FA chief executive Mark Bullingham believes we should unite behind a single purpose, “to inspire positive change through football”, as we publish our new strategy for 2024-2028.
Bullingham addressed his motivation to continue improving English football before moving on to detailed explanations of where he sees development taking place in the next four years.
He said: “I am proud of everything we have delivered over the last four years and we hit our targets – but there is still so much more to do.
“We’re really clear on our ambition and our motivation. What gets us out of bed in the morning? What drives us forward?
“Instead of explaining our strategy in a multi-layered approach, we simply united behind a single purpose: to inspire positive change through football as our national sport. Football is an incredible platform to change and impact society.”
In order to achieve that, Bullingham has set out four objectives – “our game-changers” – that will deliver impact.
“Winning tournaments is something that should always be a priority for our national teams,” he added.
“Tournaments provide such a feel-good factor for our country that nothing else can achieve, drives positive change, unites communities and gets people active.
“We’ll ensure elite players have the support they need to do that together with leagues and clubs. We’ll take St. George’s Park to a new level and, with a number of other initiatives, that will give us the best chance.
“Secondly, tackling discrimination is a huge societal issue and it’s one we feel we can impact positively in so many ways.
“We’ve made real progress in making our game representative of society but whether it’s through more Black coaches, more South Asian players in our leagues, or whether it’s more top female coaches, we’ll continue to foster an environment of inclusion.
“Thirdly, we’ve made huge progress to grow the women’s and girls’ game but we’ve still got a long way to go.
“We’ll drive forward equal opportunities, prioritise the development of female coaches and referees, and grow targeted programmes such as Wildcats.
“Finally, our pitches nationally are still not fit for purpose. Up to 150,000 matches per season get lost for poor pitch quality and it’s the single biggest issue holding back growth in the game for boys and girls.
“We aim to have 12,000 high quality pitches by 2028, enabling 24,000 more games to be played every week.”
Bullingham also laid out four drivers that will deliver success.
He said: “The first is thriving Community Clubs, a new project designed to help both grassroots football and the communities they operate in.
“We will also continue to ensure that the Emirates FA Cup and Adobe Women’s FA Cup capture the imagination of fans as the best domestic cup competitions globally. The men’s competition delivers 60 per cent of our revenue and we have really exciting ideas to help both competitions develop further.
“We must also make sure we’re giving players, fans, coaches, referees, volunteers and the paid workforce what they want. Whether that’s providing the format of the game that works for them, the technology they need or understanding how they want to engage in our competitions. We must evolve to meet the needs of everyone in the game.
“Finally, progressive governance. We’ve made great progress with governance, which helps us to run the game better and leads to better decisions, but there’s still more to do.”
