Registered Company Number: 3876305 Registered Charity Number: 1079309 

## **THE FOOTBALL FOUNDATION** 

Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 May 2025 

## **The Football Foundation** 

## **Chair’s foreword** 

As we come into our 25[th] year, we are funding more great places to play than ever, have more funding programmes than ever and are making a positive impact on more lives than ever. This is all thanks to the hard work of our team and the support of our funding partners – the Premier League, The FA and Government. 

This year we invested a record-breaking £146 million into improving existing, and delivering new, grassroots sports facilities, including 100 3G pitches, 180 changing rooms, 1,400 grass pitches, 1,900 goalposts, and 85 PlayZones. This was made possible by the highest annual contribution we’ve ever received from our funding partners. 

One of the most rewarding parts of my role is visiting sites and meeting the people whose lives have been transformed by this investment. I always come away inspired by the passion and pride people take in their new facilities and their clubs and reminded of the powerful role sport can play in creating stronger, better-connected communities. 

Our excellent track record continues to give our funding partners confidence that their money will be well spent. The Premier League and The FA have confirmed their investment through to FY28 while the Government has committed to investing £400 million into grassroots sports facilities across the UK from FY26 to FY30. We expect to receive confirmation of our allocation from this funding pot in the coming months. 

A large part of what’s made our success possible has been the strategic insight provided by our Local Football Facility Plans since their completion in 2020. These Local Plans have enabled us to take a more targeted and effective approach, ensuring our investment reaches the communities that need it most and where it will have the greatest long-term impact. 

Since these Local Plans were published, the grassroots landscape has changed dramatically. The Lionesses’ landmark victories at the 2022 and 2025 UEFA Women’s EUROs sparked a surge in demand for grassroots football, particularly among women and girls. In addition, rising construction costs have placed new pressures on capital project delivery. To ensure we have an up-to-date picture of the supply and demand of facilities, we have produced a new Local Plan for every local authority in the country that will guide our investment through the next chapter. 

Thanks to these Local Plans alongside our new five-year strategy and the continued support of our funding partners, I’m confident we have everything we need to achieve our core mission – to give every community a great place to play. 

## **Martin Glenn, Chair of the Football Foundation** 

2 

**The Football Foundation** 

## **CEO’s introduction** 

This year marked the conclusion of the Football Foundation’s most ambitious strategy to date – a three-year plan that shaped where we focused our delivery and what we aimed to achieve. I’m proud to say we not only met our strategic targets – we exceeded them thanks to the tireless efforts of my teammates and the continued support of our funding partners – the Premier League, The FA and Government: 

- 96% (against a target of 75%) of the projects we delivered are engaging underrepresented groups. 

- 55% (against a target of 50%) of our funding was targeted at the most deprived and inactive areas of the country. 

- 70% (against a target of 40%) of the projects we delivered are providing a benefit to at least one other sport in addition to football. 

- 47% (against a target of 40%) of the projects we’ve delivered are directly benefitting grassroots clubs and community organisations. 

We also delivered our highest-ever level of investment – more than £331 million over three years. This is testament to the hard work that’s gone on behind the scenes to scale up the organisation and deliver on the significant funding boost provided to us by our partners. 

Investment in delivering pitches continues to be at the heart of what we do. We now have 9,600 quality grass pitches across the country. That means more and betterquality matches and training sessions happening where grassroots football started and continues to be played, on grass. This wouldn’t have been possible without innovations like our _PitchPower_ app, which this year won its fourth award: App of the Year at the 2024 Prolific North Tech Awards. 

We’ve also increased our delivery of all-weather 3G pitches, improving or creating more than 250 in the past three years. Alongside this, we’re leading the way within the sports sector in improving the sustainability of our investment into these surfaces. Our three-year research project into finding the most environmentally friendly pitch infill systems is progressing well. In addition, we’ve kicked off new research to test the effectiveness of containment measures and are working with organisations across the sports and environment sector to increase the capacity of pitch recycling within the UK. 

The _Football Foundation PlayZones Programme_ reached new heights this year, with 85 community-designed, small-sided, multi-sport facilities funded – taking our total to 168. We cut the ribbon on several of these new small-sided multi-sport facilities throughout the year – each one different to the next in terms of the location, design and usage which has been based on the needs and preferences of their local communities. 

Perhaps one of the most exciting challenges we’ve faced has been the explosive growth in participation among women and girls following the Lionesses' triumphs at the 2022 and 2025 UEFA Women’s EUROs. We know that without high quality, welcoming and accessible facilities, this spike in demand won’t translate into a 

3 

## **The Football Foundation** 

sustained boost to participation rates, so we’ve challenged ourselves at the Foundation to do even more to support the women’s and girls’ game. 

