To mark the 30th anniversary of the Premier League, the Premier League Trophy began its seven week tour of England and Wales. The League’s all-time leading scorer Alan Shearer saw off the Trophy in Manchester on 8 August as it commenced its journey visiting Premier League, EFL, Non-League and Women’s clubs, all of whom had benefited from Premier League investment.
During the tour, the League have also announced new financial commitments to benefit fans and communities. This includes increased investment into the Premier League Fans’ Fund, with £5m available to support fan engagement projects across the top four divisions of the football pyramid. The League also declared an additional £13.5 million to the Football Foundation for the creation small-sided pitches in the heart of communities that need them the most. The tour will also give an opportunity to highlight new Premier League investment into women’s and girls’ football, including the Emerging Talent Centres announced earlier this summer.
Among those to receive support from the Premier League were National League clubs (and their associated charities), and the National League Trust. Since the 2010/11 season, the Trust has received £13.5 million in funding, and in 2016 the Premier League added £300,000 per year to further support the Premier League Primary Stars programme. This funding was critical in enabling these projects to be delivered in parts of the country where no PL or EFL club was located. Of the £11.4m designated as main grant funding, £8.6m has been offered to 101 clubs/community trusts to fund their community engagements projects and other work in their local communities. Based on monitoring reports submitted over the last 12 years, NLT community trust projects have delivered over 400,000 sessions and have involved around 3 million participants.
There are 54 National League projects being funded currently, with projects tackling such subjects as arts activities (including music and dance), volunteering, disability sport teams, working with isolated community groups, green projects, health projects, girls and women’s football development, working in partnership with schools (in additional to PLPS), walking football, mental health support, social activities for older people, anti-social behaviour programmes, youth work, general fitness programmes and most recently, supporting refugees. During the pandemic many of these projects also helped with community support including pharmacy and food delivery and delivered online fitness and educational support sessions. These projects can be found widely distributed across England and Wales, from York City FC Foundation in the north to Torquay United Community Sports Trust in the south, and from Wrexham AFC Community Trust in the east to Boston United Community Foundation in the west, with the more central Kidderminster Harriers and Notts County Foundation, Premier League funding has a strong tradition of helping these communities, amongst many more.
You can see where the Premier League Trophy has been (and where it is going!) here.
