The launch of the FA's Pitch Improvement Programme (PIP) is an endeavour to be applauded.
The Association and their industry partners, Rigby Taylor and Charterhouse Turf Machinery, deserve credit and admiration for looking beyond the glamour of the upper leagues of English football, and putting their time and money into helping non-league clubs. The grassroots of the game is where both stars of the future can be cultivated and players who simply love the game can play to the best of their abilities.
And for supporters who adore the thrill of watching live football who either a) don't live near a big club, or increasingly, b) do live near a big club but can't afford the extortionate prices to go along every other Saturday, non-league is a wonderful scene to get into - as long as the facilities are in working order!
And that's where PIP comes in. As the FA says one of the great challenges that many clubs in grassroots football face is that 83% of pitches in England are publicly owned. This means that as austerity measures kick in, local authority budgets are increasingly being squeezed. Funds for pitch maintenance are often at risk as councils are forced to prioritise essential services.
PIP pledges that it will provide a range of support services to grassroots clubs, club volunteers and groundsmen including on-site evaluations with practical advice and recommendations.
They also say they will include a range of measures to help develop the skills and knowledge of the volunteers and groundsmen including seminars and workshops.
In addition to the commitment to improve grass pitches, The FA has also pledged to spend £36m on facility improvements and new developments directly through the Premier League and FA Facilities Fund managed by the Football Foundation.
At the scheme's launch last week Kelly Simmons MBE, FA director for participation and development, said, “Last winter we asked people from across grassroots football what they felt would make playing football better. Nearly 30,000 people gave us their view, yet among the vast majority the answer was remarkably similar: supporting clubs to improve their pitches.
"We have committed to investing a total of £260 million in addressing the problem of poor quality facilities and improving grassroots coaching by 2019."
What is so impressive about this whole project from a Turf Professional's point of view is the commitment to improving natural turf surfaces. They are not talking about spending millions ripping up all the less than perfect pitches which teams down the pyramid play on, to replace them with the magic solve-all that is artificial. They are talking about the betterment of turf surfaces.
Betterment through access to better seeds and fertilisers, to machinery and equipment and to educational assistance. And this has to be great news.
