Footballers in Dewsbury 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 Savile Town FC to grow and maintain the game of football by introducing two new teams to the club and the area for the new season. The main beneficiaries of the grant will be the Under-8 and Under-9 age groups.
Participation at the club is set to grow significantly with an additional 50 children in the next three years. The grant will boost the number of teams ran at the club from 9 to 12 over the next three years. The club will now be able to train three to five 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.
Soyeb Yusuf, Club Secretary at Savile Town Football Club, said: “We at the club really appreciate all the help and encouragement a grant like this will give us, to develop new players, coaches and teams.
“The Football Foundation offers a variety of help through different schemes and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for all the support and help they have given us through this scheme, which is great for developing Grassroots Football. The Football Foundation along with West Riding County FA have given a great deal of support to this club and this area, which has had amazing results and achievements, and I hope we can keep build on this relationship to further this work.
“Savile Town FC has got a fantastic appetite for growth, from just one junior team four years ago to 10 teams this coming season (2011/12), across eight age groups all playing and competing successfully in the Huddersfield Junior Football League.”
Paul Thorogood, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation said: “We warmly congratulate Savile Town FC and the West Riding County FA for their hard work and dedication in securing this award.”
“Our Grow 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 Savile Town, Dewsbury 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 the Government.”
