Football: Coronavirus

(asked on 18th March 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 recent representations he has received on the effect of covid-19 restrictions on (a) lower league and (b) amateur football.


Answered by
Nigel Huddleston Portrait
Nigel Huddleston
Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 24th March 2021

Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus. We are in regular contact with The Football Association about lower league and amateur football, and they are also invited to regular meetings of the Sport Working Group which I chair. Through these meetings we are continuing discussions with representatives from the sport and physical activity sector about the steps required to reopen indoor and outdoor sports facilities.

Many football clubs have benefited from the multi-billion pound package of cross-sector business support from the Government that has enabled many sports clubs and leisure businesses to survive, including the furlough scheme and business interruption loan scheme. Sports have accessed many hundreds of millions of pounds of support through this.

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.

National League clubs have also received further government support from the Sport Winter Survival Package. Steps 3-6 of the National League system will receive up to £10 million of grant support to protect the immediate future of approximately 850 clubs over the winter period. We also confirmed the second tranche of funding from the Package will provide an initial 19 National League Step 1-2 clubs with loans offers worth up to £5.4 million. Further awards will be announced in due course.

At Budget, the Chancellor also announced that the Government will provide an initial £25 million to support the growth of grassroots football, which will be enough to build around 700 new pitches across the UK.

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