UPPING the GAME

The FA has published its new strategy to grow and develop grassroots football. Tom Walker looks into the details, which include a commitment to create 300 new 3G pitches

The Football Association (FA) has launched a four-year, landmark strategy to grow and develop grassroots football in England. Called A Thriving Grassroots Game , the new strategy aims to support sustainable growth over the next four years, with projections anticipating a further 220,000 new players across 15,000 new teams by 2028. It also follows on from the FA’s larger, main strategy, titled Inspiring Positive Change Through Football.

As well as outlining a range of more general, broad-brush goals – getting more people playing football, tackling inequalities, improving behaviour during games – there are plenty of specific targets and ambitions within the strategy.

Collaborative effort

The strategy has been developed in collaboration with the County FA network and follows what the FA describes as “the biggest ever consultation process with the grassroots game across England”. Through in-depth analysis the strategy identifies challenges that need to be met “head-on” and opportunities which the FA sees as transformative for the game.

“The strategy has been created for the game, by the game, and is an important moment for the future of grassroots football in England,” says FA director of football development, James Kendall. “To understand our participants better and to hear what they want to see from The FA and our County FAs, last summer we undertook our biggest consultation to date of the grassroots game. The insight we gathered was immensely valuable and has directly informed this strategy.

“We have a clear direction with our new strategy, and with our valued partners we are confident that this will help the grassroots game to thrive for years to come.” The document sets out a direction of travel for grassroots football by outlining five priority areas.

For each area, the FA provides an “explainer” of what the plan is. These are: Improving playing choice and opportunity To create new and varied playing opportunities to give everyone a chance to play the game, in a way that suits them best Deliver equal opportunities for women and girls to play To ensure every woman and girl who wants to play football has an opportunity to do so in a safe and enjoyable setting and in a way that suits their lifestyle Build more, and improve existing, facilities To increase the quality and quantity of grassroots football pitches and facilities across England, to better meet the demand Tackle poor behaviour To see a decline in cases of poor behaviour of any kind, and to increase reporting of discrimination, ensuring enjoyment is at the forefront of playing, volunteering or officiating grassroots football Develop a valued network of volunteers, coaches and referees To grow the number of grassroots volunteers, coaches and referees, and ensure they all feel valued and supported to fulfil their roles in the game.

As well as providing crucial insight during the drafting of the strategy, the local partners will be crucial in its implementation. Each County FA is responsible for delivering the game and leading the strategic development of the sport in their local area. This includes promoting participation; ensuring there are accessible facilities across all formats; providing equal opportunities to play and creating a fun and safe environment for all.

They also ensure local coaches, referees and volunteers are well supported to meet the needs of the game. Funding is received centrally from The FA, as well as driving their own revenue streams through local commercial opportunities.

To help align the delivery with the “bigger picture”, all of the County FAs have adopted the same strategy framework and will be sharing the FA’s strategic priorities over the next four years, in order to ensure the needs of the game are met locally. In addition, the County FAs’ measures of success also align with the national measures, ensuring a collaborative delivery of the priorities within the strategy.

Better facilities

One of the five key areas is to both build more and improve the existing facilities available to grassroots football. Here, the FA looks to build on the successful delivery of the targets itself in its previous strategy.

According to its own figures, the FA has delivered more than 5,000 new, quality grass pitches in the last four years, resulting in fewer games being postponed due to adverse weather. The facilities include new and improved clubhouses.

However, by its own admission, the FA accepts that the national football facilities landscape is still “nowhere near the standard that participants deserve”. This is reflected in the data provided by PitchPower – a digital assessment tool run by the Football Foundation – which shows that two in three grass pitches are rated as ‘poor’ quality.

Crucially, the FA says that more than 2,000 additional 3G pitches are needed to meet demand, with 96% of local authorities not having enough 3G pitches.

“We know that the quality of grass pitches is the number one factor that would make the playing experience more enjoyable,” The FA states in the new strategy. “It’s also one of the main reasons players drop out of the game.

“Dissatisfaction doesn’t just come from players. Club and league officials, volunteers and coaches all cite ‘facilities and/or pitch quality’ as the top reason for dissatisfaction with their football experience.

“That’s why we need to build on the great work we’ve done over the past four years to continue to transform the quality of existing grass pitches and build more, new 3G pitches. It’s also why we need to fund more inclusive and accessible facilities and ensure a keen focus on environmental sustainability.”

The FA’s Chief Executive, Mark Bullingham, added: “Over the next four years we will transform the landscape of our grassroots game by investing in more new quality grass pitches to reach our 12,000 target, alongside over 300 new artificial pitches.”

A trio of ambitions

Through the new strategy, the FA will aim for the grassroots game to play an important role in delivering three of the FA’s four ‘game-changer’ priorities over the next four years. These are to create equal opportunities for women and girls, transform the pitch landscape nationally and see a game free from discrimination.

For these areas, the new strategy outlines three key drivers to deliver on the game changer priorities: Support thriving community clubs To support a network of thriving community clubs to provide a brilliant football offer to their local communities, to grow in a sustainable way, and to be well-run Connect and serve participants To improve the digital offering and deliver new online services which are personalised, easy to access and help participants to fulfil their roles and find new opportunities Progress the game’s governance To better serve all football participants through the highest governance standards, at all levels in the grassroots game.

When it comes to the three drivers, the FA says that the emphasis will be to react to the changing landscape of community football. As an example of this, it says there has to be a recognition that there are now more large, multi-team community clubs than ever before.

“We have an exciting opportunity to support our grassroots football clubs to grow,” the strategy reads. “Multi-team clubs are getting bigger, a trend we’ve seen over recent years. By 2028 we expect over half of all football will be played in clubs with 20 or more teams. Their size means comprehensive football opportunities, but they can also act as local, and accessible places for people to meet, socialise and learn, creating community cohesion, inside and outside football.

“Of course, smaller clubs still have a vital place within grassroots football, and we will continue to support them. Nevertheless, this shift to larger clubs brings its challenges. In effect, these clubs are community businesses and if they are to prosper, they need access to the expertise on which such organisations are built. Such expertise is available through the England Football Accreditation programme. We want to support more clubs to get into the Accreditation programme to ensure they are growing and run in a successful and sustainable way.”

Social impact

Throughout the strategy, the FA highlights the positive impact that grassroots football has on society – and the need to build on it. To emphasise this, the FA has published a new report which sets out the social and economic value of grassroots football in England. Timed to coincide with the launch of the new strategy, the report shows that the value created by the sport equates to £15.9bn to society each year, up from £10.2bn in 2021. The report, titled The Social and Economic Value of Grassroots Football in England , outlines how grassroots football participation contributes to 324,000 preventions of disease cases and £3.2bn NHS savings – equivalent to 34.8m A&E visits.

Children who regularly play football are 20% more likely to have met the Chief Medical Officer’s physical activity guidelines

Big targets

If the FA achieves the targets it has set itself in the strategy, it will mean that, over the next four years, we will see 300 more 3G pitches being built across England. There will also be more than 220,000 new players and 15,000 new teams in 2028.

“We are projecting 12% further team growth in the game,” Kendall says. “This continued expansion of grassroots football is fantastic, but it also represents a significant challenge.

“We must ensure the infrastructure to support this growth is in place.”