Young Footballers in Thurmaston were celebrating today following a £5,000 Grow the Game grant awarded by the Football Foundation, the country’s largest sports charity.
The funding boost will allow Thurmaston Magpies Junior Football Club to develop junior girl’s football teams within the club and create its first football team designed with the specific aim of training and developing a team made up of children with a variety of disabilities.
In the first instance the main beneficiaries of the grant will be the girls Under-10 football team, who will have their first introduction to football.
Participation at the club is set to grow significantly with an additional number of girls playing football and welcomes participation of children with disabilities. The grant will boost the number of teams ran at the club from 14 to 17. The club will now be able to train at least three additional FA qualified coaches, improving the quality of the coaching experience for participants.
Funded by the Premier League, The FA, and the Government via Sport England, the Football Foundation is the nation’s largest sports charity. Since it was launched in 2000, the Foundation has awarded around 8,000 grants worth more than £420m towards improving grassroots sport, which it has used to attract additional partnership funding of over £520m.
Hughie Tierney, Club President and a founding member of the club, said ‘’I am grateful and delighted that the Football Foundation had provided the club with the funding to expand the club to cover training for children with disabilities and providing the means to train girls at a younger age’’
Paul Thorogood, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation said: “We warmly congratulate Thurmaston Magpies Junior Football Club and the Leicestershire County FA for their hard work and dedication in securing this award.”
“Our Grown the Game scheme helps fulfil one of the Foundation’s core objectives, which is getting more people playing more football. During the 2009-10 season, Grow the Game projects attracted more than 21,000 new players to our national game.”
“This new project in Thurmaston is but one example of thousands across the country that the Football Foundation is supporting with money provided by our funding partners – the Premier League, The FA and Government.”
