Who:
Football Foundation, Premier League and Barclays

Objective:
The Football Foundation has a strategic target of investing at least 40% of its Premier League & The FA Facilities Fund into some of the country’s most deprived regions. In order to provide young people across the country with access to sport, the foundation has awarded around 13,000 grants, worth more than £530m, to grassroots football facilities projects. With Barclays, the Football Foundation also runs Spaces for Sports, an initiative which uses sport as a platform to help young people get back into work, education or training, while also revitalising disadvantaged communities.

Strategy:
The Football Foundation recently awarded £15.1m from the Premier League & The FA Facilities Fund; which is funded by the Premier League, the FA, and Sport England, towards the building or rebuilding of floodlit, third generation, artificial grass pitches and modern changing pavilions at community sports centres. Since 2004, 200 community sports sites have been created by Barclays and the Football Foundation, supporting more than 40 different sports.

Rationale:
Investment in facilities and community outreach schemes enhance participation levels and build engagement with the professional game. The Football Foundation, since 2000, has used grants to attract partnership funding of over £740m. Paul Thorogood, chief executive of the Football Foundation, says, “The sole purpose of the Foundation is to deliver investment to where it is most needed and where it will have the greatest impact in terms of increasing participation levels and developing the strongest possible links with the professional game, ideally in the most deprived communities, where the need is greatest.”