Gloucester City chairman Colin Taylor believes the three star accreditation awarded to Gloucester City AFC shows how far the club has come and how much depth lies with in the club.
It became official on Friday afternoon that the Tigers had met the criteria set by the FA.
The official summary of the stars grading system online is, all accredited clubs offer a consistent standard on and off the pitch.
Stars are used to recognise clubs that provide more opportunities for more people to play.
A three-star club offers football within all three playing pathways – male, female and disability.
Football leagues and clubs accredited by The FA have positively changed the football landscape over the last 20 years.
They create the ideal environments to nurture players, coaches and volunteers.
The result is greater diversity and inclusivity through football.
England Football Accredited replaces The FA Charter Standard and is the next chapter in this amazing story as we unite even more communities by supporting Leagues and Clubs over the next 10 years.
England Football Accredited is for all non-professional leagues and clubs.
It helps them create the experiences and environments where players, coaches and volunteers can thrive.
Accredited clubs are more sustainable, more resilient and built to last.
“It is something we have been working on for quite a while” he said.
“I met with Sarah Gordon Jones (board member) and she is brilliant for us. She is going to help the club move forward in lots of departments.
“We met with Matt Boucher from the Gloucestershire FA at the time we had a two star rating.”
Taylor explained the club were required to improve their disability section, as well as having a total pathway from ages eight to 16 for both male and female teams.
“We also have adult teams, u18’s, development and reserves, as well as our adult disability teams which we are very proud of,” said Taylor.
He explained the process of working with Goals Beyond Grass, the disability charity working to help disabled footballers find a base/club. While helping football clubs provide the facilities needed by the disabled footballing community.
“The guy who runs Goals Beyond Grass is lovely as well. And on top of all that we have all our safe guarding policies, club welfare, club development plans in place. It is a set of standards we have to reach. It shows the depth of our club.”
Taylor feels the club is getting closer to the local community because of the accreditation.
“What we have done in a year with getting Matt Phillips’ community project started as well, which gives back to the local community and offers free kids sessions to local school kids. We had 38 kids last Saturday, in our free sessions using the Gloucester badge and hopefully if nothing else they may want to come and watch Gloucester City on the back of it.”
One of Taylor main goals is to attract more young fans to Meadow Park on a regular basis.
“I am so pro in getting the young kids down to the stadium as I think that is so important to move this club forward.
“You saw it on Saturday we had 1,500 fans watching with two or three young teams coming every week to be mascots we are full up, it is great.”
Taylor can see change on the horizon and believes there is a feel good factor around the club.
“I would never take all the credit. There is a massive team working on all these areas Matt, Sarah and Chris Hill have all been instrumental in getting this across the line and I am super proud of them and thank them with all my heart for getting this across the line.”
Taylor also believes further progress has been made off the pitch with the new look media team and more engagement with locals schools and the community. “It is really important for us.”
Gloucester is thought to be the largest city in England to have never have had an EFL team
“It is mad, I don’t get it,” Taylor said. “I keep telling people thing are not going to happened overnight.
“Obviously, the first team are doing alright. the ladies are doing brilliantly all our youth teams are doing brilliantly, girls and boys. We are striving and moving in the right direction.”
Taylor admitted he is dreaming of the club one day becoming one of the elite 92 clubs in the country.
“We all dream don’t we? I have got a dream. I tell you something if it ever happened I would be the happiest man alive.
“I am a Gloucester man, I am Gloucester born and bred so I would love it. I love the club, I love the fans and I love everything about it.
“Sometimes it is quite stressful, but sometimes when you go and get those wins or big results, look at the Totton game I bet their budget is a lot higher compared to ours, I mean look at there bench.
“We are proud of all our volunteers, Mitch Lewis and all the board members. I have to reiterate that everyone at the club does it for free, no one behind the scenes is paid.”
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