Our _HERe To Play_ campaign has been central to this work, celebrating our commitment to ensuring every facility we fund provides equal access to women and girls. Recognising the trail-blazing players that inspired this growth, we opened more new facilities in honour of the Lionesses this year, including Millie Bright, Lauren Hemp and Leah Williamson. I had the pleasure of attending several of these openings seeing for myself first-hand the passion and ambition England’s success has inspired. 

This year also saw the culmination of the _Lionesses Futures Fund_ . This £30 million cash injection from The FA and Government has now funded 35 gold standard projects that will prioritise access for women and girls. 15 projects of these projects are now open and helping to drive participation through reserved peak-time slots, women and girlsonly evenings and priority booking. The growth in demand for football among women and girls has shown no sign of slowing, so it’s vital our support continues. As of next year, every new facility we fund will guarantee 20% of priority time slots for women’s and girls’ teams. 

As well as our overarching strategy, this year saw the completion of the first phase of our EDI strategy, _Together for Football_ . This has helped us become a more inclusive organisation by introducing ‘Conscious Inclusion’ training to help foster a more understanding and inclusive culture. We have also launched a refreshed Community Engagement Toolkit which has provided applicants with a comprehensive guide on how to involve the views of local communities in the design of facilities. A new EDI strategy will be introduced next year. 

At the start of this year, we welcomed a new Parliament into office. With this came over 350 new MPs and a new Government to demonstrate our impact and the importance of sustained long-term investment into grassroots facilities. It was a pleasure to host 140 of these MPs across the two Grassroots Football Drop-in Sessions we hosted this year, at which Parliamentarians had the opportunity to speak to their Delivery Manager and learn about the investment we’ve delivered in their constituencies. We hosted more than 50 MPs at their local Foundation-funded grassroots sites to bring to life what our investment can deliver. 

While we should rightly celebrate how far we’ve come, our focus is firmly on what lies ahead. Our new five-year strategy – the most comprehensive and far-reaching we’ve ever developed which builds directly on the achievements and insights of the past three years. It reflects not only what we’ve learned about where and how we can have the greatest impact, but also the growing scale of the challenge and opportunity in front of us. 

With strong foundations in place and momentum behind us, the Foundation is now better equipped than ever to finish what we started and provide every community with a great place to play. 

## **Robert Sullivan, CEO of the Football Foundation** 

4 

**The Football Foundation** 

## **Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

|**Contents**<br>**Page**|
|---|
|Trustees, Directors, Officers and Advisors  ...................................................................................................... 6|
|Report of the Trustees:|
|Structure, governance and management ........................................................................................ 8|
|Strategic Report ................................................................................................................................................ 15|
|Independent auditor’s report ............................................................................................................................... 28|
|Consolidated statement of financial activities ........................................................................................... 33|
|Balance sheets ................................................................................................................................................................ 34|
|Consolidated cash flow statement  ................................................................................................................... 35|
|Notes to the financial statements ...................................................................................................................... 36|



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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

## **Trustees, Directors, Officers and Advisors to 31 May 2025** 

## **Trustees, Directors, Officers and Advisors** 

The Trustees and Directors of the company who were in office during the year and up to the date of signing the annual report, except as noted, were: 

M R Glenn (Chair) M W Bullingham - The FA CEO (ex-officio) T Hollingsworth - Sport England CEO (SE representative) R Masters - Premier League nominated representative P D G McCormick OBE (Resigned 30 April 2025) - Premier League Stadium Fund Chair (ex-officio) E Narozanski - DCMS nominated representative J D Pearce -   The FA nominated representative W Shaifta - Independent C Sumner CBE (Appointed 30 April 2025) - Premier League Stadium Fund Chair (exofficio) K Taylor - Independent 

## **Senior Management Team** 

R J Sullivan – CEO S Bunis – Director of Brand, Marketing and Communication M Coulson – Director of Programmes (Resigned 31 May 2025) D Evans – CFO J Goodman – Director of Business Services J Matthews – Director of Programmes (Appointed 10 March 2025) D Potter – Director of Grant Management 

## **Company Secretary** 

J Goodman M R Glenn (Chair) M W Bullingham – The FA CEO (ex-officio) T Hollingsworth – Sport England CEO (SE representative) R Masters – Premier League nominated representative P D G McCormick OBE (Resigned 30 April 2025) – Premier League Stadium Fund Chair (ex-officio) E Narozanski – DCMS nominated representative J D Pearce -   The FA nominated representative W Shaifta – Independent C Sumner CBE (Appointed 30 April 2025) – Premier League Stadium Fund Chair (ex-officio) K Taylor – Independent 

## **Senior Management Team** 

R J Sullivan – CEO S Bunis – Director of Brand, Marketing and Communication M Coulson – Director of Programmes (Resigned 31 May 2025) D Evans – CFO J Goodman – Director of Business Services J Matthews – Director of Programmes (Appointed 10 March 2025) D Potter – Director of Grant Management 

