The Football Foundation, the largest sports charity in the UK, has welcomed the Premier League’s announcement that it has approval in principle to renew existing UK television deals with broadcasters for a further three years.
Chairman of the Football Foundation, Martin Glenn, said the announcement was of huge significance to the Football Foundation and the whole of the football pyramid.
“We are delighted that the Premier League has committed to a further three years of funding for the Football Foundation and the Football Stadia Improvement Fund to support our efforts to improve facilities for non-League and grassroots players across England. This decision means we can make the long-term investments needed to deliver on our vision to transform lives through community sports facilities.”
The Foundation receives money from the Premier League, The FA and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, through Sport England, which is matched with partnership funding and awarded as grants to create grassroots facilities.
Since 2000, it has awarded more than 17,600 grants to improve facilities worth more than £710m – including 942 artificial grass pitches, 6,426 natural grass pitches and 1,200 changing facilities. This has attracted an additional £940m of partnership funding – totalling over £1.6bn investment in grassroots football facilities to date.
The Football Stadia Improvement Fund is solely funded by the Premier League and is the country’s largest provider of grants towards projects that help improve the comfort and safety of lower-league football grounds in both the professional and amateur game. These improvements range from new football stands and turnstiles to floodlighting and improved provision for disabled supporters.
