Skip to content

Football for everyone – our motto and salvation

Barnes Stormers FC continue our series of Pride blogs by explaining how inclusivity and allyship became not just key parts of the ethos of the club, but essential elements to its very survival.

9th June 2023

by Sam Elliot-Gibbs
Barnes Stormers FC

I think it’s fair to say that these days you can’t count the number of LGBTQ+ sports clubs in London - there are so many!

Which is obviously great news, don’t get me wrong. While years ago Stonewall in North London stood alone, in 2023 every corner of the capital has representation as gay-friendly football flourishes. 

But there is one with a subtle and important difference in the south west of the city.

Pass the £7-a-pint pubs and Gail’s bakery, with their malted grain sandwich loafs to die for, and you’ll find Barnes Stormers FC. 

While you’ll see rainbow laces on boots everywhere you look, you won’t actually find more than a handful of gay players at a time. That’s because the club’s reach is a little different from the rest.

Allyship has always been the buzzword since Tom Jackson, our current club chairman, decided to pop along to play football with a bunch of lads in Raynes Park more than a decade ago.

Then after the game, while sharing some pints at the pub, found out that he had loads in common with many of those he had just met.
 

While you’ll see rainbow laces on boots everywhere you look, you won’t actually find more than a handful of gay players at a time. That’s because the club’s reach is a little different from the rest.

Welcomed in by the group and impressed by the team spirit, and their inclusive mantra to create a really fun football session, he kept coming back - and close friendships quickly formed with those players.

It was only later that Tom learnt of the LGBT+ roots of club and the foundation below their inclusive mantra.

But months later, the group was struggling to get enough players and some of the old guard were starting to drift away.

We all know what sport is like once your regulars get bogged down in adult life, and with a number of people hitting their bone-aching mid-30s a decision was made.

Tom put his hand up to keep things going - recruitment and progress becoming key elements of his strategy with Tom forging new partnerships across the LGBT+ community, including websites, charities such as Out For Sport and other LGBT+ clubs.

Bitten by the bug of that side of the beautiful game, things soon spiralled and months later some much better pitches opened up a couple of miles away.

A rebrand was needed to attract new members, so the group known purely as ‘Fives’ became the Barnes Stormers FC - and within a few years, it was also elevens! 

Before long, Barnes Stormers soon had not just a name, but a badge incorporating a bull on the club's crest (testament to our determination to stay afloat), a home ground and a real identity enabling us to give playing opportunities to many budding footballers who had been struggling to find them so far.

Team members of the Barnes Stormers FC pose together for a team picture on an outdoors football pitch.

This safe space gave members of the LGBT+ community opportunities to be themselves whilst playing football in West London and to do so in a competitive, predominantly straight league championship (as opposed to the popular LGBT+ football competitions), knowing they were playing with friends and allies.

But they also had something else that defined the mission for which we stood for on and off the pitch - our firm motto: 'football for everyone'. 

Welcoming players of all ages, sexuality, race, religion, creed and ability, soon there was not only five-a-side but a Sunday team too, with seven-a-side games also finding their way onto the schedule! 

Needless to say, a few years on, nine-a-side was also thrown in for good measure.

The team in the Southern Sunday Football League was competing and it wasn’t too long before a new side was sculpted together and players from all over London were being attracted. 

Remaining a fierce ally of the gay community continues to be at the heart of our club.

Critically, the social side still remains as strong as it was right at the start, because working closely and building friendships with clubs such as London Titans, Stonewall, Soho and Charlton Invicta is very important for us.

So I can say that we, Barnes Stormers, are eager and happy to be present at all the events - even when falling just short at some tournaments! 

Those at the club continue to keep in touch with the originals and, as one of them, it’s fair to say I would have surely waved goodbye to my mid-week fix of football without Tom taking the bull by the horns. 

Having myself been in the hot-seat of a club for a number of years, the task usually seems thankless with non-stop emails to respond to and no shortage of players who need to be picked up. Then there’s the chasing of money, begging for sponsorship, washing the kit... the list goes on.

And with Tom marrying girlfriend Charlotte next year, we’re about to see if he’s got staying power! 

But with the football club growing year-by-year, it’s clear that things are only just getting started and we’re tremendously happy and proud to be a part of the game.

Find out more

Barnes Stormers FC

Sign up to our newsletter

You can find out exactly how we'll look after your personal data, but rest assured we’ll only use it to make sure you receive our newsletter, to understand how you interact with our newsletter, and to provide administrative information about our newsletter.