Women’s football in Rotherham received a huge boost today as Rotherham United Women were awarded a £500 grant by the Premier League, The FA and Government’s Football Foundation.
The £500 grant, part of the Foundation’s Return to Football Fund, is helping Rotherham United Women to restart playing following the lifting of government restrictions on grassroots football. The grant was made possible thanks to funding from The FA and Sport England through the Football Foundation.
This money will be used to purchase new equipment in order to aid RUWFC’s coaching team to restart their sessions. This money also enables the club to purchase equipment that is required in order to adapt to new COVID-19 rules.
Jamie Noble, RUWFC Club Chairperson said: “it’s a privilege as a club to get support from the football foundation to allow our players and fans to get back to football in a safe way. Their funding has enabled us to keep our players safe and we are now confident that we have done all we can do as a club to protect them."
Robert Sullivan, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation, said: “This grant award to Rotherham United Women towards new equipment is vital for the local community as they get back to playing football as safely as possible. Our Return to Football fund is supporting clubs across the country, helping them to kick-start our national game again locally and try to recover from the effects of COVID-19. This is part of our wider ambition to transform our grassroots game and unlock the power of pitches, something we hope to get back to in full force as restrictions are lifted.”
The £2.1M Return to Football Fund is directly targeted at groups of people whose participation has been affected most by COVID-19, offering Clubs up to £2,500 each.
The grant comes as part of an investment of more than £16m that has been made available to help clubs prepare for the restart of grassroots football following the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, the Foundation declared “Game on” and announced three funds to get football’s 12 million grassroots players back on the pitch.
The Football Foundation is the UK’s largest sports charity and exists to improve the experience of playing football for everyone, by championing fair access to quality facilities.
Keep up to date with RUWFC news on their twitter page: @RUWFC_official.