As part of our, A Game Free From Discrimination strategy, we are continuing to work with faith communities across England to support participation, engagement and inclusion across football.
Since 2019, our Faith and Football Series has brought together thousands of people from different faith communities through national events at Wembley Stadium. Those events have helped strengthen relationships, increase engagement and build understanding between faith communities and football.
Following the success of our national events, we are now evolving our faith and football outreach by launching a new ‘Faith Fund’ to invest in locally-led faith, intersectional and community initiatives across the country. Open to County FAs, grassroots and semi-professional clubs, leagues, and faith organisations, the fund will support programmes that create meaningful, measurable community impact.
Our new approach is focused on supporting individual faith communities through a locally delivered fund, helping organisations to deliver more projects, shaped by the needs of their communities.
The FA Faith and Football Fund invites applications for local faith and football projects and is open to stakeholders who want to deliver football-related programmes in local communities across England, before the end of December 2027. Projects could include football engagement sessions, training and awareness activity, programmes for women and girls of faith, or education initiatives. Grassroots organisations, clubs, faith centres and community partners are encouraged to apply.
The applications window is open until Friday 25 September 2026. All applicants will be required to complete the application form and send it to Faith@TheFA.com before the closing date.
Criteria for applications to The FA Faith and Football Fund
- All projects must be delivered in England only and be completed by 31st December 2027 or before
- Applicants to have prior experience of delivering social, community and sport related projects in England
- The project can be submitted as a partnership or syndicate of multiple organisations forming a single project
- The project may be part of a larger / wider programme
- The project should align to the County Football Association (CFA) it is to be delivered in
- Projects that are either interfaith and/or intersectional will be given priority where the project focuses on multiple faith communities and/or addresses wider communities and protected characteristics such as ethnicity, gender, disability and LGBTQ+, for example.
A dedicated information and awareness webinar will be held at 10:00am on Friday 11 September 2026, for all interested parties to learn more about the fund, the application process and what a good project looks like. To register for the webinar please visit the sign up page here.
The application form and FAQs can be downloaded here.