Following last week’s launch of the four-year National Game Strategy for Participation and Development, Simmons appeared on the Hawksbee and Jacobs talkSPORT show to discuss the new investment.
Among four main objectives, clubs and players across the country can look forward to improved grass pitches and more artificial surfaces, with more young players working with qualified coaches.
'We want to create the environment for children to learn and develop'
FA director Kelly Simmons
With over £260m to be invested in the game over the next four years, the aim is to build on the progress made since the last National Game Strategy was set out in 2011.
Simmons said: “Children’s and grassroots football needs significant investment. It is a lot of money, but it’s not just what The FA are investing, we know from our other partners it will be at least double that figure. So there will be some unprecedented levels of investment.
“We have seen 5,000 additional children’s football teams over the last four years, a big increase.
“We have also worked really hard to improve the format through the youth review and by introducing 11-a-side at a later age. That introduction has become really popular and more children are playing football.”
Kelly Simmons at last week's National Game Strategy launch
Coaching is also big on the agenda, with the intention of boosting the number of qualified coaches around the country another big aim over the next four years.
“We are going to invest £16m in new coaching initiatives. One of those things is bursaries. Thousands of people are doing their Level One coaching badge every year, but if you then want to go on and do your Level Two or B Licence then those costs can add up and be quite significant.
“So we are going to focus on a number of bursaries to reduce those costs and get more people into coaching,” explained Simmons.
“What has been great over the last four years is that now 85 per cent of our youth teams have a qualified coach, but we want to work with them now and help them gain further qualifications.”
Over 40,000 girls have taken up the beautiful game over the last two years, and Simmons hopes that trend can accelerate following the success of the England Women’s team at this summer’s World Cup.
“The Lionesses did an incredible job on the pitch to win the bronze medal and also inspired a new generation of girls to want to play football,” she said.
The FA will invest £260m in the grassroots game over the next four years
“We ran the ‘We Can Play’ campaign throughout the World Cup because we still face some challenges around girls playing in this country.
“Dads are less likely to encourage their girls to play football and girls still feel it is a male sport – you don’t get those kinds of barriers when you look at the big participation numbers in Canada and USA.
“So we have been working really hard to challenge those perceptions and want to provide lots of opportunities for girls to play.”
Speaking of how important The FA National Game Strategy’s role in developing elite level footballers is, Simmons added: “It’s one piece in quite a complex jigsaw. Our role is to get as many boys and girls playing football and to give them a good introduction to the game.
“We want them playing the right format of football and working with qualified coaches. We have the Skills programme, the Respect programme – we want to create the environment for children to learn and develop.
“That’s our job and then the academies take over from there.”
To listen to Simmons on talkSPORT in full click here.
