GFA set to give grassroots game in Gloucestershire a boost GLOUCESTERSHIRE Football Association has announced big and exciting plans to overhaul amateur football in the county as part of ambitious national investment in the sport.

The FA recently revealed that through its National Game Strategy it is pumping a record £260million into grassroots football over the next four years.

Eager to capitalise on the plan and a welcome £1million investment from the top, Gloucestershire FA (GFA) has outlined its own proposals to enhance the quality of football facilities in the county and boost participation levels, while providing “greater support” to clubs and dedicated volunteers.

GFA chief executive David Neale confirmed: “The FA is investing over £1m in Gloucestershire FA to enable it to deliver the National Game Strategy within the county.

“That investment means we can sustain our workforce and deliver more for the benefit of grassroots football in Gloucestershire across all four work strands of the new National Game Strategy.

“These are exciting times for local football and its many loyal and hard-working participants, in our county and across the nation, and we’ll be doing everything possible to ensure that the money we have received will be used wisely to build and maintain participation in all formats of football.”

Over the next four years, Gloucestershire FA says it will: • Develop close partnerships with local leagues to sustain football participation in the adult male and female 11v11 game.

• Provide more recreational football opportunities to increase participation through formats such as small-sided, turn-up-and-play, Futsal and walking football.

• Develop and increase the number of disability football teams.

• Widen participation and representation in BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) communities to better reflect county demographics.

• Enable 25 coaches to achieve Youth Award Module 3 by 2019 as better qualified coaches are vital for long-term player development.

• Support the volunteer workforce to maximise the benefits available through online management of league and club administration.

• Support the development of up to eight new 3G football facilities in Gloucestershire and work with clubs to improve 51 grass pitches through the Pitch Improvement Programme.

• Work with local leagues to increase the coverage of referees in 9v9 and 11v11 adult/youth football. The GFA’s target is to have 90 per cent of matches covered by a league-appointed match official.

The National Game Strategy for Participation and Development, to give it its full title, will target four key areas of the amateur game for investment between now and 2019.

FA chief executive Martin Glenn explained: “We have identified four key areas in which we have committed to investing £260 million over the next four years: facilities, coaching, participation and developing the football workforce. Our goals are ambitious, but achievable.”

Kelly Simmons MBE, FA director for Participation and Development, added: “It is no secret that facilities need to get better.

“Having recognised the benefits of achieving Charter Standard status, 85 per cent of youth teams in England now have a qualified coach, which accounts for nearly one million under-16s benefiting from such access. Alongside that we have seen the growth of youth football by 5,000 new teams since 2011.

“We have come a long way in youth football and it is a similar story in women’s and disability football. We know that 40,000 more girls and women have been playing football regularly in the past two years and this is without the increased profile the England women’s team have brought to the sport.”

The four areas where the new strategy will impact are: Boosting Participation: Building on the increases in boys’ and girls’ participation and growth in disability football, while delivering more varied formats of the game to address the drop in traditional 11v11 weekend football among adult males.

Developing better players: £4 million per year will be invested in grassroots coaching. There will be a network of county coaches, tasked with improving and supporting coaching across grassroots football with club mentoring programmes. The extension of coach bursaries will get more women and people from diverse backgrounds into the profession and there will be a drive to attract more top level grassroots coaches into the game.

Better training and facilities: The FA is committing £48 million to improving facilities directly through its funding of the Football Foundation as well as investment in 100 new turf pitches and improvements to a further 2,000 as part of The FA’s Pitch Improvement Plan. Further funds have also been dedicated to building 30 new football hubs across key cities, with a pilot scheme already underway in Sheffield, and the Government committed to matching The FA’s contribution.

Football workforce: Football will become more representative of the communities it serves through inclusion initiatives. The FA is also rolling out technology to run the game more efficiently and create direct lines of communication with players across all grassroots leagues, making football truly integrated.