KIND OF FIERCE – Rugby Borough’s independent women

Rugby Borough are a rarity: an independent women’s team. Last season they finished third in the FAWNL Northern Premier Division, just behind the two promoted teams, Burnley and Wolves.

Their independence runs beyond mere finances though, as they strive to bring exciting football on the pitch and an edgy, entrepreneurial spirit off it. 

During the first ever FAWNL media day at the start of August, Clare McEwen speaks with pacy winger Malika Apindia about their style, ambition, and changing room DJ, and with CEO Max Turner about their kind but fierce culture and long term plans.

Malika Apindia – left midfielder

Tell me about Rugby Borough. What’s your style of play? What can fans expect from you this season? 

We’re a team that tries to play rather than just kicking long. We try to create things and rotations and overlaps. Lots of pressing. That’s our identity. 

Are the club trying to bring in new fans – are you hoping that the style of football brings people in or are there other things you’re doing to bring them in too?

This season they’ve tried to bring in a media team to showcase us a bit more – I don’t think they had the chance to in previous seasons. 

So hopefully, people will hear a bit more about us. 

Those shirts will help, everybody loves an orange shirt.

It’s bright, isn’t it [laughs]

What about the new signings, what are they going to bring to the side?

More speed up front, some skills and things that maybe we didn’t really have in our team. I’m not too sure in terms of signings because people come and go at the moment, but hopefully just make us better.

What are the hopes for the season? 

Everyone will wish for promotion but I think it’s just bringing that togetherness and trying to be a bit better than we were last season.

Are there long-term ambitions because it’s a good set-up at Rugby? 

The set-up is really good. We’ve got everything that any team would need to be able to go forward. As a club, in the long term, it’s to try and get higher, but we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, take one game at a time and see how we get on. 

What fixtures do you most look forward to? There’s always a bit of rivalry in every league. 

I don’t think we’re that type of club, we treat every game the same. We don’t have a team that we would want to or not want to face. We just treat everything the same. 

What do you love about football? 

That’s a very good question. I just like to kick a ball, if I’m honest. I like tackling. I like having people you can enjoy the same sport with and have fun with.

I see the same faces pretty much every day – I like it. Just being in this environment, I just like it. 

What does your normal day look like, given it’s part-time?

Well I sometimes do some bakery work. I do a bit of coaching. I used to work before that, but I had to make a decision because the timing and being in pretty much every day made it hard to have a full-time job.

So yeah, just trying to coach, bakery when I can, and resting when I can. It changes every day. 

Who do you coach? 

I coach a team in Luton, they’re called Sundon Park Rangers. It’s a boys team – Under 10s.

Who’s your changing room DJ?

Mai [Moncaster], she’s our DJ. She just puts random songs on [laughs]. Yeah, I think Mai and Ebbs [Ebony Wiseman] are the ones in charge of the music.

Are they any good?

It’s alright, to be honest. Sometimes I don’t know the songs, but yeah, it’s good. 

Are you looking forward to the new season?

I am, I really am. We’ve been working really hard so hopefully, we can showcase ourselves a bit more.

Max Turner – CEO

How would you sum up your culture?

I think it’s growing. It’s really easy to say that we’ve got an inclusive culture and we have, we’ve got a kind culture – kind is a word that is not used enough – but we’ve actually got a fierce culture as well.

My background is of being a shocking Sunday League player – really, really poor, but very enthusiastic. 

Professionally, I’ve worked in care and education, and the women’s game’s got a long way to go in terms of safeguarding. There’s elements within the game that I don’t want to feel comfortable with. So, while we’re kind, and we really value that, if you treat our players badly, you’ll find that we’re not kind anymore [laughs]. 

And I think that’s right. I think you should be fierce. 

We talk about education, education, education, all the time, and that’s great. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in that. But if you racially abuse one of our players, then I’m not bothered about education, I’m not okay with you, and I’m going to protect my player. 

If you discriminate against one of our players in terms of gender, then I’m not okay with that and I’m going to be fierce in my response.

So yes, we want our culture to be kind, but we’re quite happy for it to be fierce as well.

What’s the longer term plan, not just on the pitch, but beyond that?

Longer term is never about taking money out of the club, that’s not what we’re about. And quite frankly, if you get into football because you think you’re going to make a mint, then you’re daft [laughs]. So the longer term plan is absolutely to be a WSL club.

I think, probably with Lewes, there’s an argument to say at the moment we’re probably the third biggest independent club in the country – and we’re so proud of that and I would always protect that. 

But I want us to be the biggest self-sustaining women’s club, independently, in the country. That’s the absolute goal because I don’t want that thing of going in the future: we’re gonna have to bomb off a player because of finances. 

We can say, no.

We have a club now that is built around a multifaceted approach. We’ve got our education [delivering a post-16 education programme, combining academic study with full-time football].

We’ve got our marketing, which is proudly controversial at times – I always hope we get in trouble because I want us to say something. I don’t just want us to be vanilla, but I think people want that as well.

You don’t always want that glitzy glamour, you want something real to be said. And in the same way, like I said about safeguarding, if it’s not okay, let’s call it out and let’s say it. 

We’ve got a very, very, very generous owner that has effectively put millions into the club to sustain it over the years. 

If we can get it right, our budget says that by the end of this year it should actually be making money – which for a women’s club, that’s massive. 

That will be money that goes back in and then we build and build and build on it.

Ideally, it would be lovely to have a model where we can go and support other clubs who we believe in, in terms of their value-base. 

I don’t know if you’ve ever come across Sporting Khalsa – wonderful club, really, really good people, so where we can partner up and introduce our education system with those kinds of clubs, absolutely, because that will help clubs like that and it’ll help us. 

Finally, which is really interesting, we have over the summer signed our first two Thai boxers. So you think well, if our value base is about women’s sport, why do we necessarily need to stop at football?

We have two twins, Winnie and Tilly. They have just fought in Bangkok for England. We want to see how far we can go, as well. 

What are your competitive advantages as an independent club?

Morality. 

Some days, I wish that I had… I won’t mention a brand, just in case they want to sponsor us some day…. I wish I had a huge, huge sponsorship deal. Because it would mean, we have to scrap around less and have a bit more room in budgets.

But, the truth is, it does mean that we steer our own ship. We’re not beholden to other people. It also means that when we get brands that want to come in and sponsor us, they’re the right people. 

If you just want this vanilla approach to women’s football – which is just always chasing the men’s game, how can we make it more like the men’s game – then don’t sponsor Rugby Borough, we don’t want you.

If you want to be involved with us, partner with us because we’re different and going to push a boundary, we’re going to be a bit edgy at times, then great, come and get involved.

I do think that has commercial merit.

Rugby Borough begin their campaign at home to Peterborough United at 3pm on Sunday 16th August.

Photos: Laura Smith