Hubs Programme

We've seen how sport can bring local people together and we encourage you to explore with your community how a Hub can be used beyond just football.

A Hub provides the perfect opportunity for a facility to host football alongside other sports, physical activities, and community services. There’s no one-size-fits-all. The facility mix for each Hub will respond to local need and its suitability for investment will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Typically, a Hub has at least two full-size floodlit 3G pitches, as well as supporting facilities such as car parking, a café and changing rooms.  

A Hub could also include:  

• Grass pitches for football and other sports
• Small-sided 3G Pitch
• PlayZones - click here to find out more
• Indoor meeting/community spaces
• Other sports and recreation facilities in addition to the core football offer – such as play areas, walking and cycling, health and fitness (gym and studio)
• Other community services – such as GP Surgery, Pharmacy, or library

A key aim of the Hubs programme is to support football to have more responsibility and involvement in the management of its grassroots facilities. To achieve this, we’re looking for local authority applicants with a willingness and ability to vest their completed facility into a Special Purpose Vehicle for football, which retains all surplus revenue for re-investment back into local facility priorities. We believe this charitable model maximises the potential for delivering a sustainable operation and increases the opportunity for local re-investment, helping to reduce football’s reliance on public subsidy.  

The National Football Trust and Leisure United as its charity operator has proven to be a successful vehicle to-date, and many local authorities have chosen this route to manage their Hub(s). However, our current investment portfolio also includes Hubs which are managed under local models, including County Football Associations and the leisure sector. 

The Foundation aims to build upon the success of the programme to date. We're looking to support facility management models that maximise local re-investment potential, helping to make the game more sustainable and less reliant on the public sector . 

As well providing excellent training and match play facilities for clubs and leagues, we want Hubs to provide a balanced programme of use that supports our objective of using our investments to tackle inequality.

There are four main groups facing the greatest inequalities. We will support projects which prioritise engaging with these groups to provide opportunity and access to safe, inclusive and welcoming facilities.  

• Lower socio-economic groups
• Women and girls
• Disabled people and people with long term health conditions
• Ethnically diverse communities 

• Evidence of strong relationships capable of driving positive change in football participation and achieving wider health and social outcomes. 
• Developing a local stakeholder group to oversee community engagement to ensure the project meets local need (including affiliated and recreational football and, where appropriate, other sports and physical activities).
• Demonstrating high level political and local stakeholder support for the project (including identified resources to support delivery).
• A delivery model that ring-fences all surplus revenue for local reinvestment into grassroots football to improve and maintain the quality of grass pitches and reduce reliance on public subsidy.
• Ability and willingness to vest the completed facility into a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for football to manage and maintain the facilities on a long-term peppercorn lease.
• Commitment to raise 40% partnership funding of capital costs (please note this can be aggregated across an area and multiple sites).
• Willingness to use the Football Foundation’s Framework for the design and construction of 3G pitches.

Beginning with Graves Park in Sheffield in 2016, we've now supported 30 Hub projects across England. 24 Hubs are now operational and six are at build-stage, whilst a further five projects are developing funding applications.  

These 30 projects have received over £117 million Football Foundation investment and have a combined capital value of £234 million. The 30 projects include:  

• 73 full-size and 16 small-sided 3G pitches
• 128 grass pitches
• Nine health and fitness clubs 

Hubs are busy places, with 2.6k people passing through the doors of each Hub every week.  

Around 60% of peak hours usage is allocated to partner junior club training. At weekends, priority is given to mini soccer and junior football match play, typically on a central venue basis.  

Hubs are key facilities for hosting the initiatives of our funding partners like The FA’s Wildcats and Walking Football programmes, as well as Premier League Kicks, Girls Talent Centres, and post-16 education courses run by pro-club community trusts.

The Football Foundation is looking to develop a new pipeline of Hub projects across England to transform the grassroots game we love.

To be part of our exciting Hubs Programme, local authorities will need to go through a full application process. As a starting point, local authorities will need to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) form, along with supporting evidence (where required) outlining their commitment to the key principles of the fund. 

The deadline for EOI submissions is Monday 5 May 2025, at 5pm.