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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

## **Company Secretary** 

J Goodman 

## **Registered Company Number: 3876305 Registered Charity Number: 1079309** 

## **Registered office** 

Wembley Stadium Wembley Park London HA9 0WS 

## **Independent auditor** 

RSM UK Audit LLP 25 Farringdon Street London EC4A 4AB 

## **Bankers** 

Barclays Bank PLC 1 Churchill Place London E14 5HP 

## **Legal Advisors** 

Bates Well 10 Queen Street London EC4R 1BE 

## **Website** 

footballfoundation.org.uk/ 

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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

## **Report of the Trustees** 

The Trustees, who are also Directors of the company for the purposes of the Companies Act, present their annual report and the audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025 (FY25). 

The Trustees have referred to the Charity Commission’s guidance on reporting on public benefit (section 4 of Charities Act 2011) when reviewing the Charity's aims and objectives, and when planning the Charity's activities. The Trustees are therefore content that the Charity meets the public benefit requirements. 

The information with respect to Trustees, Directors, Officers, and Advisers set out on page 6 forms part of this report. 

## **Corporate Information** 

The Football Foundation is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated in the United Kingdom in November 1999 as The Football Trust Charitable Trust, changing its name to The Football Foundation (the Foundation or Charity) in April 2000 (company registration number 3876305) and registered with the Charity Commission (Charity number 1079309). The Football Foundation’s Memorandum and Articles of Association detail the charitable objectives. 

The Football Foundation receives funding from three partners: The Football Association (The FA), the Premier League and the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS). 

The Foundation does not raise any funds from the public nor enter any fundraising activities. 

## **The Football Foundation Trading Limited (Reg no: 4202574)** 

The Football Foundation Trading Limited (FFTL) was established to trade and generate funds for the Foundation with no restriction on the activities. Further to the successful divestment of Upshot in FY21, there has been limited activity in FFTL. 

The Directors intend to keep Football Foundation Trading Limited as a dormant company. 

Two of the Directors of the FFTL, D Evans and RJ Sullivan are also employees of the Foundation. 

## **Structure, governance, and management** 

## **Structure** 

The Foundation is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association dated 6 August 2020. 

## _Election of Trustees_ 

The Trustees and Directors were appointed to the Board as follows: 

Independent Chair Appointed by the Board of Trustees for a three-year term The FA Two Trustees 

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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

Premier League Two Trustees Sport England One Trustee DCMS One Trustee Independent Two Trustees 

The other company included within the Group is the non-charitable wholly owned trading subsidiary The Football Foundation Trading Limited (FFTL), which was incorporated in April 2001 (company registration number 4202574).  There has been limited activity for  The Football Foundation Trading Limited during the year and this company will be made dormant post year-end. 

During the year ended 31 May 2025 there were changes in our Trustees and these are as detailed on page 6. The process for onboarding new Trustees is that they undertake a structured induction process, including one-to-one meetings with the Chair of the Board and CEO and are offered the opportunity to visit a Foundationfunded facility. The Board receives relevant training, including legal and regulatory updates, on a periodic basis. 

The Board comprises three ex-offico Trustees; the CEO of the FA, the CEO of the Premier League and the Chair of the Premier League Stadium Fund. 

In accordance with our Articles, The FA, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and Sport England each have the power to appoint one Trustee. The Board then have the power to appoint an Independent Trustee, a Senior Independent Trustee, and to co-opt up to two additional Trustees. These appointments are limited to three terms of three years, with all independent members being appointed via open recruitment nationally. The Trustees may appoint an independent, non-executive Chair for a period of up to three years, after which they can be reappointed for two additional terms of three years (a maximum term of nine years). M R Glenn was appointed as Chair on 1 January 2020 for three years and renewed for an additional three years on 1 January 2023. 

The Foundation is committed to develop a membership that is as inclusive as possible, and which effectively represents the broad, diverse constituency that the Foundation is looking to support. The aim is therefore to bring together a diverse, informed body of individuals. As a recipient of public funding, 25% of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees are to be Independent Non-Executive Trustees (INET). INETs are initially appointed for a three-year term and are limited to serving two additional terms of three years (a maximum term of nine years), before being required to step down. 

## **Governance** 

## _Articles of Association_ 

The Football Foundation’s Articles of Association are part of our governing documents and are the agreed written rules about how the charity should be managed and run. No changes have been made to the Articles of Association in Financial Year 2025 (FY25), 1 June 2024 to 31 May 2025. 

