Introduction to Liontrust - Flipbook - Page 27
This is part of our commitment to support social mobility through
providing opportunities to young people. The Centre supports
the development of young female players aged eight to 16 and
provides a wider and more diverse talent pool for women’s football.
The Girls’ Emerging Talent Centre run by Blackpool FC Community
Trust is designed to be a central hub, working with grassroots clubs,
schools and local coaches to identify talented female players and is
part of the FA Pathway towards the Lionesses. It is offered free to all,
removing the financial burden often faced with elite level training.
With Liontrust’s support, Blackpool FC Community Trust plans to offer
a comprehensive approach to player development, giving all girls
selected access to a high-quality training programme, strength and
conditioning coaches, access to an onsite physiotherapist, nutritional
advice and health and wellbeing support. Groups will also be
invited to play in competitive games against other ETC programmes.
Liontrust’s focused support and investment via the ETC will improve
accessibility and increase inclusivity for local young female
footballers, who are starting out on an elite development pathway.
The FA’s ETC programme will lead to the number of young female
players engaged in FA programmes nationally rising from 1,722 to
over 4,200 by the end of the 2023/24 season.
Wildlife conservation
We are proud sponsors of the global conservation charity ZSL and
their efforts to protect the Asiatic lion from extinction, a partnership
that stretches back nearly a decade. ZSL, through its science and
conservation efforts in the field and at ZSL London Zoo, is working to
ensure a future for Asiatic lions.
Liontrust has helped recently to bring together a newly matched pair
of the big cats at ZSL London Zoo’s immersive Land of the Lions
exhibit. It is hoped that the pair will breed and boost the numbers of
the critically endangered species – of which just over 600 remain
in the wild.
The iconic big cats which once roamed across Asia – from Turkey
to eastern India – are now found only in the Gir Forest in Gujarat,
India. Thanks to conservation efforts, Asiatic lions were bought back
from the brink of extinction and their numbers have risen slightly in
the last decade, but their future is still precarious. Due to their limited
range and reliance on a single habitat, Asiatic lions are particularly
susceptible to disease outbreak or natural disaster.
ZSL, through its science and conservation efforts in the field and at
ZSL London Zoo, is working to ensure a future for Asiatic lions.
Land of the Lions is home to a pair of Asiatic lions, male Bhanu
and female Arya. Matched as part of the international breeding
programme for endangered species, co-ordinated by EAZA’s
(European Association of Zoos and Aquaria) big cat specialists, the
hope is that the two will breed in future.
The lions form a back-up population of the critically endangered
species in an environment in which people are inspired to protect
animals and where conservationists can learn both from and about
animals. These learnings are shared with other zoos across the world
and with conservationists in the field, who use this critical information
to carry out their work in the wild.
INTRODUCTION TO LIONTRUST - 27