Bushey and Oxhey Football Club are an FA Charter Standard Club, members of the West Herts League and affiliated to the Hertfordshire Football Association.
We are a club with a strong set of values and principles, with a philosophy and ethos that is focused on long term player development and inclusion. We are a non-profit making organisation dedicated to promoting and enhancing the culture of youth football and sports education in our local community – operated by dedicated parents and FA qualified coaches.
Our Vision and Ambition
We have big ambitions – a vision to become the best place to learn how to play football outside of the professional club academies. As a result our standards are very high, providing the very best playing and training facilities in Hertfordshire, training kit, playing kit and jackets – to emphasise professionalism – as well as continual investment in equipment and coach education. We firmly believe we offer the best football experience in the county and certainly have not seen a club in our area who can rival what we can offer.
Beyond Matchday
Being a Bushey & Oxhey FC player means more than just playing matches. We have a thriving social set up hosting a Christmas party for our younger players and an end of season Presentation Evening as well as other ad hoc events throughout the year. As a Club, we also actively participate in local charity fundraising events.
We recognise that some of our players may prefer a coaching pathway rather than a playing pathway in the future, so we provide the opportunity for players aged 12 and above to secure the FA Junior Sports Leader qualification at the club. Players aged 16 years plus also have the opportunity to take the FA Level 1 coaching qualification, fully funded by the club, and subsequent opportunities to help coach our younger teams.
All our managers and coaches are DBS (criminal records) checked and hold FA coaching qualifications, as well as certified Safeguarding Children and Emergency First Aid certificates. The club also employs FA licensed coaches to compliment our coaching staff, ultimately delivering a great coaching syllabus designed to develop the player.
We’re backing Play Safe
Bushey & Oxhey FC is lending its full support to Play Safe – a national FA-led campaign to raise awareness of the importance of safeguarding in football.
Play Safe is being run in partnership with the NSPCC and has the full backing of the Premier League, EFL, Barclays FA Women’s Super League and the FA Women’s Championship. It’s also supported and being run across every other level of the game.
The main element of Play Safe is a series of short films which emphasise the importance of clubs such as ours having safeguarding as an everyday reality. The films also explain to parents/carers and children themselves know what to do if they feel unsafe or worried, because nothing matters more than making sure football is safe for everyone, especially children and young people. You can see these films below.
“As a youth team coach, I will be working with my club to ensure we support the Play Safe messaging,” says FA Chief Executive Mark Bullingham. “I am also pleased that the campaign has the support of the former footballers with lived experience of abuse in football, who are on our Survivor Support and Safeguarding Advisory Group. The Group has collectively said:
“Learning from the past is crucial, so that we can prevent the horrific experiences that happened to us and so many others in football, from happening again.
“As a group of survivors, we fully support the ethos and important messages that Play Safe conveys – whether to club officials, parents/carers and or vitally, children and young people themselves. Equally important is that Play Safe is not a one-off campaign – it will be used at key points in the football calendar to remind everyone in football, that children’s welfare and keeping them safe, should be at the heart of all that we do.”
As the Survivor Group points out, you’ll see Play Safe appearing at various points throughout the season to keep safeguarding front of mind in football. Together, we want to do everything we can so everyone – particularly children and young people – has a consistently positive experience of our great game.
