On behalf of everyone at Bloomsbury Football, we want to give a huge congratulations to our Partnerships Lead, Maria Hasler, for winning the 2021 UCFB Sports Entrepreneur Award.

This inspiring competition is led by UCFB Chairman Brendan Flood (Director of Burnley Football Club) and provides students with an unprecedented opportunity to compete for vital company investment of up to £5,000. In Dragon’s Den style, students from UCFB Wembley and UCFB Etihad Campus were asked to pitch their sports business ideas to a UCFB panel and then field any questions they might have.

Maria, who for 15 minutes pitched the Girls Super League, was victorious in a bout of 20 finalists and in doing so, secured the £5,000 investment for the GSL. As well as winning funding, she will also receive guidance from the panel over the next year to help with the product development.

Not only is this telling of Maria’s capability; her guile, thoroughness and dedication, but also of the outstanding potential of her creation, the Girls Super League.

This is a project backed by Nike, Chloe Kelly, Super 5 League, and now, the UCFB Executive Board. You should already know all about it by now, but in case you don’t…

Beginning September 2021, the league is an unbelievable opportunity for girls aged 7-15 to compete in a fun, inclusive and competitive environment, and will run on Saturdays from a centralised venue in London, combatting the problems facing the women’s game around pitch availability, refereeing quality and standardisation of games. By creating a hub for girls football, it will resolve the difficulty of girls not being able to find competitive games easily and will undoubtedly benefit those from minority groups and low socio-economic backgrounds. Generous funding from our partners Nike has meant that participating teams will be able to benefit from heavily subsidised places within the league, which in turn will make it financially accessible for participants. For more information, please click here.

We’re lucky to be represented by Maria and give her a huge round of applause for her incredible efforts in using the power of football to improve the lives of young people in London. Now, our young aspiring female ballers, no longer held back by socio-economic barriers, have the platform and opportunity of the capital to showcase their talent and love for the game.

In a couple of weeks that saw the new Women’s Super League TV deal, that now sees investment into the Girls Super League, girls football at Bloomsbury is well and truly taking off.

Please register to get involved with our girls programmes at Bloomsbury and make sure to check out the social buttons below for the GSL.

The Girls Super League: a super league, a super project, by the super Maria Hasler.