Appendix 3 - Reply from the Football Foundation
The Football Foundation is the UK's largest sports
charity with an annual income of £45m by the FA Premier League
(£15m), the FA (£15m), Sport England and the Government
(£15m). The Football Foundation welcomes the Culture, Media
and Sport Committee's report into women's football. The Foundation
made a full and active contribution to the inquiry, submitting
both written and oral evidence.
In particular, the Football Foundation is grateful
to the committee for acknowledging the valuable work that we carry
out in funding pitches and facilities to give both genders wide
and equal access to the sport (paragraph 19). We are proud to
have supported over 88 projects worth £9.8 million aimed
exclusively at the development of girls' football.
The Foundation agrees that prejudice against women
in football must be tackled by all partners and we support the
committee's call for an increase in support of women's and girls'
football in all ways possible. The Foundation is also encouraged
by the emphasis on the responsibility of local authorities in
improving and maintaining community sports pitches (paragraph
19).
Whilst welcoming the majority of the report, the
Football Foundation is concerned by the criticism surrounding
the Foundation's support of the Active Sports Programme (paragraph
10). The Football Foundation is a charity focussed on kick-starting
projects so that they will become self sufficient. With this
in mind, the Foundation originally gave a five-year grant to the
Active Sports Programme. As the Active Sports Programme was still
unable to self-sustain after this time, this funding has since
been extended to eight years. This decision had been pending
for some time and the timing of our decision was entirely coincidental
to the Culture, Media and Sport committee report.
The Football Foundation welcomes the Culture, Media
and Sport committee's interest in this area and would be delighted
to keep the committee updated in all issues regarding the Foundation's
commitment to women's football.
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