Welcome back to another Through the Turnstile of Non-League Football meets and this time it’s a big one!

I was thrilled to have my request of interviewing the head of my local County FA (Kent), Denise Richmond, to discover how she came to step into the role, what has been the successes she has overseen, the challenges they have faced and what is on the horizon for the future.

So off I headed to Aylesford to sit face to face with Denise in the Head Office of the Kent FA to pose my questions. The answers of which you will find below as a mixture of text and video snippets.

I hope you enjoy!

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Q) In 1988 you became secretary of ‘Greenwich Borough Football Club, this was your first voluntary role in the world of football – what attracted you to that role at the time?

Q) Was the role what you expected and how much did you learn whilst carrying out the work?

Massively helped and I learnt a great deal!

I had no idea what the role would entail, I thought it would be a-lot of admin which it was!

But it 100% improved my confidence massively. It was also a lovely feeling doing the role as a volunteer, it is actually one thing I still talk about today. Being a volunteer for a club you aren’t being paid to do the job so you dont have that same fear in what you are doing so you feel more free to challenge yourself and try new things.

I would recommend it to boys and girls of any age to get out there and give it a go!

Q) A few years following, you was elected as a league representative of the Southern counties east football league (SCEFL) – what did that role consist of and how did you find it?

Q) Alongside this – in 2020, a year that proved to be difficult for everyone including those within sport, you became the chair of the Kent FA – how was it for you taking that step up at such a perilous time?

It was a really challenging year.

The good thing was we had a great Finance director, a qualified accountant, Lee Dyson alongside that we had a great CEO Darryl Haden who has grown up in the organisation, starting as a development manager. So I think between the 3 of us at that time were well equipped to deal with everything that was going on at that time.

We knew what we needed and wanted to do in terms of where our finances were concerned, a good knowledge of what was going on around the county as all 3 of us have some experience in many different roles which proved to be vitally important in the decision making process.

Unfortunately we did have to make 3 people redundant during this time, which was ultimately the right decision to make at the time as if you look at us now we are larger than we have ever been so those decisions back then feel vindicated in that it has set us up to grow.

Q) How do you manage to juggle both of the head roles (both FA and SCEFL) – roles which come with big responsibilities?

Q) How many clubs are you responsible for?

I am responsible for around 1700 clubs, which equates to over 10,000 teams within that.

Q) You were the first of 8 female county chairs out of the 50 county FA’s – do you take great pride in knowing this?

Q) Have you ever faced any challenges from others within the game in either of your roles which related back to sexism at all, be it overtly or unconscious?

I think there is an element of unconscious about it, I think some men just assume certain things. I was always quite lucky when I started that I had some really strong allies when I took up the secretary role.

I think it has actually got slightly worse for me the more I have got involved in the game, some people have presented to be quite closed off and abrasive, but overall through my time I have never faced a great deal of overt challenges to myself unlike others in similar roles who I know have not been so fortunate,

Q) Being the head of the Kent FA for the past 5 years you have successfully championed grassroots football and led the organisation through some tough times – what has been your proudest moment to date?

Q) Kent is seeing quite the golden age of success as a county of football teams, many of the Non-League teams are performing well and climbing up the pyramid, how does that overall success make you and the rest of the team feel?

For me the Non-League element of Kent is really strong, you can see that the number of teams we have that are Steps 4 and above.

I think from my point of view our performance down the pyramid is excellent in Kent, we also have Gillingham and Bromley in the EFL but I think our real strength as a county comes from the amount of clubs we have in those Steps 4 and 3.

Very very strong.

Q) Exactly and to name just a few teams – Chatham, Tonbridge, Maidstone, Ramsgate, Folkestone, Ashford – all of these clubs have stated a clear ambitions to grow and a drive to climb the leagues, do you feel the future has never looked brighter?

Q) In addition to those teams both Gillingham and Bromley are also vying for promotion this season up from League Two into League One – what would that mean should one or both of the teams successfully reach League one? 

You would hope that it would just grow the overall strength of the offering we can give in Kent.

Bromley have a really strong community feel and focus along with their youth teams and overall pathways in place, something that Gillingham are still working towards, especially with the new owners now in place. It isn’t easy or quick to change and especially with local rivals Chatham and Tonbridge who have both got strong youth connections which are now rooted in the local area.

Overall though a promotion for either team would be great and we are behind both of them!

Q) Non-League Football has seen a huge rise in the popularity over the last few years – firstly why do you think that is the case and secondly does it feel good to have such a huge focus on the real grassroots football?

Q) The Kent Football Show focuses and highlights many different stories and clubs from around the county – how have you found this media type serve you in getting more eyes on the great things happening?

I think so, we are certainly getting lots of views and interactions from it and people are actively coming forward to ask to be a part of it which is always telling. It also allows us to do little soundbites which obviously then draws in the younger generation from social media.

We did actually win an award for it at the County FA Awards as it was new and innovative, following that alot of other County FAs are also now doing something similar to us which is a great compliment to what we have done.

Q) What plans do you have for the future of the Kent FA that you are especially excited about?

We are focusing on making football in Kent a much more enjoyable environment for everyone to be in.

Q) If you could change one thing in football overnight, what would you choose and why? 

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An absolute pleasure to sit down and spend some time with Denise who was open and honest throughout and so very generous with her time.

I hope like me you found the interview interesting and that you now know more about exactly what it takes to head up a County FA and just how many clubs/teams such a small team is responsible for!

Until next time!

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Parks to Pitches (your dedicated Non-League Football Magazine)

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