Hammersmith FC - Invincible women on their way to FA Cup?

During the Covid lockdown, Tommy Fish and Akin Okunola created their own football club based in the West London neighborhood of Hammersmith.

It’s an underdog story that will make the perfect movie script in a few years. During the Covid lockdown of 2020, Tommy Fish and Akin Okunola – two old school friends and lifelong football fanatics – realized that their elite playing days were soon behind them. They decided to do something they dreamed about as kids and created their own football club based in their West London neighborhood of Hammersmith.

Despite being surrounded by a plethora of professional and amateur clubs, including Chelsea, Brentford, and QPR, Tommy and Akin persisted with grit and determination to make their dream a reality. Utilizing their backgrounds in international professional football and rugby, both on the player and organizational side, they managed to recruit enough friends and former elite players to start a men’s team. And after an inspired meeting with a superstar of the Women’s game, they realized they could create a Women’s team too.

What happened next will go down as a legend. In their debut season, the Hammersmith FC Women went unbeaten, won the league, and gained automatic promotion. Not to be outdone – the men’s team also won their league – and both grassroots teams embarked on an open-top bus parade around London as if they’d just won the Champions League, to the absolute amusement of anyone who watched them.

At the time of this publication, the Hammersmith FC Womens Team have lost only one competitive game in their two years of existence. If they maintain this trajectory, they could qualify for the English FA Cup in the next three years.

What’s the secret behind this grassroots football phenomenon? A crew of innovative and committed volunteers, a shared attitude of deploying coaching and recruitment resources equally across the teams at the club, and the use of tech to inspire and develop.

The use of technology is both humorous and tactical. The players will tell you about Head Coach Akin’s infamously long post-match WhatsApp notes to each player on the team. And the use of Veo’s Analytics Studio to constantly assess if the squads are maintaining the fast-paced, direct, and goalscoring philosophy that has led the club to be successful.

It’s fascinating to see what is next for the women of Hammersmith FC and their founders/coaches.