Football Governance

Written evidence submitted by the Football Foundation (FG 19)

1. The Football Foundation is funded by the Premier League, the Football Association and the Government. It is a unique partnership between English football and the UK Government, which invests £36 million into grassroots football and multisport projects every year. The Football Foundation is a good example of how TV rights money matched by investment from government and an NGB, is a successful model of funding grassroots sport.

2. Whilst not directly impacted by decisions made around the governance of the game, the Football Foundation is not immune from the influence of such decisions. The support provided by the Premier League and the FA, who are able to invest the proceeds of their commercial activities into grassroots sport, is vital. Any decisions affecting these commercial activities could result in a reduced investment into the Foundation.

3. Any reduction in the Football Foundation’s annual budget would not only restrict investment in new projects but would also stunt the achievements of existing projects as continued support ensures these projects’ success.

4. The Government are in a strong position to influence people’s behaviour, especially around health and fitness. It would be beneficial for the Government to work with the sporting bodies, such as the Football Foundation and its funding partners, to encourage people to participate in sport. The sporting bodies are ideal partners to help government achieve greater scale and quality as their participation policies are likely to be aligned to policies of the sporting bodies themselves.

5. Launched in July 2000, the Foundation celebrated its tenth anniversary this year and has so far supported around 7,656 community sports projects worth £933m. £407m of this has been direct funding from the three funding partners, which has been used to leverage a further £526m from local and other sources. This has a provided a 7:1 return on investment for each of the three funding partners.

6. The role of the Foundation is to provide funding to improve community grassroots sports facilities, especially in areas of greatest need. Last year alone the Foundation invested 61% of its funds into the 20% most deprived communities in the country.

7. The Foundation has also funded a significant number of social intervention projects, using participation in sport to address issues such as obesity, mental health, smoking cessation and cancer awareness; as well as funding social inclusion projects, which tackle high reoffending rates, gang culture and knife crime. Projects are also funded which provide opportunities for young people to get back into education, volunteering or employment.

8. Our comprehensive monitoring and evaluation system evidences participation increases year on year. Last year the overall increase across the sites was 18.7%. The tables below show the current levels of weekly participation at Foundation funded projects across the country in the three main schemes:

January 2011