CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S FOREWORD

This Annual Review is quite rightly focused on what has been achieved over the past year and we showcase some of the fantastic new facilities that are being enjoyed by communities up and down the country. However, it is worth reflecting on what has been achieved through the Football Foundation funding model over the past 18 years.

The Foundation was created by the Premier League, The FA and the Government in 2000 to help modernise community football facilities. Since then, the Foundation has used the significant funding provided by our Funding Partners to work with local authorities, local education authorities and community football clubs to create the facilities described by the Chairman in his introduction. As is the case in most other countries, the provision and maintenance of community sports facilities is the responsibility of local authorities. However, unlike in those countries, this responsibility is not mandatory in England. Therefore, when times are hard, community sports budgets are invariably the first to be cut.

However, local authorities have been willing to partner with the Football Foundation to build new community football/sports facilities, even when budget cuts have bitten the hardest, as this means that they only need to find part of the capital cost. They also do not have to set aside budgets to sustain them, as the Foundation ensures that each facility is supported by a Business Plan that makes them self-sufficient throughout their c. 25-year life.

Over the past five years – in the teeth of the worst recession in living memory – the Football Foundation has been able to draw sufficient funding out of local authorities and other partners to double the funding provided by our Funding Partners - taking investment into community football facilities to c. £130 million per year.

This investment is guided by a National Football Facilities Strategy (NFFS), which is supported by Local Football Facilities Plans that articulate the facilities needed to support football in each local authority area. More than 80 of these plans have already been developed, while 326 – one for each local authority – will be completed by 2020. These will be kept up to date by County FAs and the Foundation will use them to create a National Capital Investment Plan to ensure that available funds are directed to where the need is most and where the greatest impact can be achieved against NFFS targets. Since 2000, the Foundation has used £650 million of direct funding to draw in a further c. £850 million, which means that £1.5 billion has been invested into community facilities over the past 18 years. None of this would have happened had the Premier League, The FA and the Government not had the foresight to create the Football Foundation nearly twenty years ago. Significant funding continues to flow from the very top of the game and is then magnified by the Foundation model to the benefit of community footballers all over the country.

I hope that you enjoy reading this Review and hearing about all the initiatives we have been working on over the past year.

PAUL THOROGOOD

“MORE THAN 80 OF THESE PLANS HAVE ALREADY BEEN DEVELOPED TO DATE, WHILE 326 – ONE FOR EACH LOCAL AUTHORITY – WILL BE COMPLETED BY 2020.”