COBRA FC HISTORY (founded 1979 – N Palmer)
06 Oct 2008

The club was formed in 1979. As with most clubs the reason for forming the club was some parents did not agree with the decisions being made by the Club their children were with. After much discussion with the original club, four parents decided to break away and form their own club.

They had to!! Their sons wanted to play football and if their Dads wanted a quiet life they had better do something about it!!! So, a couple of mums were roped in to be Secretary and assistant and off we went COBRA FC was formed.

The club started with 8 children of various ages from 8-10 years. Training started at Mayesbrook Park, Dagenham with an enthusiastic dad as trainer. By September there were 13 under 10’s ready to enter the ECHO league. We soon discovered that many of the children we had (brothers of the Under 10s) couldn’t play in the league because they were too young and so dad’s quiet life was shattered again – the next team was formed.

COBRA now has teams in a range of ages. COBRA have sides in The ECHO Junior Football League, with access to several others if required. Our catchment area is generally Barking & Dagenham but we have children from surrounding districts.

We currently have in excess of 100 children on our books and over the previous years we have provided a Club that has enabled over 2,500 to enjoy a game of football. Generally, our philosophy is that all children no matter what their ability are entitled to play football at their own level and if they are successful along the way so much the better.

In 2001 we began a process of obtaining Charter Standard status for the Club. We want to be a club our parents, players and volunteers can be proud of. We obtained this status in April 2003 after much hard work. All our managers/coaches are police checked for safety reasons as part of our Charter Standard status.