Football Foundation awards £28.3m in grants to grassroots sports facilities
Melanie May | 2 September 2016 | News
128 grassroots sports facilities around the country are set to benefit from grants totalling £28.3m from the Premier League & The FA Facilities Fund.
The Football Foundation delivered the grants between January and June 2016 on behalf of the funding partners: the Premier League, The FA and the Government/Sport England.
Grants awarded from the Fund by the Foundation primarily go towards the development of new or refurbished floodlit third generation artificial grass pitches (AGPs), changing room pavilions and natural grass pitches in the areas of the country that need them most.
The Premier League & The FA Facilities Fund also provides smaller grants for smaller scale improvements, such as replacing unsafe goalposts and purchasing pitch maintenance equipment.
Grant beneficiaries include:
Edmonton Cricket Club LPS, which received £10,000 for replacement goals/ground maintenance equipment, Cedars Upper School, which received £1,075 for the replacement of unsafe goalposts, and Binfield FC, which received £240,157 for a new changing pavilion and the refurbishment of its existing clubhouse.
By using this grant money to leverage a further £25.1m of partnership funding, the Foundation has maximised this investment further, meaning that the total amount invested into community sport is £53.4m.
Last season, grassroots football facilities that the Foundation invested in saw a 7% increase in football participation and an 8% increase in multi-sport participation, such as rugby, cricket, and netball.
Richard Scudamore, executive chairman of the Premier League, said:
“Premier League clubs are committed to supporting all levels of English football and investing in community sports facilities is a key part of that. The facilities are essential to the work Premier League clubs are doing to encourage young people to play sport and will be used by primary schools for PE lessons, local amateur clubs for entire league programmes, and by professional clubs to deliver projects including Premier League Kicks and the Premier League Girls Football Programme.”
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.