The Alessia Russo Foundation held its second Alessia Cup at Tottenham’s New River Leisure Centre.
After the success of the inaugural 2025 tournament, girls from schools in North and East London returned to compete and help inspire the next generation of footballers in the women’s game. Highgate Wood School were crowned champions, earning prizes including Adidas boots and tickets for England matches.
The event received a lot of positive feedback from the teachers of the schools who competed. Iona Mills from the City of London Academy Shoreditch Park said: “The Alessia Cup is an absolutely amazing opportunity for the children. This is something that I would have absolutely loved as a child myself. It's just incredible what has been put together, giving them kind of like a real experience of football.”
Jack Cahalin from Mulberry School for Girls also praised both Sky and Adidas for being able to come together and provide such an amazing event.
“It’s our first time at the Alessia Cup today, and we've brought Mulberry School for Girls. They're having a great time going round, not only just playing football but connecting with everybody that's here as well. You feel a real sense of community, and the events that Sky and Adidas have put on, it's such an amazing day for them... something that they wouldn't normally experience. It's just really inspirational to see so many girls playing football and having such a good time.”
Participants had the chance to step into the world of broadcasting through Sky Up E-vehicles, using green-screen technology to create their own content and develop digital skills. The girls also enjoyed a range of workshops, including careers advice from Driven By Us, women's health support from Plan International, dance and T-shirt printing, alongside the opportunity to trial Adidas football boots.
The day, delivered by Company A Works, finished with an on-stage Q&A with Alessia and Sky Sports Reporter, Uma Gurav, allowing participants to hear about her experiences and ask questions.
Speaking afterwards, Arsenal and Lioness striker Russo spoke about how special it was to be able to put on the event, and continue to break down the barriers such as limited opportunities for young girls.
“It’s been amazing to work with Sky again to bring The Alessia Cup back for another year. It means so much to me to see so many young girls enjoying football, building their confidence and having fun together. I’m really proud to help break down barriers and create more opportunities for girls in sport, and I hope today inspires them to keep believing in themselves, both on and off the pitch.”
The Alessia Cup is just one of the commitments from the Alessia Russo Foundation, and the Tottenham and Wood Green Independent had the opportunity to speak with the foundation’s Partnerships and Operations Manager, Lucy Banerjee.
Speaking about the event as a whole, she reflected on it extremely positively.
“It’s been amazing, so many schools [have] come together, so many people involved, and so many moving parts, but it’s great because the main focus is for the girls, and we’ve done such an incredible amount for them, and you can really see their impact, so overall it’s been such an incredible day.”
As the UK's leading investor and broadcaster of women's sport, Sky is committed to breaking down barriers to participation. Its Game Changing research found that girls aged 11–18 miss out on 280 million hours of sport each year compared with boys, despite the lasting benefits sport can bring. Through initiatives like the Alessia Cup, Sky is helping turn greater visibility into meaningful opportunities for the next generation.
It was these commitments which aligned with the foundation’s mission, which is something that Banerjee was extremely proud of.
“Their support is completely unmatched, and their mission is completely aligned with what we are doing, so to partner with Sky means the world, not just to our mission, but also to the girls involved and the reach that we want to create”
She additionally spoke about why the foundation was originally set up, citing Russo’s commitment to breaking down certain barriers preventing young girls from playing sport.
Sky’s 2025 women in sport report found that on average, 11- 18-year-old boys spend 1.4 hours more per week playing sports than 11- 18-year-old girls. This is equivalent to adolescent girls being sidelined for 52 football matches per year. It's participation barriers like that which Russo was trying to help break down.
“The main motives were based on what Alessia really cared about; she grew up in football, and a lot of her friends dropped out for various reasons: not having the right support, social pressures or changes as they grew up.
“We built the foundation on three of the core pillars which Alessia focused on: Participation, Careers and Health, trying to offer it to young girls who may not get that access.”
These pillars played a vital role in shaping the ideas behind the foundation, mainly due to the fact that it’s what Russo was so strongly passionate about, which was reaffirmed by Banerjee.
“They mean so much to Alessia. Growing up, she had the great opportunity to play football at her school; a lot of girls don’t get that access, especially in disadvantaged areas. At the foundation, we’re focused on trying to create a competitive environment through participation and give those girls an opportunity to play on a day like today, when normally they might not be able to.
“Also, through the curriculum (education), we are training coaches to help support these girls, so through that we can help to reduce dropout rates.
“Through careers, a lot of these girls in disadvantaged areas don’t have the access to the right support to achieve, or go down the pathways that they want to, so it is really important that they can get that access to, so it is really important that they can get that, and we offer that through different areas.
“Lastly, getting the girls health help and support for underserved issues”
In terms of participation, the foundation has worked closely with Football Beyond Borders, an education and social inclusion charity using football to help young people. This has allowed the Alessia Russo Foundation to launch the Power Her Play, an “evidence-informed curriculum and training programme designed to help girls aged 11- 18 stay engaged in sport during adolescence.”
Overall, the programme combines four key areas: specialist practitioner training, curriculum resources and toolkits, body confidence and wellbeing education, practical coaching guidance, ongoing evaluation and learning.
Banerjee praised the charity’s support and work, particularly in helping with the Power Her Play project.
“They’ve been incredible; they've shaped the curriculum from its early years and early months. The development has been really amazing, and we're in the pilot stage at the moment, so we're finding how to better support the coaches and give them the right resources and the right information to know how to coach and support those girls even better.
“Football Beyond Borders has such incredible reach, and they work with their practitioners all across the country.
“That success is really important because it's the areas that we want to target; it's those girls that don't normally have the access, and usually would be facing barriers and [would] face dropout rates, and we're looking to reduce that. All the employers have been incredible to partner to create that impact.”
She also believed that the success of the England women’s football team, particularly by winning both Euro 2022 and Euro 2025, helped spark an interest for girls in young football.
“The stage that they've been given and their achievements on such a global stage, it has such a power for these young girls. They look up to them; they're role models.
“So when you see them doing so much and achieving so much, you know, young girls can look up to them and see that they can do that too, and that's why we want to reflect on the foundation: if you know you're able to do that as role models, you know [you can] create that change for those girls.”
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