We have launched a historic new strategy to develop and grow grassroots football in England, called ‘A thriving core game‘.

This follows the announcement of our new four-year strategy, “Inspire positive change through football‘, to drive English football forward, with a clear focus on the biggest opportunities and challenges ahead.

The new four-year strategy for grassroots football follows the largest ever consultation process with grassroots football across England and aims to support sustainable growth over the next four years, with projections forecasting 220,000 new additional players in 15,000 new teams by 2028.

The new strategy sets a clear direction for grassroots football in England and sets out five priority areas, including:

· Improving gaming choices and opportunities – Create new and varied play opportunities to give everyone the opportunity to play, in the way that suits them best

· Providing equal opportunities for women and girls to play – Ensuring that every woman and girl who wants to play football has the opportunity to do so in a safe and enjoyable environment and in a way that suits their lifestyle.

· Build more and improve existing facilities – Increase the quality and quantity of grassroots football pitches and facilities across England, to better meet demand.

· Tackling Bad Behavior – To see a decrease in instances of bad behavior of any kind and to increase the reporting of instances of discrimination, ensuring that enjoyment is at the forefront when playing, volunteering or officiating in grassroots football .

· Develop a valuable network of volunteers, coaches and referees – Increase the number of grassroots volunteers, coaches and referees, and ensure they all feel valued and supported to fulfill their role in the game.

Under the new strategy, grassroots football will play an important role in delivering three of the FA’s four game-changing priorities over the next four years. It is about creating equal opportunities for women and girls, transforming the landscape of the pitch nationally and seeing a game free from discrimination.

The new strategy sets out three key factors to achieve this:

· Supporting Thriving Community Clubs – Support a network of successful community clubs to provide a brilliant football offering to their local communities, grow sustainably and be well managed.

· Connect and serve attendees – Improve our digital offering and offer new personalized online services that are easy to access and help participants fulfill their role and find new opportunities

· Advancing gaming governance – Better serve all football stakeholders through the highest standards of governance, at all levels of grassroots football.

The strategy has been developed in collaboration with the County FA network, with the County FA adopting the same strategic framework and sharing our strategic priorities over a four-year period to ensure the needs of the game are met at a local level.

Mark Bullingham, CEO of the FAsaid: “Grassroots football has incredible power to unite communities, improve lives and inspire positive change.

“Over the next four years we will transform the landscape of our grassroots football by investing in more new quality grass pitches to reach our target of 12,000, as well as more than 300 new artificial pitches.

“Through our new core strategy, we want to inspire positive change through football by promoting equal opportunities for women and girls, improving facilities across the country, tackling unacceptable behavior and supporting our volunteers, coaches and referees We have set clear and ambitious goals to focus on the biggest opportunities and biggest challenges.

FA Director of Football Development, James Kendalladded: “This new strategy has been created for the game, through the game, and is an important moment for the future of grassroots football in England.

“We have made significant progress on the last strategy and are now going even further, investing in more new quality grass pitches, increasing the number of disabled players, tackling bad behavior through tough sanctions and promoting positive behavior, growing thriving community clubs and growing our valuable network of volunteers so that the game is sustainable into the future.

“We have a clear direction with our new strategy, and together with our valued partners, we are confident this will help grassroots football thrive for years to come.”

To coincide with the launch of the Grassroots Strategy, we have also published a new report which shows that the social and economic value of grassroots football in England is worth £15.9 billion to society each year, compared to £10.2 billion in 2021.

The report, titled “The social and economic value of grassroots football in England“, also revealed that participation in grassroots football contributes to 324,000 illness preventions and £3.2 billion in savings for the NHS, the equivalent of 34.8 million emergency room visits .

Children who play football regularly are 20 per cent more likely to meet the chief medical officer’s physical activity guidelines. Additionally, over a million people work and volunteer in grassroots football, contributing £5.8 billion to society each year.