Burn FM were delighted to be receive an invitation to the pre-season press conference for the Birmingham City Ladies Football Club, having been promised a new and ‘exciting’ announcement. Chief Football Correspondent Sam Bernard and veteran Sports Correspondent Ben Giblin, headed to St Andrews in eager anticipation.
Having taken our seats in the luxurious International Suite amongst some of the city’s finest sports-journalists, it soon became clear what the announcement was. The new Birmingham CEO, Tim Andrews, in his first press conference, and Ian Dutton, Head of Commercial at Birmingham City FC, were delighted to announce the continued partnership of their successful relationship with Eze group as their principal shirt partner.
For those of you perhaps unfamiliar with the work done by the Eze group, they essentially offer customers a range of activities through its concierge services including business travel, holidays and leisure pursuits. Dutton was keen to point out the friendship-like relationship between both club and Eze, and was incredibly excited to have a great supporter of the club as the primary sponsor.
The press conference also provided Birmingham City Ladies with a chance to unveil their new kit for the upcoming Women’s Super League season, which kicks off against Liverpool on the 23rd March. Birmingham were delighted to announce the long term partnership with Adidas.
Blues ladies manager, David Parker, has expressed his delight at the four-year deal with the sporting manufacturing giants, who possess fantastic footballing heritage and tradition, remarking that the deal “marks an important step in the evolution of the Ladies Club and having the world’s leading brand wanting to work with us shows our ambition and shared vision in achieving our goals of being successful moving forward”. Burn FM are, likewise, big fans of the Blues kit.
The Birmingham Ladies stalwart Emily Westwood and Kerys Harrop were present to model the new kit and they were both kind enough to give us an exclusive Burn FM interview.
When asked about their tough opening fixture of the season, a FA Cup game against Arsenal, Harrop was keen to show her excitement. It was clear she is raring to get the new season underway. Harrop sees the opening game as a great way to test themselves after a grueling pre-season, one in which they can play without fear and gain an understanding on where they stand this season. There is no better way to test and compare themselves to tough competition so early on in the season.
With other teams, namely Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal, delving into their deeper wallets and importing a lot of talented players from overseas, Harrop recognises the increase in competition this season, but she was quick to praise the crop of young home-grown talent that has emerged in the Birmingham ranks over the last few seasons, and expects one or two to make the big leap up for the Blues this season.
Emily Westwood, who has been capped 32 times for England, summed up the upcoming season’s aim as one that has to see improvement from last year’s, perhaps, disappointing sixth place finish, while also hinting at potentially hinting at challenging for the title, which would be an incredible achievement for the Blues ladies. Westwood revealed the club thrives under the label of the underdog and that anything can happen.
Burn FM wishes both the Kerys Harrop and Emily Westwood, as well as all the other Blues Ladies luck for the upcoming season and we hope it can be one of real success.
Sam Bernard.
