Football: Coronavirus

(asked on 29th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what comparative assessment he has made of the level of covid-19-related funding that has been (a) made available to male and women's football clubs and (b) awarded to male and women's football clubs.


Answered by
Nigel Huddleston Portrait
Nigel Huddleston
Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 3rd February 2021

Football is our national game and it is vital that clubs at all levels are protected.

The Government has provided unprecedented support to businesses through tax reliefs, cash grants and employee wage support, which many football clubs have benefited from. The Treasury estimates that around £1.5 billion of public money has gone into sports.

As part of this, Sport England has provided £220m directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic, via a range of funds including their £35m Community Emergency Fund. This support is available to both men’s and women’s clubs with the latest figures showing £10.5m has already been awarded to over 1,500 football clubs. This sector support was recently boosted by an extra £50m to help grassroots sports clubs and organisations as part of Sport England’s new strategy Uniting the Movement.

Men’s and women’s spectator sports, severely impacted by the restrictions around fans over the winter, are also being supported through the £300m Sports Winter Survival Package. This aims to protect the immediate futures of major spectator sports in England over the winter period and includes a provisional allocation of £25m for clubs in the National League System (at steps 1-6) as well as £3m for women’s football. Provisional allocations are subject to change based upon a detailed assessment of need, and final funding decisions are still in the process of being made by the Package’s Independent Board, supported by Sport England.

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