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Lewes Community Football Club
Lewes is the beautiful county town of East Sussex located at a historically strategic location on England’s southern shores. Lewes Football Club was formed following a meeting at The Royal Oak pub on 23 September 1885, with black and red finally became the club colours in 1893.
From its inception “The Rooks” have called the Dripping Pan their home. This 3,000 capacity stadium is full of charm and character, and in 2020 was chosen as Britain’s best ground, as named in the book by Mike Bayly entitled “British Football’s Greatest Grounds” which ranked the top one-hundred stadiums in the country to visit!
Their Men’s team (currently in the Isthmian League) has always played with distinction, with their highest ranking being their rise to the top of the non-league pyramid in 2007/2008. In 2002, a new Women’s team was started which has undergone a dramatic rise from park football to being a globally acclaimed, iconic club in English Women’s Football top ranks.
In 2010, the organization converted into a 100% fan-owned, democratic, not-for-profit football club. Many members of the Athens Women’s Football Summit family, including both Co-Founders, are proud Lewes FC owners!
In 2017, Lewes FC launched the ground-breaking Equality FC campaign that saw Lewes FC become the first (and perhaps still only) club side in the world to have equal playing budgets for women and men. The result was powerful, with the sudden worldwide interest and rise in attendances at their matches helping to power Lewes FC Women to promotion into English Football’s second tier, the FA Women’s Championship, where they currently play alongside clubs such as Liverpool, Leicester City, Crystal Palace, Sheffield United, Blackburn Rovers, Coventry United, and other household names.
In September 2020 we were thrilled to announce our new Strategic Partnership with Lewes Football Club!
Here are some words from Karen Dobres, the Elected Co-Director of Lewes Football Club, and also from Agisilaos Toumazatos and Marios Christos Sfantos, Esq., the two Co-Founders of the AthensWFS:
“At Lewes FC we are on the same page as the Athens Women’s Football Summit with it’s theme to ‘invest, empower and inspire’. We’re frustrated with the lack of investment in women’s football, given it’s crystal clear potential to empower women and girls, and bring a whole new form of sports entertainment to the world. This is why we’re delighted – as the first club in the world to resource our women’s team equally to the men’s – to partner with the AthensWFS, and help show the world of business how to harness the ground-breaking appeal and marketability of the women’s game.” – Karen Dobres, Elected Co-Director, Lewes Football Club –
“Women’s football is serious business – an explosively-growing worldwide phenomenon whose enormous investment, sponsorship, marketing, broadcast and a wide variety of other yet unrealized commercial potentials are just beginning to be recognized. We at the Athens Women’s Football Summit – the year-round global home for women’s football at all levels – are excited to combine strengths with Lewes FC who are powerfully championing the principle that a sincere commitment to equality is not only a moral imperative to be wholeheartedly embraced but the key to unlocking the true sporting, social and economic potential of a club and its community. Our innovative new partnership will not only celebrate women’s football and give it greater voice but also push boundaries and contribute to furthering the dynamic economic and structural evolution of the women’s Beautiful Game.” – Agisilaos Toumazatos, Co-Founder, Athens Women’s Football Summit –
“The Athens Women’s Football Summit is a leader of the global fight to achieve women’s equal footing in football and nurture positive social change through the unique power of the women’s Beautiful Game, and we are thrilled to partner with Lewes FC as they exemplify our values as a visionary organization of equality, inclusion, and genuine investment in women’s football. Many organizations talk of equal treatment and respect. Lewes FC dynamically put their words into action daily. With their pioneering pledge of equal pay, facilities, marketing and support for their women’s and men’s players – equal everything – Lewes FC have set an inspiring precedent for the future of the game and challenge sports, business and all of society to unite in action and truly live up to the enormous potential for excellence possible only through an authentic commitment to equality.” – Marios Christos Sfantos, Esq., Co-Founder, Athens Women’s Football Summit