The FA has today  launched its new landmark national strategy to grow and develop grassroots football in England, titled ‘A Thriving Grassroots Game’. Combined with The FA’s overall four-year strategy, ‘Inspiring Positive Change Through Football’, these strategies are designed to take English football forward, with a clear focus on the biggest opportunities and challenges that need to be addressed. 

The FA’s new four-year grassroots strategy follows the biggest ever consultation process with the grassroots game across England, and is aimed at supporting sustainable growth over the next four years, with projections anticipating a further 220,000 new players across 15,000 new teams nationally by 2028. 

The new grassroots strategy outlines five key priorities, four of which are directly applicable to the English Schools’ FA, showing how the Association works alongside The FA to create as many high quality, inclusive and diverse opportunities for school pupils in England to enjoy the many and far-reaching benefits of schools’ football. 

The ESFA’s new business plan will therefore work collaboratively with The FA’s new strategy which sets out a clear direction of travel for grassroots football in England and outlines five priority areas, including: 

• Improving playing choice and opportunity – To create new and varied playing opportunities to give everyone a chance to play the game, in a way that suits them best 

• Deliver equal opportunities for women and girls to play – To ensure every woman and girl who wants to play football has an opportunity to do so in a safe and enjoyable setting and in a way that suits their lifestyle 

• Build more, and improve existing, facilities – To increase the quality and quantity of grassroots football pitches and facilities across England, to better meet the demand 

• Tackle poor behaviour – To see a decline in cases of poor behaviour of any kind, and to increase reporting of discrimination, ensuring enjoyment is at the forefront of playing, volunteering or officiating grassroots football 

• Develop a valued network of volunteers, coaches and referees – To grow the number of grassroots volunteers, coaches and referees, and ensure they all feel valued and supported to fulfil their roles in the game 

Through the new strategy, the grassroots game will play a pivotal role in delivering three of the four FA ‘game-changer’ priorities over the next four years. These are to create equal opportunities for women and girls, transform the pitch landscape nationally and see a game free from discrimination. 

The FA’s new strategy outlines three key drivers to deliver this:  

• Support thriving community clubs – To support a network of thriving community clubs to provide a brilliant football offer to their local communities, to grow in a sustainable way, and to be well-run 

• Connect and serve participants – To improve our digital offering and deliver new online services which are personalised, easy to access and help participants to fulfil their roles and find new opportunities 
• Progress the game’s governance – To better serve all football participants through the highest governance standards, at all levels in the grassroots game 

The ESFA is delighted to clearly align to The FA’s grassroots football strategic framework to ensure the ambitions for the game are delivered through schools’ football. So, the ESFA is: 

• Improving playing choice and opportunity by facilitating new means to access football in a school setting. Targeting new entrants to the game, for example, our “Hot Shots” programme provides an entry point for primary school players to have a go; our festival offer provides the next steps for such players and our District and Counties then provide competitive football before teams enter our 50+ national competitions for schools, with options for elite teams, B teams and small schools making sure there’s something for everyone. We also have specific provision for those under-represented in football – players with disabilities, those on a school’s SEN register and those whose cultural heritage is under-represented in the game 

• Delivering equal opportunities by creating more and different opportunities for girls to play. As well as Hot Shots, we have the “Equaliser” programme which facilitates participation in football for secondary school age girls who haven’t yet tried the game and there’s our pilot programme to build confidence for girls to take part in football by providing a phased approach to taking part, which doesn’t begin with playing. We have a competition pathway from primary to sixth form age groups, which also makes provision for B teams and small schools, and specific competitions for teams for first time entrants to competitions. 

• Tackling poor behaviour by developing child to child and child to adult messaging about the impact of poor behaviour and by committing to the FA’s Respect, Safeguarding and Discipline practices 

• Developing a valued network of volunteers, coaches and referees by growing and developing the ESFA’s Reward & Recognition Awards, to showcase the fantastic work of schools’ football volunteers across England; plus providing more support for ESFA Counties and Districts to recruit volunteers in their areas to support activity 

On the alignment of The FA and ESFA strategies ESFA CEO, Andrea Chilton said: “The ESFA is proud to demonstrate how its work supports the ambitions of The FA’s new strategy and fully supports The FA in its intent to further grow and develop grassroots football in England” 

On The FA’s new grassroots strategy, FA Director of Football Development, James Kendall, said: “This new strategy has been created for the game, by the game, and is an important moment for the future of grassroots football in England.  

“We’ve made significant progress over the last strategy and we are now going even further, investing in more new quality grass pitches, increasing the number of female and disability players, tackling poor behaviours through robust sanctions and promoting positive behaviours, developing thriving community clubs, and growing our valued volunteer network so the game is sustainable in the future. 

“We have a clear direction with our new strategy, and with our County FA’s and valued partners we are confident that this will help the grassroots game to thrive for years to come.” 

To coincide with the launch of the grassroots strategy, The FA has also published a new report which sets out that the social and economic value of grassroots football in England equates to £15.9bn to society each year, up from £10.2bn in 2021.  

The report, titled “The Social and Economic Value of Grassroots Football in England”, also found grassroots football participation contributes to 324k preventions of disease cases and £3.2bn NHS savings – equivalent to 34.8m A&E visits. Children who regularly play football are 20% more likely to have met the Chief Medical Officer’s physical activity guidelines. In addition, over 1m individuals work and volunteer in grassroots football, contributing £5.8bn to society each year. 

The ESFA continues to work hard to provide as many opportunities for pupils to benefit from schools’ football as possible. Thanks to its network of hundreds of County Schools’ and District Schools’ FAs and huge volunteer workforce, plus the thousands of teachers that take part in ESFA activity across the season, the Association can provide hundreds of thousands of children with unique and special experiences that aren’t available through any other means or organisation. The Association is delighted to be aligning with The FA’s new strategy and utilising its objectives to further enhance its own priorities to create opportunities within schools’ football for all pupils.