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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

Trustees have overall responsibility for Football Foundation activities and are advised by the Chief Executive and the Senior Management Team. The Trustees have established two standing committees: 

**The Audit, Remuneration and Governance Committee** comprises: Matthew Kirkby – Independent Chair, Karen Taylor – Independent Football Foundation Trustee, Serena Jacobs – Independent and co-opted member of the Committee, Peter McCormick OBE – Premier League Stadium Fund Chair (ex-officio) (Resigned 30 April 2025), Nick Perchard – Premier League Stadium Fund Director (Appointed 1 April 2025) 

The scope of the Committee is to provide assurance to the Board that there is an effective system of governance, risk management and control across the organisation’s activities. 

The Committee also has responsibility for remuneration of key management personnel and consideration of remuneration policy and governance. The Committee reviews the benchmarks and parameters used by the Foundation’s Senior Management team as detailed on page 6, to identify any employees who may be eligible to receive an exceptional pay rise based on their performance and benchmarking. The Committee meets four times a year and has its decisions ratified by the full Board. The Football Foundation uses salary benchmarking software to give us instant data on the market rate for job roles across the UK. Data can be filtered by sector, location, and organisation size (headcount and income), enabling us to complete a full review of all salaries and benefits and make informed decisions about our reward strategy. Based on need, this is periodically supplemented by independent and bespoke benchmarking to provide an accurate reflection of the current market for specific roles. 

**The Football Foundation Grants Panel** comprises of Paul Spooner - Independent Chair, Rahul Bissoonauth - Independent member (Resigned 31 January 2025), Palma Black - Independent member (Resigned 31 May 2025), Patrick Brosnan - Sport England representative, Sue Catton - Independent member, Helen Donovan – Independent member (Appointed 1 June 2024), Nick Perchard - Premier League representative, Richard Smale - Independent member, Gianmaria Vettese (Appointed 1 February 2025), Phil Woodward - FA representative 

The Football Foundation Grants Panel (the Grants Panel) provide independent scrutiny of all applications for grant funding, once these have been developed and assessed by the Senior Management Team, in line with approved Foundation processes and policies. 

The Football Foundation Board of Trustees has fiduciary responsibility for all activities related to The Football Foundation.  This includes awarding grants. However, the Board has delegated to the Grants Panel authority to approve grants up to a value of £1,000,000.  The Grants Panel will also consider applications in excess £1,000,000 with a view to making a recommendation to the Board. 

The policy framework sets out terms of reference for the committees and the Board receives regular reports of their activities. The Board of Trustees meet on a quarterly basis. 

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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

The organisation has adopted The Charity Governance Code and the Code for Sports Governance and operates in accordance with their principles. Trustees and independent committee members do not receive any remuneration for their services to the Football Foundation. 

The charity has qualifying third party indemnity insurance for the benefit of all the Trustees was in force throughout 2025 and continues to be in place. 

## **Section 172 Statement** 

In accordance with Section 172(1) of the Companies Act 2006, the Trustees of the Charity have acted in good faith to promote the success of the organisation for the benefit of its beneficiaries, whilst having due regard to the matters set out in Section 172(1)(a) to (f). This includes considering the long-term consequences of decisions, fostering relationships with stakeholders, ensuring high standards of conduct, and acting fairly between members. 

## **a) The Likely Consequences of Decisions in the Long Term** 

In FY24/25, the Charity progressed to the second phase of its flagship research initiative into sustainable infill solutions for 3G football pitches. The data gathered from this phase is already shaping future infrastructure design by providing objective evidence-based insights. 

Environmental sustainability remains a key priority for the Board. Recognising the long-term ecological impact of rubber crumb used in artificial grass pitches (AGPs), the Foundation continues to support a dedicated test hub in Sheffield and is now exploring innovative containment solutions as well as alternative materials. 

In addition, a new five-year strategic plan, approved by the Trustees, sets out a vision that responds to the evolving external landscape. This strategy prioritises the transition to more sustainable practices, promotes equitable access, and seeks to address shifting community demand. Its overarching ambition is to help deliver healthier lives and stronger communities by ensuring every community has access to a high-quality place to play. 

## **b) The Interests of the Charity’s Employees** 

The Charity values its employees and ensures their views and well-being are integral to decision-making. The Senior Management team regularly conducts staff pulse surveys and hosts all-staff meetings and calls to solicit feedback. A crossdepartmental culture and values group actively engages staff on issues such as equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). These measures help ensure that employee interests are represented and protected in operational and strategic planning. 

## **c) Fostering Relationships with Key Stakeholders** 

Stakeholder engagement is embedded across the Foundation’s operations. The Trustees and Senior Management team regularly engage with key groups, including: 

- Staff and facility users 

- Local authorities, councils, and MPs 

- Facility operators and grassroots clubs 

- Funding partners including the Premier League, The FA, DCMS, and Sport 

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## **The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

England 

Grantee feedback is gathered through pre-application consultations, post-award support days, and targeted surveys, allowing the Charity to continuously adapt and support community needs. 

