It would be remiss to say Katie Allen is on a trajectory of success as she picks up a second award in less than a week. Katie was nominated in the ‘Match Official of the Year’ award at the Berks & Bucks County FA Awards alongside Stuart Marsh and Manny Chandwani and picked up the coveted award at the ceremony held at Adams Park, the home of Wycombe Wanderers.
Katie had the following to say of her success at winning the award, “I feel incredibly honoured and humbled to have been nominated for the county awards, let alone to have won it. As the other nominees were exceptional and all had a lot of experience too. To be nomination for the national awards feels absolutely out of this world, as 3 years ago I began refereeing as a way to earn a bit of pocket money and learn some extra skills. Refereeing has now become a lot more than that for me, it has become a way of life.”.
But the success doesn’t stop there as Allen was then nominated for the National Grassroots Awards in the same category. The ceremony was set to take place at the King Power Stadium in Leicester prior to the 2022 Community Shield fixture between Liverpool and Manchester City.
The England Football and McDonald’s Grassroots Football Awards are to recognise and celebrate the people who put their heart and soul into the grassroots game across England, and to say a huge thank you to the incredible volunteers who inspire us all.
England Football on the purpose of the Grassroots Football Awards
We are absolutely delighted to confirm that Katie was the winner of the award.
We caught up with Berks & Buck Referee Development Officer Sam Myatt for his thoughts on Katie’s achievement, “It’s a fantastic yet deserved achievement for Katie. She has worked so hard to climb the ladder on both the male and female pathways whilst continuing to develop herself. Having Katie win the national award is truly inspiring and hopefully we can use the award to raise the profile on female referees in football. They now have a role model to look up to and I am sure this will help inspire the next generation of female match officials within the County”.
Congratulations Katie, you are a fantastic advocate of women in football and proof of how important it is to have representation across the grassroots game in Berks and Bucks.
