The Belles will be commemorating Remembrance Sunday with a special kit paying homage to the role of women in the armed forces for their FA Women’s National League Division One Midlands game against Bedworth United.
The kit shows off a unique twist on their red and white hoops, replacing the red hoops with poppies around the shirt, as well as featuring the words “Each one was someone’s son” at the base of the shirt.
The shirts will be auctioned off on eBay after the match with a donation going to the Royal British Legion, and Belles' chief executive Russ Green feels the charity kit is the perfect way to raise awareness of the role women have played in the armed forces.
“We’ve noticed that everybody wears a poppy on the shirt in some way, but nobody really benefits apart from the awareness, so we thought it would be a great idea to create this one-off shirt,” he said.
“We’ve changed the hoops to poppies and we’re planning to auction them off and raise money for the Royal British Legion after the game with all funds going to them, and it’s good we can do that from a women’s perspective too.
“I did something similar during my time at Hartlepool and managed to raise almost £70,000 over 10 years, and I hope we can do something like that here, the local Legion branch are really excited to be a part of it, and we want to make it an annual event for them.”
Ahead of kick-off at Oxford Street on Sunday, a minute’s silence will be held in order to honour the fallen, with a collection also being held on the gate to raise further funds for the Royal British Legion, and Green hopes the day’s events can be the start of a regular feature in women’s football.
“No-one has ever done a dedicated female Remembrance Day before and this is just the start of what we think is a great initiative for women’s football, we’ll also have a woman flag-bearer and someone to lay a wreath before the game,” he added.
“Everything is female-orientated for the game, we’ve added the touch on the bottom of the shirt with a quote saying ‘Each one was someone’s son’, we really want to pay homage to women and mothers of those in the armed forces.
“It’s so obvious for us to do it, women were a massive part of the war as well, and for myself coming into women’s football it’s made me more aware too, and we want them to be a big part of it.”
Stay tuned to official channels for more information on the charity auction for the one-off shirts after Sunday's game against Bedworth United.