Having members of your MAN v FAT club willing to drive the value of community will be crucial to building a supportive network among your guys. For this case study, we head to Wales to speak to Dave Hughes. Dave was chosen as MAN v FAT’s Community Hero in 2023, for his role at MAN v FAT Bridgend. Why is community so important at your club?The beauty with having a diverse group at Bridgend is that there’s always someone who has a cause close to their heart. It’s just natural that when you get talking to the people around you and hear their reasons for supporting a particular charity or gr ..read more

Becoming a MAN v FAT member is often the gateway to more regular participation in physical activity. It doesn’t just have to be about chasing a football around, though, and many of you pull on your running shoes to support your fitness and weight loss goals. We head to Warrington to find out from coach Dan Edwards and assistant coach Al Robinson about how the lads get involved in the local Park Run. What is your inspiration for getting the community involved in Park Run?The inspiration came from our Assistant Coach, Al Robinson, looking to enhance his running progress, improve his fitness s ..read more

We know that, once members have made good progress with their weight loss, there’s an appetite for additional football opportunities. In the last couple of years, MAN v FAT has offered a national XIs programme, giving clubs the chance to participate in eleven a side football. We spoke to Jake Garratt, coach at MAN v FAT Lincoln to find out how the club have embraced the XIs programme. What was the motivation to start an XIs team at Lincoln?We saw quite a few other MAN v FAT clubs nearby playing 11s and we wanted to get involved to give the lads more opportunities to play football outside of ..read more

Providing mental health support is a key part of the MAN v FAT membership and we know that there are significant wellbeing improvements from being a part of the community. Coaches and Assistant Coaches get the chance to undertake Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training and we caught up with James Bretherton, Assistant Coach in our Liverpool club, to find out more. Tell us the reason you signed up to the MHFA course?I really wanted to this course to assist with the extra support MAN v FAT can give to its players. After suffering from poor mental health in the past, i know how vital someth ..read more

We go to Manchester for our latest case study, where Ant Bromley and Stu Normansell tell us about the extra match time their lads have organised to further bolster their fitness! What is the reason you organise extra kick abouts?It started way back in 2017 when the first Manchester club launched. We had 80 guys who were looking for a bit more time on the pitch to improve their fitness and skills. Since then every new MAN v FAT Club that’s launched in Greater Manchester has organised their own Kick Abouts and some have merged over the years. How do you organise it each week?Firstly there ..read more

Talk About It Mate is one of the original mental health support groups that has links with the MAN v FAT community.  Mike Richard tells us all about it! What do you do at Talk About It Mate?We specialise in creating spaces for people to connect in as we believe in the power of people helping people. Our work has developed over the past 5 years from casual meetups and events in Manchester to more organised peer support spaces which we were able to move online during the pandemic. Alongside these, we were able to connect people through WhatsApp groups, with our main group still going s ..read more

Mel Bryant is our coach in MAN v FAT Eastleigh, Gosport AND Southampton! She has built some incredible communities in the south and gives us the lowdown on an event that’s worked well in her clubs. Why is the social scene so important at your clubs? The social scene is more important now following on from Covid than ever. Many of our members are now working from home and are far more isolated than they would have been before, so the social side is important to support everyone’s mental health, providing a support network as we all get to know each other better, of like-minded people, with ..read more

For this case study, we head to Wales to meet Andrew Rowley, formerly of MAN v FAT Newport and now of MAN v FAT Merthyr, talking about their mental health mornings with Expresso Yourself. What was the inspiration for Espresso Yourself?Espresso Yourself started because I identified a clear gap in what was needed. For an abundance of reasons that I won’t go into, my own mental health took a bit of a wobble. Something quite serious happened to someone I love and while I did everything in my power to solve the problem for them, I neglected how it affected me. Like most men I bottled it up, ignor ..read more

No ifs, no buts, shin pads are a must. Alright, let’s talk shin pads. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, to take part in MAN v FAT Football you’ve got to wear ‘em (and same goes for any football game under FA rules). It’s common sense, but shin guards protect your shins from injury, whether that’s a swift kick when someone mistakes your leg for the ball or from a particularly nasty tackle. You might not think you’ll be unlucky enough to injure your shin, but all it takes is one incident before you’re wincing in pain from a sliced up bit of skin or a shattered shin. Having said that, we know they can be ..read more

The phrase “football is more than a game” is a sentiment echoed by all those involved in the sport, from players and coaches to fans and commentators. In Carlisle, the saying is certainly ringing true. The beautiful game has become the centrepiece for a movement that champions better mental and physical health for men in the local area. Carlisle United and MAN v FAT Football are working in support of each other to make a greater impact in the community. This collaboration, which was recently unveiled at the club’s “Walk to the Match” event, marks the first of many joint efforts aimed at p ..read more