Ella Toone, a EUROS-winning Lioness, has unveiled a football pitch named in her honour, as the Government and its Football Foundation partner with the Premier League. And The FA announce investment in thousands of grassroots sporting facilities to increase the number of people playing on high-quality pitches.
Toone, a goal scorer for England at the UEFA Women’s Euros 2022, unveiled a 3G pitch as part of a £6.3 million redevelopment of the William Fosters Hub facility in Wigan. Which will open to the public later this summer.
This year, the Government of England is investing £64 million. In collaboration with its Football Foundation partners the Premier League and The FA, to construct and improve 1,600 grassroots sports sites across England. In order to increase access to high-quality sports facilities.
The funding will be used to implement upgrades, expansions, and new fields. Thereby increasing the number of high-quality facilities available for football, hockey, and other grassroots sports. Projects support a variety of facility types. Including the construction or renovation of changing rooms, grass fields, 3G football turf fields, and pavilions. As well as the installation of floodlights, fencing, and enhanced disabled access.
The Government will invest £3.8 million in facilities in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland in partnership with the FAs in each native nation.
The Ella Toone Pitch is the second of 23 Football Foundation-funded surfaces that will be named after each of the Lionesses. To commemorate their triumph at the UEFA Women’s EUROs last summer. And encourage the next generation of women and girls to participate in the beautiful game.
A key objective of the programme is to improve access to community sports facilities and invest in some of the most deprived areas of the UK. So that as many people as possible can participate in sports. In order to accomplish this and provide every community with access to facilities it merits. At least fifty percent of investments will be made in disadvantaged areas.
This site is one of over 2,200 grassroots multi-sports facilities across the United Kingdom. That has benefited thus far from the Government’s four-year. £300 million capital investment. England will receive $261 million in Government financing between 2021 and 2025. In addition to funding from Football Foundation partners the Premier League and The FA.
