Grassroots football strategy launched by GFA

Friday 01 November 2024

The Guernsey FA has launched a new strategy for grassroots football aimed at ensuring a unified, welcoming, and accessible game for all.

It follows the launch of The Football Association’s new national strategy to grow and develop grassroots football in England and its overall four-year strategy.

The GFA has adopted The FA's grassroots football strategic framework over the four-year period to ensure the needs of the game are met locally.

GFA CEO, Gary Roberts, said: "This strategy reflects our ongoing commitment to ensure that this progress continues so we can ensure our sport truly represents the unified, welcoming, and accessible game for all.

"This is the vision of the Guernsey FA, and one that underpins all that we do, and the way in which we work.

He said that football should be a constant source of positivity across the island.

"This strategy incorporates bold and ambitious objectives for football in Guernsey, which we, and those that we have consulted, believe are in the best interests of the game, and will provide tangible benefits for all involved.

"We look forward with excitement to the next four years, conscious that the Guernsey FA will grow as an organisation. For the first time in its 130 years of existence, the Guernsey FA will have a home, and it is our ambition that Guernsey's new 'Home of Football' will resonate with the football, and wider, island community to become a true community facility, and a central feature of our strategic plans and aspirations for the game.

"We are excited for this new journey, and working with all local football stakeholders, as we enter what will be the start of a transformational era for football in Guernsey."

The FA's new four-year grassroots strategy follows the biggest ever consultation process with the grassroots game across England, and is aimed at supporting sustainable growth over the next four years, with projections anticipating a further 220,000 new players across 15,000 new teams nationally by 2028.

The GFA's new approach will work collaboratively with The FA's which outlines five priority areas:

• Improving playing choice and opportunity – To create new and varied playing opportunities to give everyone a chance to play the game, in a way that suits them best
• Deliver equal opportunities for women and girls to play – To ensure every woman and girl who wants to play football has an opportunity to do so in a safe and enjoyable setting and in a way that suits their lifestyle
• Build more, and improve existing, facilities – To increase the quality and quantity of grassroots football pitches and facilities across England, to better meet the demand
• Tackle poor behaviour – To see a decline in cases of poor behaviour of any kind, and to increase reporting of discrimination, ensuring enjoyment is at the forefront of playing, volunteering or officiating grassroots football
• Develop a valued network of volunteers, coaches and referees – To grow the number of grassroots volunteers, coaches and referees, and ensure they all feel valued and supported to fulfil their roles in the game

Through the new strategy, the grassroots game will play a pivotal role in delivering three of the four FA 'game-changer' priorities over the next four years. These are to create equal opportunities for women and girls, transform the pitch landscape nationally and see a game free from discrimination.

The FA's new strategy outlines three key drivers to deliver this:

• Support thriving community clubs – To support a network of thriving community clubs to provide a brilliant football offer to their local communities, to grow in a sustainable way, and to be well-run
• Connect and serve participants – To improve our digital offering and deliver new online services which are personalised, easy to access and help participants to fulfil their roles and find new opportunities
• Progress the game's governance – To better serve all football participants through the highest governance standards, at all levels in the grassroots game