## **d) Impact on the Community and the Environment** 

Social and environmental responsibility is central to the Charity’s mission. Initiatives include: 

- Investigating alternatives to rubber crumb in AGPs for better environmental sustainability. 

- Commissioning a longitudinal study to understand long-term site impact and benefit. 

- Enhancing the Charity’s Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis. 

- Encouraging diverse applicants to ensure inclusive community representation. 

These initiatives contribute to a deeper understanding of the Charity’s environmental and social footprint, informing future strategy. 

## **e) Maintaining a Reputation for High Standards of Business Conduct** 

The Board holds the Senior Management team accountable for upholding the Charity’s values and complying with all relevant policies. Governance is supported by: 

- Quarterly Board meetings and an annual strategy day. 

- Delegated authority to the CEO, with defined limits and oversight. 

- Active involvement of the Audit, Remuneration and Governance Committee (ARG). 

The Board maintains a robust governance framework outlining expectations for conduct, compliance, strategic focus, and risk oversight. This ensures that all activities are aligned with the Charity’s purpose and values. 

## **f) Acting Fairly Between Members of the Charity** 

The Charity’s objectives are to promote recognised charitable purposes through sport, and to do so fairly and equitably across all beneficiaries. These objectives include: 

- Developing high-quality facilities in community settings. 

- Increasing participation in football through targeted funding. 

- Strengthening links between football and the wider community. 

- Collaborating with other charities to achieve shared goals. 

The Board ensures all decisions are made with fairness, transparency, and equity, considering the needs of all stakeholders without favour or prejudice. 

## **Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities** 

The Trustees (who are also directors of The Football Foundation for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Report of the Trustees (including the Strategic and Director’s Report) and the financial statements in accordance with 

12 

## **The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice) Company law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and the group, and of the income and expenditure of the charitable group for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to: 

- select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently; 

- observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP; 

- make judgments and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent; 

- • state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards, comprising FRS 102, have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and 

- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue in business. 

The Trustees are responsible for maintaining proper accounting reports which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time, the financial position of the charitable company and the group and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and the group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. 

The Trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company’s website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions. 

In the case of each Trustee in office at the date the Report of the Trustees is approved, that: 

(a) so far as the Trustee is aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the Charitable company’s auditor is unaware; and 

(b) he/she has taken all the steps that he/she ought to have taken as a Trustee to make himself/herself aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditor is aware of that information. 

## **Measuring the effectiveness of our Board, Committee and Panels** 

Evaluations of the different groups are undertaken periodically, and a record of each group’s skills, performance and effectiveness is recorded.  The below table sets out the frequency of the evaluations and the last reported evaluation. 

|Frequency<br>Reported|Frequency<br>Reported|
|---|---|
|Board (internal)|Annual<br>Sep-23|
|Board (external)|Every 4 years<br>Dec-24|
|Audit, Remuneration & Governance<br>(internal)|Every 2 years<br>Sep-23|
|Grants Panel (internal)|Every 2 years<br>Sep-24|
|||
|||



## **Register of Interests** 

The Football Foundation’s register of interest lists all interests declared by the organisation's Trustees, Panel and Committee Members, Directors, and employees.  All are invited to review and update their declaration annually at the 

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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

beginning of the financial year.  The up-to-date register is then presented to Board at its meeting in September. 

## **Trustee and Independent Committee Member attendance at Board and Committee meetings FY25** 

The following tables outline Trustee attendance at Board & Committee meetings for FY25. 

