Alvechurch sporting director Mark Fogarty credited the hard work of his staff after the club won the Moving Forward Sports Community Club award at The Non-League Paper’s National Game Awards, in association with Isuzu.
The Worcestershire outfit have delivered over half a million pounds of community programmes, enabling people from the age of four to 84 to play football. Beneath their Southern Premier Central men’s team are over 50 affiliated sides that include disability, walking football, and women’s and girls’ teams.
Fogarty said: “I feel elated. We’re a smaller club in the grand scale of things, so it’s fantastic for us to receive this fame because we work so hard at what we do. You’re only as good as people who work for you. I have always tried to get the right people in the right places and we have a head of community, Kevin Redmond, who delivers such fantastic projects better than anybody.”
The National Game Awards is a celebration of the non-League season, highlighting the community, fans, on-field, and off-field successes of the game outside of the Football League. The awards afternoon is held annually by the Non-League Paper, the UK’s number one selling football title and the best place for your non-league news.
Fogarty stayed in contact with future England international Nathan Redmond after helping him as Head of Recruitment at Birmingham City, and the 32-year-old now donates hugely significant sums to Alvechurch. Fogarty said: “He was only too happy to put £4000 towards every half-term camp, so he has put almost £100,000 into our club, which allows us to charge very little, which is important as we are in an area with a lot of deprivation.”
Jon Couch, executive editor of The Non-League Paper, added: “These awards are really important because non-league football does not always get the recognition it deserves. We like to think of ourselves as the voice of non-league football, and this is a chance to celebrate everyone involved, the clubs, players, managers, contributors and sponsors who help keep the game alive. It’s been another brilliant year of non-league football.”
The Non-League Paper is the UK’s number one selling football title, available every Sunday. For more information please visit www.thenonleaguefootballpaper.com
