Reading City Football Club is delighted to announce that the club has recently been successfully awarded a Pitch Preparation Fund grant from the Premier League, The FA and the Government’s Football Foundation which will help to ensure the hallowed turf here at the Rivermoor is pitch-perfect when football is able to safely return.
The grant has already gone towards seeding and fertilising the pitch in recent weeks and we will shortly be adding sand to the surface to ensure it’s in great condition.
We’d like to thank Head Groundsman Dave Wyeth and his team at C&D Facilities for working tirelessly on our pitches all year round, we’d also like to thank Rigby Taylor who are the UK’s leading supplier of products for the improvement, maintenance and construction of sports, amenity and landscape areas for carrying out the seeding and fertilising.
With many, if not all Clubs, losing their main source of revenue, Clubs still need to upkeep their pitches and ensure they are ready for the restart of football, therefore the Pitch Preparation Fund Grant that has been awarded to the club is a big boost to us and means we have been able to carry out the work needed on our pitch. The club’s board would like to thank the Premier League, The FA, and the Government’s Football Foundation for all the support being given to Non-League Clubs.
Robert Sullivan, Interim Chief Executive of the Football Foundation, said:
“This is a vital grant to help Reading City Football Club get their pitches match-fit.
“The Premier League, The FA and Government’s Football Foundation exists to help provide quality infrastructure at the lower-levels of the game. Pitch Preparation Fund grants like this one are giving a helping hand to clubs across the country to get their playing surfaces ready for when the game is allowed to begin again following government advice.”
The Football Foundation is a charity funded by the Premier League, The FA and the Government, through Sport England.
Notes to editors
The Premier League, The FA and Government’s Football Foundation is the largest sports charity in the UK. It champions and supports fair access to quality football facilities for everyone, regardless of postcode, gender, race, disability or place.
The Foundation receives money from the Premier League, The FA and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, through Sport England. This is matched with partnership funding and awarded as grants to create outstanding grassroots facilities that enable better games and attract more players, helping to transform communities.
The Football Foundation celebrates its 20th anniversary next year. Since 2000, it has awarded more than 17,300 grants to improve facilities worth more than £684m – including 829 artificial grass pitches, 3,175 natural grass pitches and 1,100 changing facilities. This has attracted an additional £870m of partnership funding – totalling over £1.5bn investment in grassroots football so far.
Through the Foundation, the Premier League, The FA, DCMS and Sport England have come together to create the National Football Facilities Strategy (NFFS) that will guide work over the next 10 years to transform many more local facilities. Local Football Facility Plans (LFFP) are being created to identify priority projects where demand is greatest, and the impact will be strongest and help stimulate the action required to deliver them.
Visit footballfoundation.org.uk for more information on the Foundation.
