Words by Sebastian Muscroft
FC Elite are one of Birmingham’s youngest football academies. But since being founded in 2013 they have already reached some impressive milestones and set out big plans for the future.
Original formed as a women’s team, FC Elite saw early success as they gained promotion within their first season. This then prompted them to form a men’s team the following year and a youth side in 2016. The local Football Academy now have 15 teams across different age groups.
FC Elite Football Academy club founder and chairman, Mario Gerroni, told: “I started the club out of passion. Passion for football. But then it grew into having a sight, starting the roots, and leaving a legacy.”
The Academy used grounds across Erdington, including working with Short Heath Fields Trust to bring community sports to Short Heath Playing Fields, but found their permanent home at Twickenham Park on College Road – moving to the Kingstanding fields in 2016.
Since training and playing at Twickenham Park, FC Elite have overseen some big developments there – with a car park currently being built, as well as increasing the amount of football pitches.
“Developing the site is one of the biggest things,” adds Mario, “because now people can see it growing as it went from a closed off field to hopefully a facility now.”
This ambition is mirrored by local residents, with one telling Kingstanding Local: “It would be nice to have a good sports facility within walking distance and what the club are doing and have already done looks good.”
But what’s next for FC Elite?
“On the football side of things, it would be nice to get up to 20, 25 teams,” tells Mario. “We’d also like to build a sports hub for the people of Kingstanding making sure they don’t have to leave the ward for quality provisions.”
“But if we could develop the site as much as we can, we could have other things down here,” he adds, “like disability football, walking football… we’ve got paddle courts we’d like to embrace as well as tag rugby. There’s loads of things we can have down here.
“If we had a building down here, we could potentially have other organisations use it and have little offices on site, so the possibilities are endless.”
FC Elite Football Academy are also using sport to support the Kingstanding community off the pitch as well.
“One of the initiatives that I’d like to do is Club Captains,” tells Mario, “which will help to address the issue of knife crime.”
“[We’re] asking Nike to donate football boots,” he adds, “and working in schools trying to get workshops going.
“The idea is about trying to get people from different wards to come along and embrace each other rather than engaging in postcode wars and carrying a knife.”
FC Elite Academy is open to new members and have stated anyone is welcome to come down to Twickenham Park for a free trial session.
For more on FC Elite Football Academy visit www.fcelite.co.uk
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