Grass Roots Football to lose £1.6 million

£1.6 million is to be cut from funding amateur football in the UK.

The professional game is not a separate entity. Some might think it is, but those who fail to see the connection between grass-roots football and professional football are sadly part of our governing body. The loss of funds has come from Sport England, though I'm afraid the FA have a massive case to answer here.

A significant part of the problem is surely the spiral of funds constantly pumped into the professional field. Believe it or not, every professional who's ever played the game will have had to play poor-level football in their youth to progress their footballing abilities. With England increasingly struggling to produce young talent that can remotely compete with the international elite, cuts such as this are a devastating blow. Aside from just producing players for the future, grass-roots football serves many other purposes. Playing football not only serves as a social activity but naturally keeps people fit.

Sport England have said that the cuts were resultant from a vast decline in the number of players. David Bond of the BBC aptly describes the situation:

The Football Association is to lose £1.6m of public funding for the amateur game in England after failing to reverse a sharp decline in the number of people regularly playing the sport. Taken from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26760067