You don’t have to be a football club to apply to the Football Foundation, however grassroots football must be an integral part of your offer.
You can apply if you're:
- A not-for-profit football club or voluntary group
- A Local Authority*
- A County FA
- A Professional Club Community Organisation
- An educational establishment providing facilities for the community
- A registered charity
- A not-for-profit company
- A community interest company (CIC) or other social enterprise
- A company limited by guarantee
You can't apply if you're:
- An individual or sole trader
- A national governing body
- A commercial / for-profit entity
- A club within the Premier League, Football League, National League System (Step 1 to 6), Women’s Football Pyramid (Tier 1 – 4) or the Welsh Premier League
- Educational establishments providing facilities solely for their students
- Please note that we reserve the right to divert your project proposal / enquiry into our PlayZones programme if we believe the principles align.
PlayZones
What if I want to build a new small-sided facility?
If you’re looking to develop a facility that is more than minor improvements to an existing Small-Sided Artificial Pitch, then our PlayZones concept may be one that’s suitable for you.
PlayZones are safe, inclusive, and accessible outdoor facilities that bring communities together through recreational forms of football and a range of other sports.
PlayZones are aimed at helping to tackle inequalities in physical activity and access to facilities by funding community-led spaces.
We aim to focus investment and resource into communities with the greatest need. This will deliver new or refurbished outdoor mini pitches designed for football and other sports and activities that will allow our priority groups to be more active.
Our approach to date has been through the PlayZones Programme where we’ve made solicited approaches to key partners in priority Local Authority areas across England – for more information, please visit the webpage linked below.
Whilst our priority remains to progress PlayZones via our Programme approach, we are willing to consider ‘single site’ enquiries, and if you’re interested in discussing this further, please email playzones@footballfoundation.org.uk
Already started an application? Find support and guidance here
Support and Guidance