Kent FA has landed the Digital Engagement Award at the inaugural County FA Recognition Awards for their Let Us Play project.

Kent FA was handed the Digital Engagement Award for Let Us Play, along with being a finalist in the Brand Engagement Award for the Kent FA Charitable Foundation, and being highly commended in the Football Development category for our Accredited Soccer School programme.

The Awards were introduced this year to recognise and endorse the best projects, products and services launched by County FAs over the past season while sharing best practice and learnings from around the country.

From the 50 County FAs operating across England, 39 of them entered over 150 submissions, highlighting continuous improvements and showcasing how they are innovating to improve football and increase participation across all levels of the game.

The eight categories recognised on the night were:

Brand Engagement

Digital Engagement

Diversity & Inclusion

Football Development

Insight & Data

Partnership

Women & Girls

Special Recognition.

Kent FA was handed the Digital Engagement Award for Let Us Play, a project dedicated to creating a positive environment in youth football, by highlighting the on-going issues of poor sideline behaviour by adults.

The Let Us Play campaign was designed to give a voice to young footballers to share their emotions. The video features local young footballs, all talking about their experiences both positive, and unfortunately negative. The Let Us Play reached a huge international audience, reaching over 3.5 million people across social media.

Darryl Haden, Kent FA CEO said “It is an honour to receive this recognition and I’m proud of the hard work our entire team puts in towards creating a positive environment in youth football in the county. Hopefully we can continue to build on this for many years to come.“

FA Chief Executive Martin Glenn added: “It gives us great pleasure to recognise and reward our County FAs. The work they do in their local communities to inspire a lifelong journey in football are absolutely vital in ensuring we continue to develop, promote and protect the game.”