Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport Minutes of Evidence


Supplementary memorandum submitted by the Football Association

Committee questions are shown in italics.

Does the Government invest adequately in grassroots football given its popularity and potential to contribute hugely to the achievement of the Government's emerging objectives on active lifestyles?

What does the Government invest at the moment?

What does "football" contribute? (Including clarification of the FA/Premier league contributions reference in the FA memo—the £20 million, "each" or "both" together).

What is the potential benefit that further investment might be able to unlock?

Is the existing infrastructure adequate? Are playing fields sufficiently protected in planning law?

Does local government play its part?

THE FA RESPONSE

  More than seven million adults and five million children regularly play the sport. It is this passion that underpins English football. The annual value contribution of football to the Treasury via tax is over £630 million and the value of volunteers to the football economy is more than £500 million.

  The key to ensuring the long-term health of the game, at every level, is to invest in football's grassroots. English football leads Europe in this respect—The FA invests over £50 million in grassroots football annually—and runs a number of programmes aimed at improving the grassroots—and together with The FA Premier League, we distribute more than any other European country. By contrast, the investment in sport by central government is among the lowest in Europe.

  Our own research has shown the need for £2 billion of investment in grassroots facilities just to meet the public's current demand to play the game. That is the single most important financial issue facing the game in this country today.

  Both the FA and the FA Premier League contribute £20 million each to the Football Foundation on annual basis. To date, the Government (through lottery funds) has matched this agreement. It is a partnership that has worked very well as for every £1 of government money invested, the Foundation has secured an additional investment of £5.

  This arrangement is currently being reviewed by Government—both the FA and FA Premier League are keen to continue this partnership and are hopeful the Government will also agree to this.

  The Government is currently finalising its spending review process. The FA, together with Sport England and other organisations are making the case for a significant increase in the level of investment in sport.

  The most important area is the contribution it can make to tackle obesity and physical inactivity. Recently the Chief Medical Officer released his report into physical activity and its relationship to health. Professor Liam Donaldson's report stated that each adult should take at least thirty minutes of exercise a day and children sixty minutes. The FA welcomes this advice. The Chief Medical Officer's advice couldn't be clearer; football is good for you. With seven million adults and five million children regularly playing football, The FA is one of the largest exercise providers in the country.

  It is now vital that we build on this platform and make available more opportunities for people to play the game. This means investing in facilities and people so that more people have access to good quality football.

  The FA is working closely with the Government and Sport England to meet the challenges set by Professor Donaldson. It will require significant extra investment from Government, but this is money well spent if it saves us from the cost of an obese nation.

GRASS ROOTS INVESTMENT

  The FA is investing between £45 million and £50 million a year in the grassroots game. The FA has to prioritise the areas that need the money most. To make a real difference, we work through partnerships to deliver our strategy; a unique network of partnerships has been created to ensure the best use of resource, with local consultation. The Local Football Partnerships (LFPs) include local authorities, local education authorities, local professional clubs, Football in the Community and other relevant local organisations.

  Some of the highlights of the "return on our investment" are worth emphasis here:

    —  The current season has seen the largest rise in participation numbers since 2001, 6.7% higher than last season.

    —  Football is the number one participation sport for females in England, a target reached two years ahead of schedule.

    —  The number of children (under 10) playing mini-soccer has almost doubled since 1999.

    —  The downward trend in the recruitment of referees of the last few years has been reversed.

    —  Over 10,000 Primary School teachers (over 90% women) have been trained to effectively teach football via the TOP Sport programme.

    —  Over 1,100 clubs have now reached The FA Charter Standard, far in excess of the 950 target.

    —  Since 2001, £100 million worth of grass roots facility projects have gained approval from the Football Foundation, benefiting 110,000 new participants in the game.

  All of these achievements have only been made possible due to the investment of revenue, both directly and via the Football Foundation, which is primarily generated by the game's "elite" in The FA Cup and through the England team.

PROVIDING POLICY LEADERSHIP

  The FA therefore looks to Government to provide support for the game and make sure that policies that come from every Government department take account of the impact they will have on the ability to support the game. We look for leadership, support and partnerships, particularly from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

  There are a number of policy issues that are most relevant as they have a direct impact on the financial resources of the game. Football can make a huge contribution to tackling social exclusion issues such as crime prevention, education, health promotion and community cohesion. We need to continue to build a co-ordinated approach across Government, to ensure that we can harness the power of football to build a better future in the most effective ways.

PLANNING

  A well-organised, protected network of playing fields is vital for football and sport in this country. Not only does sport need its playing fields for the stars of the future to hone their skills, the country needs recreational spaces and sporting facilities in order to meet the Government's goals of a healthy, active population; this is even more vital where school playing fields, and children's health, are concerned. However, despite the importance of facilities, an average of one playing field every day comes under threat from new planning applications.

  This particularly affects football as, unlike other sports, around 75% of football is played on publicly owned land, and a vast proportion of football is unaffiliated, played with "jumpers for goalposts" on unofficial, unmarked open space. Given the scope and reach of the game across various levels of participation and support, football has the most to lose by any erosion of publicly available playing fields. Although Planning Policy Guidance Note PPG 17 outlines ways in which playing fields should protected, the loss of playing fields is becoming increasingly prevalent. The DCMS and other relevant departments do not appear to be doing enough to ensure that PPG17 is properly enforced, and consequently vital grassroots facilities are being lost.

