Pitch

Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund

Staffordshire FA is on a mission to transform the quality of grass pitches across the county. 

The Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund provided by the Football Foundation is a key part of this ambition and provides eligible organisations with a tapered six-year grant to help them sustain pitches already at a 'good' level and enhance pitches that are either considered 'poor' or 'basic'.

The fund is a key part of the Football Foundation's Power Up Your Grass Pitch campaign - an ambition to deliver 20,000 quality grass pitches by 2030.

Viki Dicesare

Football Facilities Officer

Phone: 01785 256994
E-mail: Support@StaffordshireFA.com

All applicants must have the required security of tenure, which is either owning the freehold, having a 10-year lease or longer, or a service level agreement with the site lasting 10 years. Applicants will also need to complete a PitchPower inspection within the last 12 months for all their pitches and have received a PitchPower Pitch Assessment Report before they can apply.

  • Grassroots football clubs
  • Leagues
  • Charities
  • Education sites (offering community usage on evenings and weekends)
  • Town and Parish Councils (that host grassroots football clubs on council-owned sites)
  • National League System (Steps 1-6) and Women's Football Pyramid (Tiers 1-4) clubs (only for non-stadia pitches at the site that are used for community football)

  • Local Authorities
  • An individual or sole trader
  • A commercial/for-profit entity

Enhance

For pitches with a Performance Quality Standard (PQS) of 'basic' or below.

Pitch size

Grant value (per pitch)*

11 v 11

£3,200 per pitch

9 v 9

£2,560 per pitch

Mini soccer (7v7 and 5x5)

£1,920 per pitch

*all grant values include VAT

Sustain

For pitches with a PQS of 'good' or higher.

Pitch size

Grant value (per pitch)*

11 v 11

£960

9 v 9

£640

Mini soccer (7v7 and 5x5)

£384

*all grant values include VAT

The funding provided must be used to carry out the recommendations from your PitchPower Assessment Report. These can include: 

  • Contractor works e.g. slitting, scarification or decompaction
  • Purchasing materials e.g. seed or fertiliser
  • Purchasing equipment e.g. Soil Sampler

Routine maintenance work such as grass cutting, and line marking aren't eligible.

Tapered means that the Football Foundation will pay a reduced percentage of the initial grant value every two years with the club making up the difference. For example, the grant awarded for an 11v11 pitch that needs enhancing would be £3200 in year 1 and 2, £2133 in year 3 and 4 and £1067 in year 5 and 6.

More details can be found in the Football Foundation's FAQs.

BEFORE YOU APPLY

PitchPower is the Football Foundation's free revolutionary web app for inspecting and improving grass pitches. Using your mobile phone or tablet, you can complete a pitch inspection at the touch of a button.

If you haven't signed up and completed a PitchPower pitch inspection, you'll need to do this for each of the pitches you want funding for before you can apply for the Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund.

LEARN MORE

READY TO APPLY
Login to your Football Foundation account (or create account if you don’t have one already) then select 'Start your application' under the 'Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund' option.

Remember, you won't be able to apply until you've completed a pitch inspection using our PitchPower app.

APPLY NOW