MATES FC is a community football club run by a community for a community.
Our goal is not about being the best team in a league or getting the right players, our goal is to get people back into football and use the beautiful game of football as a weapon to fight Depression, Anxiety and any other mental health issue that we can.
We have created a football team that will change every game we play depending who is feeling strong enough to play on that date, but unlike any other team we want NO Commitment.
Mental ill health strips away passion,enthusiasm, love, sleep and confidence in yourself and your skills...skills you may have built up over years. It makes you feel devoid of feeling all together. It can lead to isolation and may have led to all joy being sapped from your life.
Now imagine that, feeling like that and being in a football team where no matter how you feel you have to go and play, but with no passion, drive, enthusiasm, confidence and sleep, it leads you to dread it and not to play at the level you feel you should be at. Then you beat yourself up, because you feel you’ve let the team down, and finally you leave the team or get dropped....
That’s where we come in. We aren’t about leagues or cups, we are about grassroots football and putting the fun back into people’s lives, reigniting that passion and making you believe in yourself and your skills again and winning one game at a time. You coming out of the house, getting those boots back on is winning, getting on that pitch again and getting that feeling back of playing as one team is winning. That thrill of scoring is winning.
We can play as a 11 a side team, or a few 5/6 a side teams. We want to play in 5/6 a side tournaments or 11 a side friendlies. So if you have an office team, a pub team, a charity tournament, we want in! Contact us at Weareyourmates@gmail.com
Our teams will be made from our online MATES Mental health awareness community or people who want to raise awareness, we want to build people back up after mental ill health has kicked them down, we will do all we can to build up that friendly supportive group of friends around you that you lost when you stopped playing football because of mental ill health.
Our team is run by a specific group of MATES Positive Mental Health Ambassadors with an unrivalled wealth of football experience between them. They have or are having Minds: Mental health awareness in sport and physical activity as well as other relevant training.
MATES FC is also registered with The CALM football collective, and we proudly have their blue badges on our kits. We get to be part of this incredible movement and have access to the education, guidance and resources that CALM promote and create.
We will follow and build on the approach taken by Mind, CALM and Heads Up to get the best help and support for our community through football.
Football training sessions are held weekly by our partners at Football Fitness who are trained in our approach to restoring positive mental health to people through football.
In turn our Ambassadors use their skills and knowledge to give our bespoke free presentations on awareness to any football team that would like us to attend, contact us if you’d like us to deliver a session.
Together we Can and Will do all that we can to get you back in the game and get those golden days and skills and community you were proud of back in your life.
For more info, see the MATES FC page on Facebook or Instagram or on the events page of MATES