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Sports Minister and MP for Bradford South, Gerry Sutcliffe, visited The Carnegie Stand at Headingley Carnegie Stadium recently to find out more about Leeds Metropolitan University’s sporting partnerships, particularly involvement in women’s football.
 During his visit, he met with Leeds United Ladies Chairperson Melanie Vauvelle-Don, Secretary Sue Walton and Assistant Manager Leanne Hall to hear Leeds United Ladies Club’s views on the future of the women’s game and understand the difficulties the club has had to overcome to run a successful club and how the partnership works with Leeds Metropolitan University
Leeds Met’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Simon Lee, Peter Rodgers, Dean of Sporting Partnerships, and Chris Welburn, the University’s Head Coach for women’s football and Partnership Manager for Leeds United Ladies, to learn about the university’s partnership with Leeds United Ladies and support of women’s football in general. The Minister was also keen to hear the views of Leeds United Ladies players and England internationals Sue Smith and Sophie Walton, as well as Carnegie students Emma Higgins and Ashley Hutton who both play for Leeds United Ladies and are Irish Internationals. Chairperson Melanie Vauvelle-Don commented “ We were delighted the Minister for Sport Gerry Sutcliffe took the time come up from his busy schedule to talk to Leeds United Ladies and the University about Women’s football. He is clearly knowledgeable and very supportive about the women’s game. The visit was extremely worthwhile and gave us more confidence about the future and how the game can develop. Although nothing will happen overnight it seems he shared similar views of moving the women’s game forward. We shall be keeping him updated with the progress of the club. Leeds Met’s partnership with Leeds United Ladies FC was the first partnership of its kind between a university and a National Women’s Premier League club. The partnership provides additional opportunities for Leeds Met students who currently play for the university’s women’s football team and a new Leeds United scholarship programme is being developed. The partnership also provides placement opportunities for Leeds Met students and staff in areas including fitness and coaching, marketing and PR, and events management, for example a group of events management students are currently organising a fundraising ball for Leeds United Ladies FC. In addition, Leeds United Ladies benefit from Leeds Met’s world-class coaching and sports science facilities, as well as the university’s experts in a variety of fields, including sports performance and coaching, from Leeds Met’s Carnegie Faculty of Sport & Education. |
