Thousands of women across London are getting fit thanks to an exciting project run by the capital’s EFL clubs and supported by the Mayor of London.

The Female Fitness Exercise (FFE) project, formed in April 2016, aims to increase the number of females engaged in regular physical activity, reduce the number of females who are classed as ‘inactive’ and specifically target those who struggle to exercise regularly, such as the over 40’s or those with a disability. A staggering 1 in 6 deaths are caused by inactivity.

The seven EFL clubs who run the project through their community trusts are Charlton Athletic, Barnet, Brentford, AFC Wimbledon, Dagenham and Redbridge, Millwall and Leyton Orient.

Each trust offers a wide range of activities – in addition to football – to help women keep active and  improve their overall health and well-being.

Examples of current projects:

AFC Wimbledon Foundation

• An over 30+ ladies active football team – Find out more here.
• Disability project – Deaf football programme

Leyton Orient Trust

• Women’s only boxercise sessions
• Female only fitness sessions
• Soccercise
• Athletics
• Prep training for long distance running
• Calisthetic bodyweight training
• Female FFIT (Football Fans In Training)

Charlton Athletic Community Trust

• Ultimate Frisbee
• Clubercise
• Dance
• Netball
• Sit and get fit
• Judo
• Football

The figures (since April 2016)

• 1500 females have benefited from the FFE project
• 1000 women have been retained and continue to stay physically active on the project
• Of the 1500 women, 1030 were previously inactive

Nicol Meredith, Project Manager at the EFL Trust commented: ”Football clubs are at the heart of communities across the capital so are ideally placed to get a wide range of people involved in sport. Our Female Football Development programme got over 40,000 women and girls involved in sport over three years and thanks to funding from the Mayor of London we are able to specifically target thousands of females that will benefit most from exercise and therefore make a big difference to improve their health and well-being.”

To learn more about FFE, email your local club’s community trust –

Barnet FC – sosmond@thehivefoundation.com

Charlton Athletic – Kim.Dixon@cact.org.uk / Matt.Horne@cact.org.uk

Millwall FC – lnewstead@millwallcommunity.org.uk

AFC Wimbledon – femalefootball@afcwimbledonfoundation.org.uk

Leyton Orient – Kimberley.Evans@Leytonorienttrust.org.uk

Brentford FC – jtompkins@brentfordfccst.com

Dagenham & Redbridge – fitc@daggers.co.uk