The Football Foundation, Premier League and Government launched the ‘Power Up Your Grass Pitch’ campaign, which will revolutionise the state of grass football pitches in England.

The biggest sports charity in the country is on a mission to improve over 7,000 grass pitches by 2024 and 20,000 by 2030, to ensure the 12 million grassroots football players across the country have great places to play.

Around 87% of affiliated football is played on grass pitches, but with over 150,000 matches cancelled due to poor pitch quality during the the last season alone, play is often brought to a halt. Improving facilities means that more people across England will get to enjoy playing the nation’s favourite sport, transforming people’s physical and mental wellbeing, as well as supporting local communities and economies.

PITCHPOWER

To help make this ambition a reality, the Football Foundation has developed PitchPower which is an online tool which you can accessed via Laptop and or mobile phone that gives every community football club and organisation in the country the ability to carry out their own grass pitch inspections, providing fast and accurate data which is less time intensive and more efficient than in person inspections.

PITCHPOWER - HOW IT WORKS

Once a PitchPower inspection is submitted, Regional Pitch Advisers at the Grounds Management Association (GMA) produce an assessment report with bespoke advice and recommendations to improve the grass pitch quality at a site. Clubs and facilities are then eligible to apply for funding from the Football Foundation to support pitch improvements identified through the assessment report.

GROUNDS MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION (GMA)

FOOTBALL FOUNDATION - LOOKING FOR FUNDING

FACILITIES AND FUNDING

 GRASS PITCH MAINTENANCE FUND

Along with PitchPower unlocking funding, clubs and organisations will also be encouraged to upskill their workforce by having access to a range of free courses from the Grounds Management Association and join a community of professional and amateur groundskeepers on the free Football Foundation Groundskeeping Community App.

GROUNDSKEEPING COMMUNITY
HIVE LEARNING
The Football Foundation have launched a free new ‘Groundskeeping Community’ as the first of several support tools to help ground staff meet their grass pitch improvement targets.

The website has been developed in partnership with The FA and the Grounds Management Association to support volunteers and qualified groundskeepers to maintain pitches. The collaborative space will: build knowledge of key operations for pitch maintenance throughout the year; connect with fellow groundskeepers and share experiences; seek expert advice on getting the most from the pitches groundskeepers manage.

GROUNDSKEEPING COMMUNITY HIVE LEARNING

GROUNDS MANAGEMENT TOOLKIT
VOLUNTEER RESOURCE
A groundsmanship website has been designed as a training resource which will support volunteers who are preparing their sports pitches.

Featuring written content, short videos and easy-to-digest seasonal guides, the Grounds Management Association’s (GMA) online ‘Grounds Management Toolkit’ helps ground staff and the general public understand how to prepare pitches for players across the community. The toolkit is backed by Sport England.

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