Every child plays. That is the whole idea.
A football club in North Oxford, run by parents since 1973. If your child wants to play, our job is to find them a game.
A club photograph belongs here. Send one to enquiries@summertownstars.org.
Who runs the club
Every one of these is a volunteer with a day job and, in most cases, a child at the club. If you want to ask about something, ask any of them.
We are collecting photographs and a few words from each of the committee before publishing this. Nobody who volunteers should find their face on a website without being asked first.
What we believe
Four things, each of which somebody could hold us to.
Every player plays
Every player who turns up gets a game, and the minutes are shared evenly across the squad rather than handed to whoever is best that morning. A coach varies it only in the player’s own interest: a child who has had enough for the day and wants to come off, or one who will get more out of Friday’s development session than out of this fixture. If that happens you will be told why, and it will not be about how good they are.
Every parent helps
There are no paid coaches here. The club runs because parents step up, and almost none of them planned to.
Every volunteer matters
Whether you run a team or wash the bibs, you are the reason this works. We fund the qualifications and we say thank you properly.
Football for a lifetime
Play at your own level, for as long as you want to. Children who stop playing matches keep training, adults come back at 40, and moving your body with other people is one of the most reliable things you can do for your health.
Our story
It started in a pub in 1973, watching the FA Cup final. Two fathers had decided to start a football club and had not settled on the colours, so they settled it the easy way: whoever wins, we take their stripe.
Sunderland beat Leeds that afternoon, in one of the great cup upsets. Red and white it was, and red and white it has been ever since. The first team played that season, 1973 to 1974.
Players have gone a long way from here. Joey Beauchamp went furthest, to Oxford United. But the thing that actually defines this club is not the ones who went on: it is the number of children who have played their football at Summertown Stars and are part of the story. That is what has made us the largest community youth football club in Oxford.
We now run 63 teams, from Under 6s through to our men's first XI, with more than 850 children and young people playing every week. Alongside those sit ten development squads, three adult sides and our Warriors disability team.
How the club is run
Summertown Stars AFC is a private company limited by guarantee, incorporated in June 2020, company number 12449576. It is run by a Board of Directors who are elected by the members at the AGM each June and who are, without exception, volunteers.
Four of those roles are set by our Articles of Association and are Directors by virtue of the office: the Chair, the Secretary, the Treasurer and the Club Welfare Officer. The Board is between four and twelve people. Alongside it sits a committee of portfolio leads who run the club day to day.
We are also registered with HMRC as a Community Amateur Sports Club, which gives the club tax reliefs, and we are an FA Chartered Community Club at Level 3, Thriving Community Club. Those are three separate things: a company, a tax status and a football accreditation.
What that means in practice is that nobody takes a profit out of this club. There are no shareholders and no dividends. Every subscription goes back into football. We do employ a small amount of administrative help, because a club this size cannot be run entirely on goodwill, and our accounts are published and available on request.
Our Articles of Association are filed at Companies House and are publicly viewable. Committee meetings are open to members.
Where we play
Six grounds across North Oxford. Facilities, parking and directions for each are on the training page.
Five Mile Drive
Our Saturday morning home, and where most children play their first game.
Cutteslowe Park
Weekend fixtures across several pitches.
The Cherwell School
The 3G. Most weekday evening training and every Friday development session.
OUP Jordan Hill
New for 2026/27, taking our 9v9 teams.
Phil and Jim
Weekday evenings for the youngest teams, and the Warriors on Sundays.
Oxford Hawks
Midweek training, mainly our girls teams.
Support the club
Our sponsors are a large part of why nobody here is priced out of playing.
Our sponsors, and how to become one →