Meet London FA's Youth Council
Nayim Ahmed
Favourite Team and Player: Arsenal and Thierry Henry
Reason for joining the Youth Council: I joined the Youth Council to have a positive impact on young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and give every young person an equal opportunity.
Leanne Bates
Favourite Team and Player: Newcastle and Paul Gascoigne
Reason for joining the Youth Council: I am very passionate about increasing participation levels in football, as I know how much this sport impact on personal development which is why I joined the Youth Council to hopefully get more people involved.
Lucy Casey
Favourite Team and Player: Arsenal and Leah Williamson
Reason for joining the Youth Council: If you can see it, you can be it. This statement strongly resonates with me and many others, so in order to create a more inclusive space at London FA, it’s our role to provide representation and a pathway for young people living in London. As someone fortunate enough to have lived in London my whole life and have had multiple interactions with the London FA - from refereeing, playing, writing and through social media - it’s now my turn to give back!
Estella Dawson
Favourite Team and Player: Brentford and Alexia Putellas
Reason for joining the Youth Council: To inspire more girls to stay/get involved with football. Whether that be through playing or other various roles, I would really like to explore the issues around why so many girls drop out of the sport and any ways we can look to engage them.
Taylor Dawson
Favourite Team and Player: Liverpool and Darwin Núñez
Reason for joining the Youth Council: I joined the youth council to provide young people with a voice and an impact on key decisions that will affect their professional and/or playing career. It is also a chance to learn from industry professionals which can help with my personal career development.
Tyra Mills
Favourite Team and Player: Chelsea and Ruben Loftus-Cheek
Reason for joining the Youth Council: I want to inspire the next generation of players to become who they want to be, and access all the experiences that they may not be able to find on their own. I also want to be able to develop myself whilst helping inspire the football community.
Aida Mussa
Favourite Team and Player: Crystal Palace and Kylian Mbappé
Reason for joining the Youth Council: As a member of the grassroots football community, I have extensive experience that I would like to use to enrich the experiences of young people in London. I am interested in increasing youth participation and engagement in football by empowering players from diverse ethnic backgrounds and walks of life, collaborating with partner organisations, leagues, clubs and schools, and establishing meaningful relations.
Joshua Pear
Favourite team and player: Arsenal and Lionel Messi, Tomáš Rosický & Bukayo Saka
Reason for joining the Youth Council: As someone who loves football, playing lots of football and coaching football, the opportunity to make a difference in the sport I love is massive. There is so much more to football than what we see on the pitch in terms of impact on people’s lives. It even has an impact on people who aren't playing through the effect it has on the community.
Emily Reece
Favourite team and player: Arsenal and Jordan Nobbs
Reason for joining the Youth Council: Being a member of the Youth Council is an exciting opportunity to apply my perspective as a female player and fan to help improve accessibility to football for all. I am keen to engage with a broad range of participants in football to better understand how areas such as safeguarding, and development can support clubs' ambitions and welcome more people into football. Through the Youth Council I want to spread awareness of the fact that we all have a role to play in creating safe, inclusive, and positive footballing environments.
Lakaydia Reynolds
Favourite Team and Player: Arsenal and Freda Ayisi
Reason for joining the Youth Council: I wanted to join the Youth Council because I saw it as a pathway to become involved in something inclusive and meaningful for young people in football. The underrepresentation of women in football was something that motivated me to get involved. Seeing the statistics on how under-resourced women's football is (with under 40% of member associations providing girls grassroots programmse) inspired me to want to help improve those statistics and overcome this hurdle. This has been the most amazing place to flourish as an individual and develop as a young leader. I have enjoyed every second of it!
Abdullah Zaman
Favourite Team and Player: Manchester United and Jude Bellingham/Georgia Stanway
Reason for joining the Youth Council: I joined the Youth Council as I want to improve diversity among football, especially in the South Asian community as there is a lack of representation from that area. I want to be the role model they look up to and the youth council will help me achieve my goal