People living in Desford and its surrounding villages are set to benefit from fresh investment into local football facilities. Bosworth Academy has been awarded a grant from the Premier League, The FA and Government’s Football Foundation, to install a new full size, floodlit artificial grass pitch with a target date of September 2021, for this to be available for use.
The Football Foundation is the UK’s largest sports charity and exists to improve the experience of playing football for everyone, by championing fair access to quality facilities.
This grant will enable Bosworth Academy to provide high quality PE, football training and competitive match experiences to its students and football clubs within the local community. The facility will enable Partner Club Desford FC, an FA Charter Standard Club with over 25 teams, to give its 450 members the chance to play and train each week at this new fit for purpose facility.
Players will be able to enjoy playing on a better quality artificial pitch, providing space for more teams to be able to train and the club to continue to grow and develop, offering more opportunities. Additional funding to improve the existing grass pitches, will result in a significant improvement on the existing grass pitches that are prone to waterlogging and in need of improvement.
Bosworth Academy and Desford FC with the help of a number of partners worked with the Football Foundation and Leicestershire & Rutland County FA to secure a £533,948 grant towards the project.
Simon Goodman, Chairman, Desford Football Club said: “Desford Football Club and Bosworth Academy have been working in partnership for a number of years to bring to fruition the plan for a new full size, floodlit artificial pitch. The pitch will be a fantastic asset for both the Club and the Academy, supporting both our ambitions to see football flourish within local communities. We look forward to seeing the project completed and further developments in years to come.”
Robert Sullivan, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation, said: “This grant award to Bosworth Academy towards developing a new state of the art football training and match facility is great news for the local community.
“It will support people’s ability to play our national game locally and therefore help unlock football’s many benefits to physical and mental wellbeing. That’s why we’re committed to transforming the face of grassroots football facilities in this country. It’s therefore very welcome news to hear that this funding will support Bosworth Academy and Desford FC in developing opportunities for all of the local community to be involved in grassroots football for the benefit of the local community.
“The Football Foundation is working closely with our partners – the Premier League, The FA, government and Sport England – to support facility development projects like this across the country over the next decade to transform our grassroots game and unlock the power of pitches.”
For more information, please contact Chris Ripley email: [email protected]