“There are so many places you could go and keep score and try to progress your football skills, but when we were telling people: ‘We’re not going to keep score,’ well, ‘no score’ has become a big thing in our community.
“One of the things Lorne always says is we’d be doing an amazing job if, eventually, someone went to their GP and said they’re feeling lonely or struggling to keep active, and the GP said to them: ‘Have you checked out the Gals FC in your area?’” says Beqaj, who is originally from Toronto, Canada.
They are about to expand into new sites in the north of England and eventually want 150,000 women to be playing football with Gals FC across England every week.
“We were at the pub and we said: ‘All we do is eat, drink and spend loads of money on food and have deep chats – we need something new in our life,’” says Magill, who had never played football before creating Gals FC.
They believe their core principle of never keeping the score is a key reason why their community movement has grown rapidly from seven women having a kickabout in Clissold Park in north London two and a half years ago to having more than 200 active, paying members in groups in London, Brighton and Ipswich.
