Team Welcomes Much-Needed Additional Funding

Players for Selby Disability Football Club are sporting brand new training tops courtesy of funding from a national law firm.

The team, which was launched last year by not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport, in partnership with the Inspiring Health Lifestyles Wellbeing team at Selby Leisure Centre, were recently presented with their new shirts.

Irwin Mitchell Solicitors are keen supporters of Selby DFC and provided funding for the tops.

Expert Opinion

“We are delighted to see that our funding is continuing to support NLY Community by providing new kit for the players of the Selby Disabled Football Club.

We are proud to support the work they do in bringing the community together and inspiring others to try different sports.”
Cathryn Godfrey - Associate Solicitor

This marks another celebration for Selby DFC, following the news in January that player Billy Hobson had been picked for the 2019 Mencap GB squad, which will see him compete at the European Championships in Geneva, Switzerland, in June.

Welcoming the new additions to the kit, coach James Grayson, who runs NLY Community Sport alongside Connor Rollinson, said: “At one point it looked like we would be going to our matches in April with no shirts, which is not fair on the players. 

“Fortunately Irwin Mitchell stepped in to buy some tops that we wouldn’t have been able to buy without their assistance.  Cathryn Godfrey has provided tremendous support to us.  She has supported us throughout the past year and seen the problems that we faced in Selby. 

“We owe Cathryn and Irwin Mitchell a real debt of gratitude because when dark clouds have loomed, they have brought sunshine. 

“The players’ smiles were huge when they saw their new tops for the first time.  It made their week!”

This latest funding from Irwin Mitchell is in addition to the earlier grant to NLY Community Sport from the law firm in association with their Don’t Quit, Do It initiative.  The campaign seeks to raise awareness of the benefits of disability sport in helping people recover from serious injuries and illness.

James added: “Running Selby Disability Football Club is a massive financial challenge.  The pitch hire costs for the year are huge for starters.

“We applied to a local organisation for a small grant which would have paid for the pitch hire costs for our first year, in turn allowing us to use money which came through fund-raising in February to pay for some much-needed training tops.

“Despite proving that the club combats social isolation and changes the future aspirations for people with disabilities and learning difficulties, we were turned down for reasons absolutely nothing to do with NLY Community Sport or Selby DFC.

“The club is fantastic for our players’ health and wellbeing, and Billy Hobson’s call up to the Mencap GB squad has inspired the whole team and caught the imagination of Selby as a community.  Billy would not have the opportunity to go to Geneva if it had not been for NLY Community Sport.

“Unfortunately for myself and Connor, it has been a very stressful period as we have had to focus on financing the team.  It has certainly proved to be an unnecessary distraction from running training, and when you are asked every week by your players about whether new training tops will be coming soon, it is hard to not become emotional.

“But you have to prioritise money and pitch hire costs are top of the list.  We want Billy to be the first of many who go to Geneva and we want to look back in ten years and see a massive legacy of player after player winning medals in Geneva or at Special Olympics competitions. 

“We have no intention of crashing and burning in the first year by spending money we haven’t got, which is why it has been so important to us to have a helping hand.”