Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund
GRASS PITCH MAINTENANCE FUND
Offered by the Football Foundation, the Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund provides six-year tapered grants to help clubs enhance or sustain the quality of their grass pitches.
On this page, you will find information on how you can apply for funding for your grass pitches through a series of FAQs.
You can also download our Grass Pitch Improvement Guide here for more hints and tips.
All applicants must have the required security of tenure and have received a PitchPower Pitch Assessment Report:
- Grassroots clubs*
- Leagues
- Charities
- Education sites (offering community usage on evenings and weekends)
- Town and Parish Councils (that host grassroots football clubs on council-owned sites)
- National League System (Steps 1-6) and Women's Football Pyramid (Tiers 1-4) clubs (only for non-stadia pitches at the site that are used for community football)
See the Football Foundation's FAQs for more details.
*Please note, if you’re a Football Club looking to apply for Football Foundation funding, only the Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary or Treasurer of that Club can submit an application form.
- Clubs, leagues or organisations without suitable security of tenure (details below)
- Clubs, leagues or organisations without a PitchPower Pitch Assessment Report
- Local Authorities without an eligible organisation that applies on their behalf (details below)
- Site operators, such as education sites, that don't offer community use on the evenings/weekends
- An individual or sole trader
- A commercial/for-profit entity
*What security of tenure do we need?
To be eligible for this fund, you'll need to either:
- Own the freehold
or
- Have a lease or license which has more than 12 months to run and permission from the Landlord. As proof of this you need to complete a 'Landlord and Tenant' form and upload the completed form to your application.
For more information on security of tenure requirements, please see the Football Foundation's FAQs.
The Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund is a fund that provides eligible clubs, leagues and organisations with a tapered six-year grant to help them sustain pitches already at a 'good' level and enhance pitches that are either considered 'poor' or 'basic'.
The fund is a key part of the Football Foundation's Power Up Your Grass Pitch campaign - an ambition to deliver 20,000 quality grass pitches by 2030. Access the support and resources we have available to improve the quality of your grass pitches by clicking below.
Funding falls into two categories - Enhance or Sustain.
Your PitchPower pitch inspection (a requirement of the grant) will provide you with a Performace Quality Standard (PQS) per pitch - which will help us decide how much funding you'll be eligible for - and a list of maintenance recommendations which you'll need to carry out as part of your grant award. Grants are paid annually for six years but tapered down during that time.
The amounts below show the grant values for the first year at 100% funding. All grant values include VAT.
ENHANCE
For pitches with a Performance Quality Standard (PQS) of 'basic' or below.
11v11 pitch
£3,200 (grant value per pitch)
9v9 pitch
£2,560 (grant value per pitch)
Mini soccer (7v7 & 5v5)
£1,920 (grant value per pitch)
SUSTAIN
For pitches with a PQS of 'good' or higher.
11v11 pitch
£960 (grant value per pitch)
9v9
£640 (grant value per pitch)
Mini soccer (7v7 & 5v5)
£384 (grant value per pitch)
*All grant values include VAT.
The funding provided must be used to carry out the recommendations from your PitchPower Assessment Report. These can include:
- Contractor works e.g. slitting, scarification or decompaction
- Purchasing materials e.g. seed or fertiliser
- Purchasing equipment e.g. Soil Sampler
Routine maintenance work such as grass cutting and line marking aren't eligible.
Tapered means that the Football Foundation will pay a reduced percentage of the initial grant value every two years with the club making up the difference. For example, the grant awarded for an 11v11 pitch that needs enhancing would be £3200 in year 1 and 2, £2133 in year 3 and 4 and £1067 in year 5 and 6.
More details can be found in the Football Foundation's FAQs.
PitchPower is the tool that will allow clubs and organisations like yours to complete pitch inspections and access funds like this directly from your mobile phone.
If you haven't signed up and completed a PitchPower pitch inspection, you'll need to do this for each of the pitches you want funding for before you can apply for the Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund.
The Football Foundation's grass pitch webinars feature more information about the Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund, advice on how to use the PitchPower app and some expert tips from the Grounds Management Association on how to keep your pitches in top condition following the season extension.
Watch the North Region webinar below.
Ready to apply?
Login to your Football Foundation account on and then select 'Start your application' under the 'Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund' option.
Remember, you won't be able to apply until you've completed a pitch inspection using our PitchPower app.