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Kicks Girls Win Premier League Cup
Written by Newcastle Utd
United's Kicks under-16 girls have been crowned Premier League Kicks Cup champions
Newcastle United's Kicks under-16 girls have been crowned champions of the 2015 Premier League Kicks Cup.
The girls were among 600 youngsters from 46 Premier League and Football League clubs who took part in the tournament at the Jeffrey Humble Playing Fields in Fazakerley, Liverpool, last week.
Forty-six under-16 mixed teams and 24 under-16 girls' teams had the chance to represent their clubs and local communities, competing for the right to become this year's Premier League Kicks champions.
United's girls played eight games in total, winning four, drawing three and beating Swansea on penalties in the final.
Newcastle United Foundation also sent a boys team to play in the under-16 mixed tournament, and they beat Brighton and Manchester City, while also drawing against Portsmouth to progress to the next stage.
The boys went on to beat local rivals Sunderland in the semi-finals but, despite their valiant efforts, suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat to West Ham in the final.
"We are incredibly proud of what our Kicks teams have achieved," said Laura Wilson, Newcastle United Foundation's Kicks project coordinator
"Both teams deserved to reach the finals, and huge congratulations to the girls for winning the tournament.
"The Kicks boys showed huge improvement from last year's cup and even though they just missed out on being champions, they certainly did Newcastle United proud."
Premier League Kicks originated from the Kickz programme - a partnership between the Premier League and the Metropolitan Police that started in 2006 to use the power of football to build safer, stronger communities.
Over the past year, the programme - which is funded by the Premier League and Sport England - engaged 40,854 young people, who attended more than 600,000 times.
Of the 780 venues used for Kicks, more than 25 per cent were located in the top 10 per cent most deprived areas in the country, and 73 per cent were in the top 30 per cent most deprived areas.
For more information about Newcastle United's Kicks project, contact Laura Wilson at [email protected].
