A Hornchurch football club has been recognised for its contribution to sport.
Tigers Junior Football Club won the Enhancing the Workforce Award at the London Sport Awards 2021, sponsored by the City of London Corporation, for its Tigers Futures programme.
The programme, launched seven years ago, gives players at the club who are 14 and older the opportunity to get onto refereeing and coaching courses.
Trainees on the scheme – currently numbering 25 – help with the younger children before moving onto more senior levels of the club later on, to get "experience and confidence".
Club chairman Keith Di Palma, who attended the event at the Guildhall on December 6, said it had been a “shock” to win.
He told the Recorder his wife, club secretary Lisa, who had been videoing, dropped her phone when they were announced.
Keith, who works for Ford Motor Company and volunteers for Tigers in his spare time, said the event was a “top night” and “from the minute we walked in, everybody was made to be special”.
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