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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what Government support is available for (a) the provision of facilities for and (b) to encourage participation in grassroots football.

Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus.

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 £220 million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic, via a range of funds including their £35 million 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 £50 million to help grassroots sports clubs and organisations as part of Sport England’s new strategy Uniting the Movement.

The Government continues to invest in community sport facilities as well, via the Football Foundation, alongside The Football Association and the Premier League, with government investing £18 million per annum. This three-way partnership sees £70 million of investment into community sport facilities every year.