Government announces £3m investment in SGP
Wednesday 22 February 2012
On Wednesday, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced that Government is contributing £3million to The FA’s national football centre, St. George’s Park.
This funding will be used to help increase the number of qualified coaches in the country which, along with other specific initiatives, will also encourage more people from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) backgrounds to gain the necessary credentials for coaching and managerial positions at the top of the game.
Speaking of the announcement earlier today, Chairman of St. George’s Park, David Sheepshanks, said: “St. George’s Park has been built primarily to benefit English football, but its capacity to add value in extending opportunities for all in areas of coach education, sports medicine and high performance, will provide significant benefits for the wider sporting market.
“We are extremely grateful to the Minister of Sport, Hugh Robertson, for his support for St. George’s Park even from before he was in office. I am delighted that the Government are partnering with us in this enormously exciting venture from which we hope all of English sport will benefit.”
FA Chairman, David Bernstein, added: “I thank the Government for the strong support of St. George’s Park. When it opens later this year, it will provide an inspirational boost to our development work across all communities.”
St. George’s Park is the training home of the 24 England teams, and a national coach education, development and sports medicine centre for football, sport and business. The 330-acre site is situated in the heart of the country in Burton upon Trent and is due to open in late summer 2012.