built tap-to-donate mechanism.
Attending the launch event will be Chicken Shop Date presenter and influencer, Amelia Dimoldenberg, popularly known for her hilarious and witty interviews.

Football Beyond Borders’ research shows that barriers to participation are wide-ranging, including:

Exclusion from the sport for girls choosing to wear the Hijab
Schools removing girls’ football when certain PE teachers leave
Boys’ tendency to dominate the football pitches in mixed games or where facilities are limited
Male figures stopping teenage girls from playing football
Girls being penalised and cornered into being a certain way due to societal norms
Girls feeling sidelined and not even given the chance to play
16 year old Umme, a participant of Football Beyond Borders’ programmes, in 2021 launched a campaign in her school to fight for a rule change which would allow girls to wear sports hijabs, enabling them to play football. She is now taking her hijab campaign to her local council in Lancashire and has aspirations to take it nationwide. She said: “I want to play football, but my experience shows there are more barriers for girls like me than there are boys. When I pointed out that not being able to wear my hijab would stop my ability to play, my school recognised that and changed their schoolwear policy. But what about all the other girls across the country who haven’t yet found their voice? Change is needed and I’m here to fight for that.”

Football Beyond Borders’ programmes focus on disadvantaged pupils facing exclusion from school and use football as a way to keep them engaged in the curriculum. Participants in the programme are 11x more likely to pass English and Match GCSEs than national comparison groups.

Head of Brand at Football Beyond Borders Ceylon Andi Hickman said: “The battle for inclusivity is still not done and frankly, girls deserve better. The upcoming World Cup provides a critical platform for the women’s game which is why we’re shining a light on why it’s still so challenging for every girl to play. We know firsthand that football can be crucial in helping young girls stay in school and build their confidence but we need people to support initiatives that dismantle the barriers excluding girls from the sport they love. The government can’t stop at a one-off burst of funding until 2025 – they’ve made the right first step but we need more action to support the next generation.”

In an urgent effort to help save the Lioness’ crucial legacy and drive participation and engagement in women’s football, Football Beyond Borders has launched a GoFundMe drive to raise £100k to help engage teenage girls with the game in schools.