FA announces grassroots investment

The Football Association has announced it will invest a record sum of £260million in grassroots football over the next four years.

The Football Association has announced it will invest a record sum of £260million in grassroots football over the next four years.

With the number of English players in the top flight decreasing, the FA has decided to invest over a quarter of a billion pounds in grassroots football from 2015-2019 as part of its National Game Strategy for Participation and Development

That is an increase of £60million on the previous four-year period, which came to an end this summer.

The FA hopes the investment will help it develop better players and improve training facilities.

The figure will be supported by a further multimillion pound investment, which will also help establish 30 new city hubs across England. Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester are among the cities who have declared an interest in hosting the hubs, which contain state of the art 4G pitches and new facilities.

FA Chief Executive Martin Glenn, speaking at the launch of the National Game Strategy for Participation and Development in Preston, said: "There are challenges facing grassroots football both in terms of facilities and coaching. Today we have set out how we will tackle the challenges head on.

"We have identified four key areas in which we have committed to investing £260 million over the next four years - facilities, coaching, participation and developing the football workforce. Our goals are ambitious, but achievable."