A&H

Are the FA this broke? - Grassroots troubles.

RobOda

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Level 3 Referee
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44859387

The numbers are very low I would have thought? 127million invested in grassroots in England over 2017/18. That's nothing.

I see mention of the 3G pitch requirements; The one that was installed locally here, with help from EU funding, cost a minimum of £560,000 and took a while. In my county in Wales, I enquired about pitch usage for training in pre-season. As mentioned in the BBC report, all the local pitches have been sold off (on trust though). My local club took over one of the grass pitches, but weren't really very helpful in my enquiries a while back.

I can't think of any council pitches around here, bar the next town over where I think, the council runs a huge field with 8 or 9 pitches on. That ground is very thin, it's hard to explain but it doesn't feel like there's much 'ground' underneath the grass. But it does the job! :p

Anyway if I read the numbers right, only 20ish million is going to ground investment? That would net 34 3g pitches in a year assuming they all cost 560k. That's nothing?

A bit of a concern that the infrastructure for grassroots would be this poor? I'm not convinced selling Wembley would help that much in the long-term? Surely this needs some form of money-generation rather than a one off payment?

How's your local grounds doing? Last season a lot of games were called off due to the amount of rain we had going on, I hope we have a better season for 2018!
 
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Around my area there are ample pitches of all qualities and prices, you can rent a park pitch with old fashioned square posts & dog sh*t included all the way up to brand new private sports clubs with state of the art 4g & grass pitches.

I guess being a London suberb and having a highly populated area with lots of leagues and teams that’s why we have so many pitches and grounds available.

I’ve played & refereed at some nasty old council pitches with scramblers going accross the pitch during games fights police chases the lot I’ve also played and refereed at vanorama grounds with private officials changing rooms with tea coffee & flat screen tv in them it is what it is, there is good & bad around.
 
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If they get Ciley a sit on lawn mower he might keep the grass in order for them.
 
Anyone who thinks the FA have interest in the sale to boost grass roots is one naive individual.
Grassroots facilities in Manchester, one of THE major footballing cities of the world, are a f**king disgrace.
One thing I will say, schools & colleges seem to have very nice set ups. I assume the Dept of Education picks up that cheque
 
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