Supporting underrepresented groups rights to access sport

Our Community Connector in Lewisham Sokhara Goodall worked throughout 2024 with others in the community to develop the campaign group Equal Playing Fields, aimed at gaining greater access for women's and non-binary football teams to community pitches in the south London area.

The move came after claims that existing women's and non-binary teams had their bookings cancelled in favour of men's corporate teams.

The campaign drew the attention of Sky Sports News, who spoke to Sokhara and others at the end of 2024 about the unfair pitch hire policies in place at a number of locations that teams wanted to play at.

Speaking to the TV cameras, Sokhara said: "I would love to see pitch providers being held accountable. Community spaces need to be given to the community. I would love for schools or organisations who have pitches to say we are committed to a fair usage policy and want to make our community spaces diverse."

Check out the full Sky Sports piece below.