With the team giving the club a major boost in the form of a 4-0 win over Spalding United in their first home match last month, Latimer Park is buzzing again and everyone at Kettering Town FC is working hard to build on the momentum of the arrival of the new owners.
With George Akhtar and Fabian Forde bringing their business, football and coaching backgrounds to the day-to-day running of the club, George’s sister and co-owner Nadiya Akhtar is using her experience in education, leadership and management to work with the club’s dedicated committee of volunteers to look at processes and procedures and find ways to build on that and create a more cohesive and professional approach to how the club is run.
Since the arrival of the new owners, the club already has seen increasing involvement from the public, who turned up in their hundreds for a Family Fun Day and events around England’s Euros matches earlier this summer.
That enthusiasm was matched by a crowd of more than 900 for the first home game of the season, a figure almost unheard of in recent years, especially for a midweek fixture at the beginning of the season.
Future plans include more playing facilities for youngsters and community groups, expansion of the club’s education offering, increased use of the clubhouse for clubs and social events as well as matchday hospitality, and to get a women’s team up and running again.
Nadiya Akhtar said:
“Our vision is to get the club back where it needs to be, in the National League and to do this we need to ensure we have a solid, professional foundation. The committee has been fantastic and supported us in everything we’ve done, and there are some amazing things going on here, it just needs pulling together. If we get more cohesion and efficiency, we’ll maximise the use of facilities and that will bring revenue into the club.
“The business side is strong, we’ve appointed a new Commercial Manager, and we’ve made no secret of the fact that we’ve increased the player budget because success will get people coming through the turnstiles. There was a real buzz about the place at the first match of the season and we were flabbergasted at how many people turned up – it was electric.”
George, Fabian and Nadiya have worked in football coaching and community projects in the Watford area most of their lives and saw a great opportunity to do more of that when the chance to buy Kettering Town came up. They see opening up the potential for more community involvement as being key to the growth of the club.
Nadiya said:
“We would like a 4G football pitch where the community can come and play, whether that’s as part of the club or for other groups to hire, and particularly to increase the opportunities to get more girls and women playing football. As well as that, things like the fun days, social events, Christmas parties, or showing big sporting events on our new TV screens in the club house, all give people a reason to come to Latimer Park.
“But what is important is that we listen and find out the needs of the community, ask them what sort of thing they would be interested in.
“They might not be interested in the football, but once they’re in the habit of coming here, for whatever reason, it might just spark an interest and encourage them to maybe come along and watch a match and support the team as well.
“It will all feed in to getting the club back to where it belongs and get supporters back into the ground. It’s an exciting journey ahead and we can’t wait to see what the future has in store for us.”
Visit the website www.ketteringtownfc.com to find out more about the club and its facilities.