|**Board Meetings**<br>Total<br>meetings<br>Attended<br>Martin Glenn<br>4<br>3<br>Jack Pearce<br>4<br>4<br>Mark Bullingham<br>4<br>3<br>Richard Masters<br>4<br>4<br>Peter McCormick<br>OBE<br>3<br>3<br>Elena Narozanski<br>4<br>4<br>Tim Hollingsworth<br>OBE<br>4<br>4<br>Wais Shaifta<br>4<br>3<br>Clare Sumner CBE<br>1<br>1<br>Karen Taylor<br>4<br>4|**Board Meetings**<br>Total<br>meetings<br>Attended<br>Martin Glenn<br>4<br>3<br>Jack Pearce<br>4<br>4<br>Mark Bullingham<br>4<br>3<br>Richard Masters<br>4<br>4<br>Peter McCormick<br>OBE<br>3<br>3<br>Elena Narozanski<br>4<br>4<br>Tim Hollingsworth<br>OBE<br>4<br>4<br>Wais Shaifta<br>4<br>3<br>Clare Sumner CBE<br>1<br>1<br>Karen Taylor<br>4<br>4|**Board Meetings**<br>Total<br>meetings<br>Attended<br>Martin Glenn<br>4<br>3<br>Jack Pearce<br>4<br>4<br>Mark Bullingham<br>4<br>3<br>Richard Masters<br>4<br>4<br>Peter McCormick<br>OBE<br>3<br>3<br>Elena Narozanski<br>4<br>4<br>Tim Hollingsworth<br>OBE<br>4<br>4<br>Wais Shaifta<br>4<br>3<br>Clare Sumner CBE<br>1<br>1<br>Karen Taylor<br>4<br>4|
|---|---|---|
|Martin Glenn|4<br>3||
|Jack Pearce|4<br>4||
|Mark Bullingham|4<br>3||
|Richard Masters|4<br>4||
|Peter McCormick<br>OBE|3<br>3||
|Elena Narozanski|4<br>4||
|Tim Hollingsworth<br>OBE|4<br>4||
|Wais Shaifta|4<br>3||
|Clare Sumner CBE|1<br>1||
|Karen Taylor|4<br>4||
||||
|**ARG Meetings**<br>Total<br>meetings<br>Attended<br>Matthew Kirkby<br>4<br>4<br>Peter McCormick OBE<br>4<br>2<br>Serena Jacobs<br>4<br>4<br>Nick Perchard*<br>1<br>1<br>Karen Taylor<br>4<br>4|||
|Matthew Kirkby||4<br>4|
|Peter McCormick OBE||4<br>2|
|Serena Jacobs||4<br>4|
|Nick Perchard*||1<br>1|
|Karen Taylor||4<br>4|



***** _Nick Perchard replaced Peter McCormick as Premier League Stadium Fund member on the ARG Committee.  He attended the meeting on 29 April 2025 as Peter McCormick was unavailable_ 

|**FFGP Meetings**<br>Total<br>meetings<br>Attended|**FFGP Meetings**<br>Total<br>meetings<br>Attended|
|---|---|
|Paul Spooner|5<br>5|
|Rahul Bissoonauth|3<br>2|
|Palma Black|5<br>2|
|Patrick Brosnan*|5<br>3|
|Sue Catton|5<br>4|
|Helen Donovan|5<br>3|
|Nick Perchard|5<br>5|
|Richard Smale|5<br>5|
|Gianmaria Vettese|3<br>2|
|Phil Woodward|5<br>5|



*Patrick Brosnan was unavailable at two meetings; however, Sport England was represented by James Morris in his place. 

14 

**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

## **STRATEGIC REPORT** 

This Strategic Report covers  the Football Foundation’s priorities and performance over the last financial year (1 June 2024 to 31 May 2025). It also provides an overview of the priorities we have set to deliver in FY26 and beyond. 

## **Purpose** 

The Football Foundation is the largest sports charity in the UK. We deliver healthier lives and stronger communities by ensuring every community has access to a highquality place to play, regardless of gender, race, disability or place. 

The Foundation receives money from the Premier League, The FA and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport through Sport England. This is matched with partnership funding and awarded as grants to deliver high quality grassroots facilities that create healthier lives and stronger communities. 

The Foundation achieves its charitable objectives through directing investment into areas of greatest need and potential impact by awarding grants to organisations to refurbish existing or deliver new grassroots sports facilities. Our investment choices are led by football need but prioritised by their community need. We do not invest and walk away. We are there to support at every stage. We also ensure our investment benefits not only football, but also other sports and physical activities too so that people can get active in a way suits them. 

Since 2000, the Foundation has invested £1.3 billion to improve grassroots facilities across the country – including 1,200 3G pitches, 14,471 grass pitches and 1,650 changing rooms. This has attracted an additional £1.5 billion of partnership funding – totalling over £2.8 billion investment in grassroots football so far. 

## **FY25 Objectives** 

In May 2022, The Board approved the FY23 – FY25 Strategic Plan. The plan articulated where we would invest our funds and the agreed performance measurement framework.  The Plan had three objectives which contribute to the charity’s ultimate mission of providing every community with a great place to play: 

- Consolidate delivery – To meet the new scale of investment in a challenging operating environment. 

- Develop sustainability – To ensure our investment is transformative in its outcomes and longevity. 

- Demonstrate impact – To ensure our investment demonstrates the outcomes we’re looking to achieve, also with a view to attract the future funding. 

FY25 was the final year of this plan with 2,503 grants totalling £146 million in FY25 being awarded across various funding schemes (as explained more fully in note 23 of the financial statements), including: 

- Football Foundation Hubs featuring several 3G pitches, grass pitches, catering facilities, changing rooms and social spaces. 

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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

- 3G pitches, grass pitches changing rooms, goalposts and grounds maintenance machinery. 

- Football Foundation PlayZones, which are community-led small-sided multi-sport facilities in some of the most inactive inner-city areas of the country. 

