FA announce grassroots football funding boost

The Football Association have pledged more money to help improve grassroots facilities and boost the quality of pitches.

The aim is to get more people playing the game and the programme will target 2,000 pitches over the next four years.

The Pitch Improvement Programme (PIP) is designed to deliver improvements to more than 2,000 grass pitches with an investment of £8m promised.

The FA also believe the scheme will provide a range of support services to grassroots clubs, club volunteers and groundsmen including on-site evaluations with practical advice and recommendations.

It will also include a range of measures to help develop the skills and knowledge of the volunteers and groundsmen and an additional pledge to spend £36m on facility improvements and new developments directly through the Premier League and FA Facilities Fund.

Further large-scale funding has also been dedicated to building a series of football hubs across 25 key cities - a pilot scheme is currently being constructed in Sheffield ahead of the next grassroots football season - with discussions in progress with the Government and Premier League for similar contributions for the wider roll-out.

Kelly Simmons MBE, FA director for participation and development, said: "Last winter we asked people from across grassroots football what they felt would make playing football better.

"Nearly 30,000 people gave us their view, yet among the vast majority the answer was remarkably similar: supporting clubs to improve their pitches.

"We have committed to investing a total of £260 million in addressing the problem of poor quality facilities and improving grassroots coaching by 2019.

"In addition to the PIP, we are now a heartbeat away from the start of our groundbreaking football hubs project with the pilot initiative set to go live in Sheffield this summer."

Read more about the FA's Pitch Improvement Programme here