Sometimes the most meaningful services begin with a relatively simple question:
Could we do something different?
Around 18 months ago, that question started a conversation between our Head of Business Development, Rebecca Milic-Brown (Becca) and the wider team here at Life & Progress.
We already understood the value of confidential wellbeing support. It’s what we do. But we also recognised something particularly powerful about football.
Football clubs aren’t simply businesses or sporting organisations. They sit at the heart of communities. They connect generations, families and friends. They create belonging, identity and shared experiences that can last a lifetime.
That led to another question:
Could that connection provide a new route through which people could access meaningful support when life becomes difficult?
From those early conversations, MindOverMatch (Supporter Support) began to take shape.
More Than 90 Minutes
The principle behind MindOverMatch has remained remarkably simple.
People don’t stop having problems when the referee blows the whistle.
Behind every season ticket is a person with a life beyond football. They may be dealing with relationship difficulties, financial worries, workplace pressure, bereavement, loneliness, family concerns, anxiety or any number of everyday challenges.
Sometimes they may simply need information.
Sometimes they may benefit from self-help guidance.
And sometimes they need another human being to talk to.
Our ambition was to give football clubs a practical way of extending supporter care beyond the traditional matchday relationship, by providing eligible season ticket holders with access to confidential support when they need it.
That philosophy eventually became our strapline:
More Than 90 Minutes.
Becca’s role in the journey
New ideas need people prepared to champion them.
From the early development of MindOverMatch through to conversations with football clubs, presentations, demonstrations and the inevitable process of turning an idea into something that could work in the real world, Becca has been one of the driving forces behind the proposition.
As Head of Business Development at Life & Progress, her role naturally involves introducing organisations to new ways of supporting people. With MindOverMatch, however, there has always been an additional personal enthusiasm for what the concept could achieve.
Not simply commercially.
For the people who might eventually use it.
That’s why seeing MindOverMatch move from conversations and planning into actual football clubs has meant so much.
From the meeting room to the stadium
One particular moment recently brought that journey into sharp focus.
Becca was invited by Crystal Palace FC to announce their new MindOverMatch partnership in front of around 25,000 supporters.
Eighteen months earlier, MindOverMatch had been an idea being discussed and developed.
Now Becca was standing inside a Premier League stadium explaining to thousands of supporters that confidential support was available to them.
As she subsequently described it on LinkedIn:
“One of the proudest moments of my career.”
We can understand why.
For Becca, and for all of us at Life & Progress who have contributed to developing MindOverMatch, it represented much more than the announcement of another client.
It was seeing an idea become real.
Our mission for MindOverMatch
Our mission is not to suggest that football clubs should somehow become responsible for solving every difficulty in their supporters’ lives.
Nor is MindOverMatch intended to replace the excellent work already undertaken by clubs through safeguarding teams, community foundations, supporter liaison, charitable programmes, equality initiatives or existing wellbeing activities.
We want to complement that work.
Our mission is to help football clubs provide another accessible route to support – one that sits quietly in the background of a season ticket holder’s life, ready when it’s needed.
We want supporters to know they don’t have to wait until they’re at crisis point before reaching out.
We want someone experiencing a difficult few weeks to feel able to talk.
We want self-help information to encourage people to address issues earlier.
We want clubs to be able to regularly remind their supporters:
“If life becomes difficult, there is somewhere you can turn.”
And we want confidential supporter wellbeing to become an increasingly normal part of the conversation around football.
Supporting the person behind the supporter
There are millions of conversations happening around football every week.
Some are about team selection.
Some are about refereeing decisions.
Some are about whether that really was a penalty.
But among those same supporters are people worrying about tomorrow morning, struggling with something at home, grieving somebody they’ve lost, concerned about money or simply feeling that life has become harder than usual.
You can’t always see who is struggling.
And that’s precisely the point.
MindOverMatch isn’t really about supporting a crowd. It’s about supporting the individual people within it.
The journey is still beginning
We are immensely proud of how far MindOverMatch has travelled in its first 18 months.
But we also recognise that this is still the beginning.
Every new participating football club gives another group of eligible season ticket holders access to support.
Every club communication creates another opportunity for somebody to discover that help is available.
Every supporter who reaches out demonstrates why accessible, confidential support has a place within the wider football community.
And every conversation with another football club takes us another step towards the original vision.
Thank you, Becca
At Life & Progress, we’re proud of the people who take an idea and keep pushing it forward.
So this article is also an opportunity to recognise Becca Milic-Brown and her contribution to the MindOverMatch journey so far.
From helping shape and champion the proposition to taking it directly into football clubs – and most recently standing in front of thousands of Premier League supporters to introduce it – her belief in what MindOverMatch can become has remained constant.
And perhaps that’s fitting.
Because MindOverMatch itself started with belief.
A belief that football’s connection with its supporters can extend beyond the game itself.
A belief that clubs can play a positive role in signposting people towards support.
And a belief that sometimes giving somebody somewhere confidential to turn can make a meaningful difference.
We’re proud of how far we’ve come.
We’re excited about where we’re going.
And we’re looking forward to welcoming more football clubs – and more season ticket holders – on the journey.
Here’s to the next chapter.
MindOverMatch – Supporter Support.
More Than 90 Minutes.
Sept26, E&OE