## **FY25 Performance** 

To ensure the Foundation’s investment was having the greatest impact possible, we set a series of Key Performance Indicators, all of which were met or exceeded in FY25: 

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CATEGORY TITLE KPI FY25 TARGET ACTUAL<br>UNDER-REPRESENTED  % OF PROJECTS ENGAGING WITH UNDER-<br>75% 96%<br>GROUPS REPRESENTED GROUPS<br>ACTUAL IMPACT<br>POST ASSURANCE PROJECTS DELIVERING 3<br>FOCUSED MEASURE ON<br>OR MORE WITH UNDER REPRESENTED  75% 83%<br>PROJECTS TACKLING<br>GROUPS<br>TACKLING  INEQUALITY<br>INEQUALITIES<br>REGIONAL LEVELLING  % OF FUNDING INTO 40% MOST DEPRIVED<br>50% 55%<br>UP LOCAL AUTHORITIES<br>% OF PROJECTS PROVIDING EQUAL<br>WOMEN & GIRLS 100% 100%<br>OPPORTUNITES FOR WOMEN & GIRLS<br>QUALITY PITCHES NUMBER OF GOOD QUALITY PITCHES 8484 9594<br>PITCHES<br>ON/OFF PITCH % OF FUNDING TOWARDS ‘ON PITCH’ ITEMS 75% 75%<br>% OF PROJECTS ADDING VALUE THROUGH<br>VOLUME 40% 70%<br>MULTI-SPORT OUTCOMES<br>MULTI-SPORT<br>% OF PROJECTS ADDING VALUE THROUGH<br>VALUE 40% 65%<br>MULTI-SPORT OUTCOMES<br>CLUBS &  % OF PROJECTS INVESTED IN, OR<br>COMMUNITY  INVESTMENT BENEFITTING, CLUB & COMMUNITY  40% 47%<br>ORGANISATIONS ORGANISATIONS<br>**----- End of picture text -----**<br>


The following progress was made on delivering the three main focus areas of the FY25 strategy 

## **1. Consolidate Delivery** 

Local Football Facility Plans 

The Football Foundation aims to deliver thousands of new facilities across the country, while also investing in the improvement of existing sites. To guide this investment, we created bespoke Local Football Facility Plans for each local authority in England, highlighting the facilities and work required in each area. 

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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

The first generation of Plans provided a strong starting point in providing the grassroots facilities that every community needs and deserves. Since these Plans were published, the grassroots game has grown significantly, particularly among women and girls. During FY25 we undertook an exercise to refresh every Plan to provide us with an up-to-date blueprint of facilities provision across the country, considering the growth in participation as well as our commitments to benefitting other sports and to targeting the most deprived and inactive areas of the country. All Plans have now been refreshed and are currently being published to the Football Foundation website. 

## Football Foundation PlayZones 

The delivery of our portfolio of PlayZone projects continues to build momentum. In FY25, we awarded funding towards the delivery of 87 PlayZones. This takes the total number of PlayZones funded by the Football Foundation to 173 – 20 of which are open and 17 of which are under construction. 

In September 2024, former Premier League striker Dion Dublin opened a new PlayZone at the Concord Youth Centre in Birmingham, which was delivered in partnership with EA SPORTS, 

Based on extensive engagement with over 900 local residents, the new small-sided facility has been designed to host both football and basketball as well as dance and Zumba classes so that the community can get active in a way that suits them. Within five years of opening, the pitch is expected to be used by over 700 people every month. 

_Speaking at the opening event, Dion Dublin said: “I know how important it is to provide quality sporting facilities for communities up and down the country. This fantastic facility will be a huge boost to everybody in the local area, helping to bring the local community together and keep children and young people active."_ 

_Adil Hadi, Senior Youth Worker at Concord Youth Centre, added: “It’s super important for the young people of Birmingham that we open up opportunities for them within our communities.”_ 

## Lionesses Futures Fund 

FY25 saw the culmination of the Lionesses Futures Fund – a £30 million cash injection from The FA and the Government. A total of 35 Lionesses Futures Fund projects were awarded funding to deliver gold-standard 3G pitches for women and girls. 14 of these projects are now open for use by their local communities, including _The Leah Wiliamson Pitch_ at Newport Pagnell Town FC in Milton Keynes: 

_Like all Lionesses Futures Fund projects, this new 3G pitch prioritises access for women and girls through reserved peak-time slots, women and girls-only evenings and priority booking._ 

_Speaking at the unveiling event, England captain Leah Williamson said: "It is such an honour to be here to see one of the first Lionesses Futures Fund pitches come to life. Something I know the squad is incredibly proud of. This_ 

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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

_pitch will provide the very best playing experience for local women and girls, ensuring they can play at decent times and on a state-of-the-art pitch."_ 

_Betsy, a player for Newport Pagnell Town FC, added: “Now that we’ve got this pitch, we’ll be able to train more and maybe I’ll get a chance to play for England one day.”_ 

## Grass Pitch Improvement Programme 

Even with the wider availability of 3G pitches, most of grassroots football is still played on grass. Improving the quality of these grass pitches therefore remains a priority for the Foundation. Working alongside The FA, we have developed the Grass Pitch Improvement Programme to ensure every affiliated football fixture is played on a quality football pitch and keep grassroots football where it started and still gets played – on grass. We aim to have 14,000 good quality grass pitches by the end of FY30. 

