At their recent annual awards ceremony, held at Brighton & Hove Albion's AMEX stadium, Sussex County FA presented Crawley & Maidenbower Panthers FC with the 2024 Club of the Year Award.

This prestigious accolade is awarded each year as a part of the England Football Grassroots Awards to a club that has done something amazing for its players, volunteers or beyond. Recipient clubs must be able to demonstrate inclusivity and making a major contribution to the community of which they are a part.

The judges for this year's award particularly recognised Panthers for its commitment to encourage women and girls into grassroots football. The club now counts 110 girls among its youth player membership and has eight different girls teams playing league football each week. A recent initiative to support players' mums who want to take up recreational football has seen a great deal of interest. The club's long term vision is to have a girls team at every youth age group and a female adult team to complete the playing pathway.

Panthers' commitment to inclusivity and diversity is not just limited to the playing membership. The club's Management Committee has a 50:50 gender split with female and male Co-Chairs who run the organisation as a true collaborative partnership. There is a female head of the Development Section and the club is doing everything it can to encourage more women to take up coaching roles.

Winning the Club of the Year Award is a brilliant recognition for everyone associated with Panthers - our 400 players, 100+ coaches and other volunteers, and the countless parents and family members who turn out every week to support our teams. We are extremely honoured to have received the award and to be recognised alongside all the other incredible volunteers right across Sussex who give up their time every week to make grassroots football happen.