The FA has unveiled the National Game Strategy Refresh, following on from the original four year strategy that was launched in 2008.
The new four year plan is a £200 million investment into grassroots football from 2011-2015, a strategy extension and a key business milestone for The FA.
Approximately 25,000 people from the football family were consulted to determine the key FA priorities over the next four years, including the National Game Board, County FA’s, schools and the members of the Big Grassroots survey.
To view the National Game Strategy eBook, click here
The FA has a number of key priorities to focus on up until 2015. These include:
- Focusing resources on retaining and developing the existing number of affiliating teams
- Raising standards of player and spectator behaviour across the grassroots game
- Increasing football opportunities and the profile of women and minority groups
- Providing flexible formats of football to suit changing lifestyles of players
- Introducing proposed changes to youth football
- Maximising investment into facilities
In 2008, The FA set a number of key targets to achieve in grassroots football and the work delivered by the National Game team and County FA’s over the last three years has resulted in us being able to achieve some key successes following areas:
- 74% of all youth teams have achieved the charter standard
- We have trained 2.6 million 5-11 year olds through Tesco Skills
- 74% of all youth teams have a qualified coach
- We now have 4,000 more referees than we had in 2008
- £253 million has been invested into grassroots facilities and this includes all investment by The FA, Football Foundation, Premier League, Sport England along with a whole range of local and regional partners
- We have created a national database of coaches, referees, clubs and volunteers and we are now currently developing The FA Player Pass
In terms of participation, the number of men’s adult football teams is still a key focus going forwards for The FA, as there is still a decline in the number of players in 11-a-side football. We currently have 30,355 affiliated teams. However, we have seen a growth in other areas of team participation, which The FA will continue to focus on up until 2015:
- Increased the number of adult female teams from 1,250 to 1,437
- Increased the number boys youth teams from 34,300 to 46,968
- Increased the number of girls youth teams from 4,500 to 6,967
- Increased the number of mini-soccer teams from 21,800 to 25,932
- Increased the number of male disability teams from 270 to 978
- Created 122 new female disability teams
Speaking on the NGS refresh, FA General Secretary Alex Horne said: “The FA is focused on delivering football for everyone, and we are proud of the success we have achieved over the last three seasons since our last National Game Strategy was published.
"We will continue to be open and transparent on the goals we wish to achieve. By publishing our new refresh, we are able to let all our football stakeholders know that we have a robust framework in place to ensure funding is used to get more people playing the game, to protect facilities and provide a fun and safe football experience.”
Roger Burden, Chair of the National Game Board, also commented on the achievements of the past three years: “An enormous amount of work has been delivered and it’s important that the hard work of all those involved at the grassroots level of the game is acknowledged.
"There are more boys and girls playing the game than ever before, more coaches and officials are gaining qualifications, and behaviour on and off the pitch has shown improvement. The next four years will be challenging in the difficult economic times, but we remain committed to achieving all our targets set out in the new refresh plan.”
To view the National Game Strategy eBook, click here