Eastbourne Borough Football Club announces new partnership with The Russell Martin Foundation

Together, the two will be working closely on community-based projects. They say they are both driven by supporting the local community using the power of football, education and health.

The charity, founded in 2017 to support young people through football and education, has won multiple awards in recent years – including a national award as Best Sports Community Scheme 2025 for its ‘Education – Make A Difference’ programme, as well as being highly praised by the PFA in both 2023 and in 2026.

Eastbourne Borough FC Chief Executive Alan Williams said: “The work of The Russell Martin Foundation is exemplary, and we would be mad not to work with them as we look to take our Community engagement to the next level. They have one of the best CEOs in Alan Sanders, who has worked for the foundation for a long time.

“Having taken Albion in the Community and made it the award-winning programme it is today, he is doing the same with the Russell Martin Foundation and it makes complete sense for us to work together and help deliver a community scheme to be proud of and build on the brilliant work Brad Boyle has already laid.”

At present, Eastbourne Borough run numerous after-school clubs in the area, on top of working with these schools to deliver their PE sessions. We also deliver our award-winning ‘Spirit of Football’ Disability programme.

Sanders added: “Working in partnership with Eastbourne Borough FC is a natural fit for us as the club’s vision for supporting the local community in a wide range of provision directly mirrors our own.

“We’re really excited by the prospect of helping the club benefit from our experience coupled with building on the success their programmes have already had.”

For more on the Russell Martin Foundation, visit www.russellmartinfoundation.co.uk