Local Football Facility Plans
As part of our commitment to improving the facilities and opportunities to participate in football across Wales, The Cymru Football Foundation in partnership with the FAW have developed Local Football Facility Plans for all local authority areas across Wales.
These Local Football Facility Plans (LFFPs) have been prepared with support from local partners, including the FAW Grassroots Regional Teams, Area Associations, Local Authorities, Active Partnerships, League Associations and grassroots football clubs. LFFPs have been developed for every local authority area in Wales to plan for – and support – investment into football facilities.
What is the purpose of these plans?
W’re identifying the priority facility projects required to meet the growing demand for football, addressing challenges with the current supply, accessibility or quality of existing facilities. As a result, the plans will be used to identify the priority projects for potential investment in each local authority.
These LFFPs will be the starting point for further investment that the CFF will be making into football facilities across the country, using the research and consultation from these LFFPs and the identified priority projects to help the CFF and FAW achieve their wider goals for grassroots football.
Consultation with Grassroots Football
We have consulted with all our partners involved in grassroots community football. Community football clubs have been central to the development of the LFFPs with over 50% of all clubs in Wales providing feedback and identifying needs for football facilities, representing 70% of all players across the country.
Local Area Associations and Leagues across the country have also been consulted on facility needs providing feedback and attending meetings that have informed these important local plans.
Why invest in football facilities?
In February 2024, the FAW and CFF launched a Facility Vision – detailing the current issues facing the standard of grassroots facilities in Wales. These new Local Football Facility Plans will take a huge step towards addressing those issues.
The Cymru Football Foundation’s 2025 strategy Closer to the Game has outlined the ambition to deliver quality football facilities within 15 minutes of every community in Wales by 2030.
This would ensure every community in Wales is a maximum of 15 minutes travel (by vehicle) away from quality natural turf or artificial grass pitches and welcoming and inclusive changing and clubhouse facilities.
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English
Cymraeg
National Participation Growth
21%
Increase in national player registrations by 20,281 players since 2022/23
47%
Increase in women and girls players nationally by 6,353 since 2022/23
36%
Increase in registered youth players by 22,016 since 2022/23
114%
Increase in registered disability players by 462 since 2022/23
These positive trends for football participation continue to rise. Within each of these local authority LFFPs the growth in demand for that local authority is further analysed related to the impact on the facility needs including projecting forward, based on these trends in growth and demand.
These new LFFPs for all of our 22 Local Authorities across Wales will therefore allow further support to:
- Meet the fast-growing needs of the women and girls’ game.
- Improve player, volunteer and spectator experiences.
- Futureproof facilities to become more environmentally sustainable.
- Prioritise investment in areas of most need.
- Maximise investment opportunities to accelerate facility improvements.
Growing Demand for Football Facilities
As demand for football continues to grow, it is placing pressure on current facilities and increasing the demand for new facilities. From the updated consultation and analysis that has informed these LFFPs the current shortfall for 3G artificial grass pitches equals 51 pitches. This figure rises to 119 pitches in the coming 5 years due to the continued growing demand alongside population increases.
Priorities for Investment
This LFFP, with guidance from local partners, has developed a list of high-level projects for potential investment, which include:
- New 3G Artificial Grass Pitches (AGPs): in a mix of sizes and settings, dependent upon local needs. All aimed at enhancing the quality of the playing experience.
- New changing pavilions / clubhouses: all linked to priority sites to provide safe, inclusive and welcoming spaces.
- Small sided community pitches: to create safe, inclusive and accessible facilities that bring communities together through recreational forms of football and a range of other sports and activities.
- Improved natural-turf pitches: to help address quality of provision and playing capacity.
Key Project Outcomes, Targets & Addressing Inequality
Each LFFP provides a list of priority projects which have been identified as having the ability to improve experiences and environments that deliver participation growth and benefit at least one of the following priority outcomes:
- Stronger and More Sustainable Community-Focused Clubs and Facilities.
- Improving Access and Environments for Women and Girls.
- Tackling Inequalities: Improving Quality of and Access to Facilities in Deprived Communities.
- Tackling Inequalities: Improving Quality of and Access to Facilities for Participants with a Disability or from Ethnically Diverse Communities.
Areas with high ethnic diversity are 6% less likely to play football than the national average
Residents in the most deprived areas are 13% less likely to play football than residents in more affluent areas
The LFFPs sets out all leading priority projects for potential investment. The list will be used flexibly and does not determine the exact order in which it will progress to a funding application to the Cymru Football Foundation, as many factors influence this. The process for moving a project from this list and into the pre-application stage will be managed by the Cymru Football Foundation.
In addition, the following factors will also need to be considered for future project development and investment.
Availability of CFF Funding
Given the volume of identified potential projects across each Local Authority area, the supply of projects identified through these LFFPs significantly outweighing the supply of funding the CFF has available. It is also important to note that the CFF receives its funding from partners, often, on an annual basis impacting its ability to make long-term funding commitments. All CFF funding decisions are subject to independent decision-making panel approval.
Availability of Partner Funding
Financial contributions from stakeholders e.g. Local Authorities or Clubs to ensure sufficient funding is available to deliver the identified project. To date, the average contribution from partners to deliver supported facility projects has been between 35-40% of the total project cost.
Deliverability
The ability for the project to mobilise and deliver quickly. CFF and partner funding often have conditions related to completion deadlines therefore to be able to maximise use of the funding available, the ability for the project to meet certain timelines associated to completion will be a consideration.
Addressing Geographical Gaps in Provision
To achieve our vision of Quality football facilities within 15 minutes of every community in Wales, we will be considering a project’s ability to address this ambition. The 15-minutes measure is for vehicle access and a community represents a residential area of over 300 people.
Multi-Sport Approach
Although Cymru Football Foundation funded projects will always be football led, there is an opportunity to make a real difference for other sports and for physical activity to take place on the sites. We want to be as collaborative as possible with our approach to project development and ensure that facilities are serving as many different sports, activities and people as they can, as well as helping to tackle inequalities and support communities such as women and girls, people with disabilities and long-term health conditions, diverse communities and lower socio-economic groups.
Consultation took place with the local authority and other sports bodies to inform these LFFPs. It is a requirement that all projects that move through to application phase undertake further detailed community and stakeholder engagement to ensure that facilities fully serve the communities they are being designed for. This includes working with other sport National Governing Bodies to look at shared priorities and facility developments to get the best multi-sport outcomes where possible.
