Alan Turing Funding Florida Tour

Barking Abbey Football Academy are delighted to report that we secured Alan Turing funding for a second year in a row. The Alan Turing funding is aimed at inclusion for all. This funding made it affordable, so that all our Football & Basketball Academy students were able to experience workplace opportunities and scholarship placements from outside of the UK. As part of the initiative Barking Abbey Football Academy have also continued their international football partnership with Keiser University who are based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This partnership enables us to visit their fantastic facilities yearly, as well as play matches against their Men’s NAIA University team. 

In total this funding enabled us to take Thirty-six students (22 Football Academy students) (14 basketball students) and the Academy students were provided the opportunity to travel to Florida for 17 days, they also visited 6 different Universities and Colleges. They got to experience many different areas within Florida as we travelled and stayed in St Petersburg, Fort Myers, Naples, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa. The students got to truly experience the culture and lifestyle of many American Fans as we watched Orlando City’s first home game of the season before also getting to experience an NBA game at the home of Orlando Magics.  

Additionally, our Football Academy students competed in the Weston Super cup where they featured in the first group match against Inter Miami U19s. Captain Charlie Thomson put Abbey 1-0 up before unfortunately eventually losing the game 2-1 with two late goals form Inter Miami.  

The weather was fantastic as the boys’ enjoyed temperatures that reached 28c there was even some time to visit beaches in Fort Lauderdale and St Petersburg!  

The boys had an incredible experience that allowed them all to see what America has to offer. Since our return several students have been motivated by the experience and have now explored scholarship opportunities further and are now in a position where several students have received scholarship offers!  

Exciting times for these young Barking Abbey Student -Athletes!