Grassroots football depends on businesses willing to support it.
Across the country, companies help fund kits, equipment, facilities, tournaments and countless other things that keep young players on the pitch.
In return, you'll often see their logo on the front of a shirt.
And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
That sponsorship matters.
Your Sponsorship Helps Them Play. What If It Could Help Them Think?
Become Unplayable was built around a simple belief: young footballers shouldn't only practise what they do with the ball. They should be encouraged to think about why they make the decisions they make.
Our Foundation Packs present young players with real football scenarios. They're shown a situation on the pitch and given different options.
What would you do? Where would you move? Would you pass? Would you shoot? Would you do something completely different?
But the most important question is often: why?
The objective isn't simply getting the "right" answer. It's getting young players thinking about the game, considering different possibilities and discussing their reasoning.
And that's where we saw an opportunity for businesses that care about grassroots football.
Introducing Become Unplayable Grassroots Development Partners
We're inviting businesses to help put Foundation Packs directly into the hands of young grassroots footballers. And we've deliberately kept the concept simple.
You choose the club. It could be a club your business already sponsors. It could be the club your employees' children play for. It could be a club in the community your business serves. Or you might simply want to do something positive for grassroots football and need help deciding where that support should go.
You choose the number of players you'd like to support. That might be 1,000 young footballers. It could be 2,500. 5,000. Or potentially many more.
We create the Foundation Packs. For suitable partnerships, we can create a Partner Edition recognising the business that made the initiative possible.
The club puts them into the hands of its young players. Your support becomes something tangible. Something a young footballer can take home. Something they can use. Something they can discuss with their parents. Something they can take back to training and talk about with their coach.
Made Possible By Your Business
We don't want this to feel like a company has simply paid to put another logo somewhere. That's not the point.
The business should be recognised because: without its support, those players wouldn't have received the packs.
Imagine 1,000 young footballers receiving their own Foundation Pack with a simple message: this grassroots edition was made possible by [your business].
That's a very different relationship between a company and the grassroots community it supports. The business hasn't simply advertised to them. It's done something for them.
Choose a Club That Matters to You
One of the most important parts of the programme is that we don't want to dictate where a company's support should go. You know the communities that matter to your business.
- Maybe there's a grassroots club you've supported for years.
- Perhaps there's a club around the corner from your office.
- Maybe one of your employees coaches a junior team every Sunday morning.
- Or perhaps your company operates across several towns and wants to support young players across multiple grassroots clubs.
That's why the programme starts with a simple question: who would you like to support? From there, we can explore what the partnership could look like.
What Could Your Business Make Possible?
Imagine supporting:
- 1,000 young footballers.
- 2,500 players across several teams.
- 5,000 young players across multiple grassroots clubs and communities.
At larger scales, there's the potential to support thousands of young footballers across entire regions.
The scale can change. The principle doesn't.
Your business chooses to support grassroots football. Young players receive something designed to encourage them to think about the game. Become Unplayable makes it happen.
This Isn't About Replacing Traditional Sponsorship
We want to be very clear about this. Grassroots clubs need traditional sponsors.
They need businesses willing to fund shirts. They need help buying equipment. They need support with facilities, tournaments and all the other costs involved in running a football club.
We're not suggesting businesses stop doing any of that.
Instead, we're asking: what else could your grassroots sponsorship achieve? Your support already helps young footballers play. Perhaps it can help them think about the game too.
Does Your Business Care About Grassroots Football?
You don't need to already sponsor a football club. You don't need to know exactly how many players you'd like to support. And you don't need to have the whole idea worked out.
We're currently speaking with businesses interested in exploring what a Become Unplayable Grassroots Development Partnership could look like.
Tell us about your business. Tell us about the club or community that matters to you. And tell us the kind of impact you'd like to make. We'll take it from there.
