An epic day of football took place at the beginning of June, and not just the FA Cup Final, no, it was the finals day for the Motor Source Emergency Services Football League!
Playing at Broadhurst Park Stadium in Manchester on Sunday 4th June, the final matches from the Women’s, Men’s Open Age and Veterans Leagues took place, with the West Midlands Police Women’s Team, North Wales Police Men’s and London Fire Brigade Veteran’s coming out victorious and taking home the trophies.
Final Scores:
Women’s Final - West Midlands Police 5 - 0 London Fire
Men’s Open Age - North Wales Police 1 - 0 Thames Valley Police
Men’s Veterans - London Fire 1 - 1 Met Police with London Fire winning on penalties.
We spoke to players from the winning teams after their victories to find out what this means to them:
West Midlands Police Women's FC
West Midlands Police Women's FC - Coach
London Fire Brigade Veterans FC
The Motor Source ESFL was set up in 2019 by two Detective Constables who work for West Yorkshire Police, Andy Smurthwaite and Pete Overton, with the aim to bring together the police service, the fire service, the NHS and the prison service in a competitive UK wide league and the only league of its kind in the UK!
It was during the duo’s involvement in the running of the West Yorkshire Police Team that they realised how limited fixtures were and the difficulties in arranging games. Each of the respective Emergency Services have their own competition but surprisingly there were none that brought the 999 community together. From here the idea of the Emergency Services Football League was born!
Title sponsors of the league, Motor Source Group offer new car discounts for Emergency Services personnel, saving them on average £6,019 each on their new cars, and have been supporting the ESFL from its initial days. CEO Steve Thornton said
“It has been our pleasure to be closely involved with the ESFL again this season. Seeing all of the teams really dedicate themselves to their league and matches, and then what it means to them to be involved in the finals day is just brilliant.
The ESFL is a great incentive to bring people together from all Emergency Services and give something really positive to help boost their health and well being too.”
Registrations for the 23/24 season are open. Find out more and register your team here: https://www.esfl.co.uk/register/
