Fara Williams – England’s record appearance maker – has expressed concerns that football is now an “expensive sport” and wants more investment in grassroots facilities.
The Football Foundation – the country’s largest sports charity – aims to build more than 500 new or replacement 3G artificial pitches in the next five years so matches can be played in all conditions.
That could help feed the demand to take up the game and stay in the game – particularly among girls after back-to-back Euros wins for the Lionesses.
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They are facilities that Williams could only dream of while growing up in the 80s and 90s in Battersea – before starring at World Cups, European Championships and the Olympics.
It’s why finding the cash for them is so important to the veteran of 177 England matches – more than any man or woman.
“Football now is expensive. It’s become an expensive sport,” Williams told Sky News at Burgess Park pitches in south London.
“Growing up, it was a working-class sport. I think the difference now is that to get facilitated sessions, you would have to pay a lot of money.
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“Without the funding … to give these kids the opportunity that are from underprivileged families, they probably wouldn’t have access to it. So it opens access for the underprivileged, which is what we probably were growing up.
“And it gives that opportunity to kids to come out and play.”
It’s 25 years since the Football Foundation charity was created by the government with the Premier League and FA.
There has been £1.3bn invested in grassroots facilities, delivering 15,000 pitches.
But Germany has twice as many 3G pitches, which are vital to attracting players deterred by muddy, waterlogged facilities.
There were more than 100,000 grassroots matches postponed in a recent season due to poor-quality pitches, according to the Football Foundation, which needs £600m to deliver its plans for the next five years.
So however stretched the public finances are, the FA is always making the case to the chancellor that investment has wider benefits.
“Pitches have a huge impact obviously on the health of people playing,” FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said.
“We know there are girls all around the country who want to play, and they want to create teams and they need a facility to play.
“The more of these we can build the more growth we can drive.”
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It’s about football – with all its wealth at the top end in England – giving back to football and more taxpayers’ cash.
“I feel confident that the money will be there, we’re just working out how best to spend it obviously with ministers,” said Simon Hayes, chief executive of the Sport England government agency that distributes funding.
“There’s always [financial] pressures, but I think the evidence is so strong about the benefits that come from physical activity and sport that we can keep making the case for that and we can keep seeing that funding coming through.”
