Grassroots Football in Faversham received a boost following the news that The Abbey School have received a grant of £390,000 from the Football Foundation, to allow the development of a full size floodlit third generation Artificial Grass Football pitch.
The project will enable the school to develop its football activities, ensuring that it has a comprehensive programme for all year groups, and allow three FA Charter Standard partner clubs to grow and sustain their participation levels by providing them with a quality facility to assist with their training and match programmes.
Funded by the Premier League, The FA, and the Government (via Sport England), the Football Foundation is the nation’s largest sports charity. Since it was launched in 2000, the Foundation has worked closely with the Kent FA to support 234 grass roots sports projects across the county with grants worth £11.3m. These grants have attracted further partnership funding of £13.4m into Kent grass roots football projects.
Hugh Robertson, MP for Faversham and Mid Kent and Minister for Sport and Olympics, said: “In Olympic Year, this is a fantastic new sports facility for Faversham in general and the Abbey School in particular. It is the culmination of many years of hard work and I would like to congratulate The Abbey School and thank the Football Foundation for their support and generosity.”
Simon Finlan, Director of Sport at The Abbey School, said: “Over 60% of the facilities’ usage will be community based, giving benefit to local primary schools, the general public and particularly our two main youth football teams, Faversham Strike Force FC and Faversham Town Youth & Juniors FC.
“We would like to acknowledge the excellent support given by the Kent FA, Hugh Robertson MP and, most importantly, the significant financial contribution made from The Football Foundation.”
Darryl Haden, County Development Manager at The Kent County FA, said: “This is fantastic news for the community of Faversham and The Abbey School. I would like to congratulate the School for working extremely hard in ensuring that this project became a reality. The new facility will be a massive boost to the football community of Faversham, and will be of huge benefit to all local clubs.”
Mrs Woodend, Headteacher of The Abbey School, said: “We are delighted that all of the hard work that the school has invested in this project has finally come to fruition, after three and a half long years. The Abbey School has always maintained that Faversham has had a raw deal where sporting facilities are concerned and we saw it as our duty to redress this balance.”