Kingston FC is encouraging local businesses to support the club during its first season in English football.
New local football club Kingston FC is asking local businesses for help as it enters its first season.
The team has already secured sponsorship from Kingston’s Banquet Records and raised £3000 via a fundraising event at The Fighting Cocks pub. This money has helped the club begin its footballing journey in the Surrey South Eastern Division 2.
But, says founder and manager Adam Smith, costs are still rising.
Smith told the Courier that the club “needs investment that allows us to attract more support from local businesses who want to sponsor us”.
Additional sponsorship would help Kingston FC afford to keep playing at the standard they are, and keep their ambitions of playing in the English football league alive, he said.
It was recently revealed that 99% of local British football clubs have seen costs rise over the past year, and that 57% do not feel they have sufficient funding to support their activities, according to a nationwide survey by sports equipment company Forza.
Forza’s 2026 Grassroots Football Survey collected responses from 409 football clubs across the UK, highlighting the increasing financial burden of maintaining facilities, equipment, and staffing, as well as the growth of girls’ and women’s teams – something Smith wants to explore soon.
Smith added that Kingston’s immediate struggle remains finding and affording a permanent pitch – an issue that Forza reported to have affected 83% of clubs last year – and that he’d kept player registration fees as low as possible to help fund pitch hires.
Kingston FC hopes to settle at the Fairfield Recreation Ground – the pitch that saw over 100 supporters attend the club’s first game of the season in August – with plans to sell merchandise to fans and advertisements for local businesses around the pitch to bring in extra revenue.
Smith remained adamant, however, that commercial gain is never the club’s main interest, and that the involvement of the community is what excites them.
The founder said that the support the club had already received was “incredible” and like nothing else he’d seen at Kingston’s level before.
Smith has several years of experience playing and coaching at clubs like Richmond & Kew FC under his belt, but said the response to the team has been unmatched.
The Kingston FC manager said: “Never before had that many people come to watch me or my team. Parents were recognising us on the street and at the games, going home and coming back with their kids to cheer us on.”
If you are interested in joining as a player or as a sponsoring business, please contact kingstonfc2026@yahoo.com.