  Some of the most significant issues for clubs and their supporters focus on the club ground, particularly where a club's board looks to move. The main financial asset of most football clubs is its ground. Clubs have sought to raise finance on this asset, and also looked to maximise the revenue from its use. It is the sale of a ground (particularly without another one to move to) that often creates the greatest unhappiness amongst supporters. While the relevant football leagues have looked to improve club consultation with stakeholders and change their rulebooks to address this issue, The FA is looking for greater support from central and local government in its planning framework.

  Putting supporters and the community at the heart of a business is important. Hopefully, local communities will also treat their clubs as special—something that is not always borne out by experience. There are tensions between clubs and their communities, for instance in the form of residents' associations. We need a more constructive dialogue with all agencies in the future.

  We are focusing largely on the issue of one ground closing before a club has a very real alternative. It is The FA's view that the game needs a policy in place that The FA, local authorities, Sport England and other agencies can use to deliver a strategy at local level, to protect the long term. This does not exist at present.

  The Government recently updated PPG 17—the guidance that covers sport and leisure facilities. PPG 17 states that "open spaces, sport and recreation all underpin people's quality of life and represent important local community assets". The PPG also states that local authorities should undertake robust assessments of the existing and future needs of their local communities for sports facilities.

  The local sports club is a key local community asset. We would like to see the local authority take a far more pro-active role in promoting the local club. In particular, local authorities should not allow the ground to be sold off for housing development unless a realistic alternative local site has been approved. Too often the debate is concerned by S106 discussions; we think the debate should be much more about finding mutual benefit for the interests of the club and community.

  This is a complex issue, but we would urge the Select Committee to call for leadership from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) in this area. We would also call for greater consultation obligations through Sport England, when a club is looking to redevelop and move on.

Has the Government invested public funds aimed at harnessing the profile of professional footballers, and their clubs, to the achievement of wider public policy goals?

What has football done on its own?

  The Government is a partner with the FA Premier League and FA in the Foundation. This organisation has invested in many projects that use the status of footballers to promote good causes. We would refer the Committee to the Submission by the FA Premier League, which gives many examples in this area.

Do you think that football gamesmanship (diving, the so-called professional foul and intimidation of officials) has increased over recent years at the expense of sportsmanship?

—[If so] do you think this has had a bad effect on the game? Do you think that this reflects society; or influences it; or a bit of both?

  The FA views any form of cheating in football as negative, and works hard to both prevent it happening, and punish offenders if a case is proven. We have already outlined the work we do in promoting standards on the field through the development of refereeing. Just as importantly, we also work hard to educate our young players and their parents of the need for high standards. This is the way we aim to reach the participants of the future, both professional and amateur, and preserve the game's integrity. The FA Football Development Programme has a large number of educational initiatives, aimed at educating players of all ages, teachers, coaches and parents at all levels of the game. The projects are based around the themes of "Raising Standards", "Young Leadership", "Learning Through Football" and "Competitions", and some are outlined here:

RAISING STANDARDS

FA Charter Standard Schools

  A national kite-marking scheme to support and reward schools using football to deliver key strategic objectives such as raising standards, Out of school hours activity, young leadership development, school to community links and inclusion; 1,700 schools have currently received the award.

FA TOP Sport Football

  The FA TOP Sport Football programme is entering into its final phase. Over 9,000 schools and 12,000 teachers have been involved in the programme to support schools to raise standards in PE and Sport. Bags of equipment and simple coaching advice is provided free of charge to schools.

FA Adults other than teachers (AOTTS)

  Over 500 FA coaches will be trained this year in partnership with "Football in the Community" to support teachers at primary schools to deliver high quality PE and Sport as part of the new FA AOTTS "PE and Football" course.

Professional development for teachers

  Nearly 1,000 teachers in training have undertaken FA courses free of charge as part of, "The FA Coaching for Teachers in training programme", organised in conjunction with Sports Coach UK and Institutes of Higher Education. With over 13,000 teachers trained over the last two-and-a-half years as part of the FA teacher-training programme.

YOUNG LEADERSHIP

Junior Football Organisers Course

  A Junior leadership course designed to support PE teachers, providing training to young people aged 14-18. Specific knowledge and skills for working with players aged 6-11 are learned to deliver safe, fun and progressive football practices and mini-soccer games. County FAs provide local training courses for teachers to enable them to familiarise themselves with the course before delivering to their students. Over 9,000 young people have currently undertaken the award.

LEARNING THROUGH FOOTBALL

  "UP FOR THE CUP", is a comprehensive cross-curricular resource supporting the Key Stage 2 Curriculum for History, Geography, Art and Design and the framework for PSHE and the Literacy and Numeracy strategies. 6,000 schools every year receive the free pack.

Euro 2004

  Over 13,000 primary schools in England are already prepared for Euro 2004. The FA's educational pack will support primary teachers to use the power of football during the European Championship to tackle key subject areas such as health and fitness (Science), Geography, Maths and English. All Secondary schools in England will also have the opportunity to download the Key Stage 3 Science pack from the FA web site; TheFA.com.

SCHOOLS/COLLEGES COMPETITIONS

English Schools Football Association

  The ESFA are responsible for the provision of a comprehensive competitions structure for both primary and secondary aged children in England. Running 20 national competitions for 13,171 teams from under 11 to under 18, in addition to individual school, district and county teams.

English Colleges Football Association

  The ECFA currently run seven regional leagues for over 70 Football Development Centres that offer young people full time academic and football provision. The FA is working with the ECFA to introduce a Charter Standard accreditation in January 2005, to encourage young people aged 16-19 years old to stay in full time education and participate in football.

April 2004


 
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