Chipstead FC marks its 75th birthday with new grassroots facility

Fri 3rd Jun 2011 | Football Stadiums & Facilities

Chipstead FC  will celebrate the unveiling of a new £25,000 pitch upgrade on Saturday 4^th June. The event, which also marks the club’s 75th birthday, will include award presentations, football challenges and coaching sessions.

The new facility will provide additional coaching space for the club’s younger members and enable Mini-Soccer matches to be hosted for its Under-7 and Under-8 age groups. Since forming a junior football section of the club junior membership has grown considerably. 

However, due to space restrictions on the main recreation ground and the fact that much of it becomes unusable during the wet winter months, the club have previously had to limit their intake. With extra land and proper drainage the club are likely to lose fewer matches to the weather over the winter months, as well as reducing the wear and tear on the other pitches.

The project was part-funded with the help of a £9,728 grant from the Football Foundation. Funded by the Premier League, The FA and the Government via Sport England, the Football Foundation is the nation’s largest sports charity. Since its launch in 2000, the Foundation has awarded around 8,000 grants worth more than £420m towards improving grassroots sport, which it has used to attract additional partnership funding of over £520m. Further funding of £9,042 was provided by Ibstock Cory Environmental Trust.

Alan Black, Chairman at Chipstead FC, said: “Having the additional playing field will enable us to continue to grow the club; we will no longer have to turn away children wanting to try out football for the first time, due to a lack of space.

“The new pitch will also allow us to invite other clubs to Chipstead to play matches against our Under-7 and Under-8 age groups, something we weren’t previously able to do. We are extremely grateful to both the Football Foundation and Ibstock Cory Environmental Trust for their support in helping to fund this project.”

Paul Thorogood, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation, said: “We are delighted that Chipstead FC and the local community will have access to this fantastic new facility and commend the club, the Kent County FA, Ibstock Cory Environmental Trust and everyone involved with the project for their hard work in making this happen.”

“This is the latest example of thousands of projects across the country that the Football Foundation is supporting with money provided by our funding partners the Premier League, The FA and Government.”

“Since the Foundation was set up in 2000 it has worked closely with the Kent FA to support 262 grass roots sports projects across the county with grants worth £11.3m. These grants have attracted further partnership funding of £13.4m into the area’s grass roots.”

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