Northumberland FA
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Northumberland FA
The Northumberland FA plays a crucial role in helping the game to
develop in their area and have some exciting plans in place for 2019.
Sport NE Magazine recently caught up with their Commercial Manager
Andrew Cook and CEO John Ackerley to find out more.
SNE: Could you tell us a little more
about the main aims and objectives of the
Northumberland FA?
JA: The current agreed tagline of our
company is ‘Inspiring All To Take Part
In Football’ this is really at the heart of
everything that we do. This overarching
vision is underpinned by our three key
strategic objectives; making football safe,
improving the quality of football and
increasing participation.
When we are deciding to put on a new
event or fund a scheme the staff group must
ask themselves whether one or more of
our objectives is being recognised through
putting that scheme or event in place for
football. If the answer is no, then we have to
work to ensure the venture can be molded to
meet our expected model.
AC: From a personal point of view, the
plan is to rapidly commercialise certain parts
of Northumberland FA as a business; up until
about 2 ½ years ago the Association had no
commercial contracts in place and many of
its commercial agreements were simply done
through a handshake.
At the time that was ok, however that
also represented a great deal of risk for the
Association as to whether our partner or
sponsor was still going to be there season on
season. Since then we have worked hard to
put in place a robust infrastructure to protect
our investment into the game.
Now this baseline work has been done
we are looking to expand our network and
diversify our partnerships to work with
forward thinking organisations for the
betterment of the game in Northumberland.
SNE: How’s the general mood there at the
moment?
AC: This time of year becomes really busy
for Northumberland FA, we are on the cusp
of cup finals season where we rollout some
sixteen cup finals across the full spectrum
of the male and female game as well as, for
the first time, hosting our inaugural Fair Play
Cup Final.
All in all, the mood is positive however
our staff, board of directors and council
are well aware of the hard work and long
hours which goes into the culmination of the
grassroots football calendar. We hope that for
the first time we will have not one, but two
of our county cup finals held at Newcastle
United’s St James’ Park.
Northumberland FA is incredibly lucky
to have a fantastic working relationship with
the club and our Techflow Marine Senior
Cup Final has been hosted at the venue for as
long as I can remember, it is hoped through
our longstanding relationship with another
sponsor, Stelrad, that players from outside
of the national league pyramid will have the
chance to play at a world class venue.
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4 Issue 01