The Army Football Association has been successfully shortlisted for the Special Recognition Award at the 2023 County FA Recognition Awards for its British Army Defence Engagement to the Western Balkans.

The Awards, which will be announced at Wembley Stadium connected by EE on Thursday 23 November 2023, recognise and endorse the best projects, products and services delivered by County FAs over the past season while sharing best practice and learnings from around the country.

A record breaking 242 submissions have been entered from the 50 County FAs operating across England, highlighting continuous improvements, and showcasing how they are innovating to improve grassroots football and increase participation across all levels of the game.

The twelve categories which will be recognised at the awards are:

• Brand Engagement
• Coach Development
• Employee Wellbeing & Engagement
• Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
• Facility Development
• Football Development
• Partnership
• Positive Football Environment
• Referee Development
• Special recognition
• Women & Girls
• Youth Engagement



The Army FA has made the final shortlist for the Special Recognition Award for Defence Engagement to the Western Balkans.

This was a unique opportunity for Regular and Reserve female soldiers to build links with Defence Attaches'. The tour covered five countries and consisted of five football fixtures with a planned programme of Defence Engagement tasks to promote women in sport. The countries visited were Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Montenegro, Albania and North Macedonia.


Graham Brookland, CEO of the Army FA said, "This was a tremendous international initiative which provides fellow County Associations an insight and awareness of what Army Football can do through the uniqueness of our serving personnel mixing their primary role as soldiers to demonstrate community outreach and promote Women’s football with girls and youth teams throughout the five countries visited. Importantly, the project displayed the absolute best of how sport can build bridges and reduce barriers, irrelevant of language, ability, gender or race. All those who were involved in the initiative are an absolute credit and superb ambassadors of the Army Football Association.”


The FA’s Head of Operations for Grassroots Football, Tim Foster added:

“I’d like to congratulate the Army Football Association in making the final shortlist for the Special Recognition Award and all of the other shortlisted County FAs in what has been a record-breaking number of submissions this year.

It has been fantastic to see such a strong selection of programmes and projects entered across the twelve categories, and we look forward to hosting our County FAs at Wembley Stadium in November to thank them for all they do in serving our national game.”

For more information on the work of County FAs, visit: https://www.englandfootball.com/explore/county-football-associations