Jesse Norman, MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire, will officially open an upgraded third generation (3G) artificial grass pitch (AGP) at The Hereford Academy on Friday 29 June 2018 at 2.30pm. This project has been made possible by a grant from the Premier League & The FA Facilities Fund.

The grant has enabled the Academy, working in partnership with the Bishop Anthony Educational Trust, to resurface their existing 3G AGP. This will benefit not only the school’s students, but also many local community users who can continue to take advantage of the only full size all-weather facility in the area.

The refurbished pitch is set to benefit several users, including partner clubs Pegasus FC, Hinton FC and Belmont FC. The Herefordshire FA will also continue to use the state-of-the-art facility, and Hereford FC will deliver sessions on-site.

It is expected that football participation will increase by 45% overall, sparked by an increase of 100% in female participation and 72% in Under-14 football participation on-site respectively.

The project was made possible thanks to a £150,548 grant from the Premier League & The FA Facilities Fund, which is delivered by the Football Foundation.

Since 2000, the Football Foundation Funding Partners’ investment has provided 55 grants worth £1.8m towards grassroots sports projects worth almost £14m across the whole of Herefordshire.

Founded in 2000, the Football Foundation is the largest sports charity in the UK funded by the Premier League, The FA and Government, via Sport England. It develops new and refurbished grassroots sports facilities in order to improve the quality and experience of playing sport at the grassroots level. Since it was launched in 2000, the Foundation has awarded over 17,000 grants worth more than £615m towards improving grassroots sport, which it has used to attract additional partnership funding of over £817m – £1.4bn of investment into the grassroots game.