FY25 saw our busiest ever _PitchPower_ window, with a record 2,250 inspections submitted between 1 November 2024 and 31 March 2025. We have now received a total of 16,676 reports since _PitchPower_ was launched in 2020. As a result of these inspections, we provided just over £15 million worth of Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund grants in FY25 to help maintain and improve over 1,200 grass pitches. A further £2.8m worth of grants were provided to rugby clubs from the multi-sport fund to help them improve their grass pitches. Thanks to investment, we reached a total of 9,664 quality grass pitches in FY25, against a target of 8,484. _PitchPower_ also won its fourth award in FY25 – ‘ _App of the Year’_ at the 2024 Prolific North Tech Awards. 

## **2. Develop sustainability** 

## – Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Together for Football 

The first phase of ‘ _Together for Football’_ – the Football Foundation’s EDI strategy – came to an end in FY25. We have achieved success on many of the objectives set out in this strategy. This has included delivering ‘Conscious Inclusion’ training for teammates to help foster a more understanding and inclusive culture throughout the organisation; setting up a VIP (Values in Practice) volunteering programme and an internal mentoring scheme; and enhancing updating our Community Engagement Toolkit to provide applicants with comprehensive guidance on how to involve the views of local communities in the design of facilities. A new strategy is now being worked on for FY26-30. 

## Women and Girls’ Independent Review 

It’s now been one year since the Football Foundation Board approved the Kelly Simmons Review of our women and girls’ provision. We’ve made good progress on implementing the recommendations of the Review, including through introducing a minimum requirement of 15% of priority slots being assigned to women’s and girls’ teams at Foundation-funded 3G pitches. This will rise to 20% by the end of FY26, in future years projects will be expected to progress from the entry point of 20% to 30% over a five-year period. The remaining outstanding actions from the Review will be completed in the next strategy period. 

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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

## Environmentally friendly infill solution 

At the end of FY24, DEFRA published the findings of their Microplastics Evidence Project, which found that 3G pitches make a significant contribution to the intentionally-added microplastics in the natural environment. Our work to deliver improve the sustainability of our 3G pitches has continued since then. This includes our three-year research project testing various pitch infill systems using data from our Hub at Woodbourn Road in Sheffield. In addition to this project, we’re also working in partnership with Sport England to test the effectiveness of containment measures, such as shock pads and boot brushes are intended to prevent the spread of infill into the natural environment. The third strand of our work is to facilitate an increase in recycling capacity for end-of-life 3G pitches and make progress towards a circular economy. We commissioned an independent report into this which outlines the current regulatory position, existing capacity and required demand. 

## Pitch Replacement Fund 

The Pitch Replacement Fund, which will help ensure our grant recipients have sufficient resources to resurface their Foundation-funded 3G pitches once they reach the end of their usable lifespan, is progressing well. Around 40 sites that received a grant under the April 2024 Terms and Conditions (the point at which the PRF requirement was added) are now open and available for use with Payment Schedules being issued. The first Payment was made in April 2025 and the same process will follow for all new subsequent sites as they open and become available for use. 

## Biodiversity Net Gain 

While the Foundation is in agreement on the importance of protecting and enhancing natural habitats, not least playing fields, Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirements in their current form are having an unintended negative impact on community sports facilities projects in the following ways. Since the policy was introduced, the Foundation has been quoted a total of £3 million to meet BNG requirements since the policy was introduced across just over 100 projects, averaging at £30k for each project. We have been working with DEFRA to mitigate these costs while continuing to protect biodiversity, including a potential exemption for developments on playing fields from BNG requirements. 

## **3. Demonstrate impact** 

## Support & Impact Implementation 

Work is close to completion on the establishment of new processes to ensure the facilities we fund meet their grant requirements, delivering maximum value for money and the best possible outcomes. This will include regular pre-opening meetings to set facilities up for success, real-time usage data to monitor performance against original objectives and tailored support tools and meetings to maximise the sport and social outcomes of our investments. A new dedicated Support & Impact Team will be in place to implement and manage these processes by the end of FY26. 

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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

## **FINANCIAL REVIEW** 

The consolidated statement of financial activities for the year is set out on page 33. A summary of the financial results and the work of the Charity are set out below 

## **Income generation** 

The income of the Foundation is comprised primarily of donations from football and sport related organisations, with an additional amount of interest earned on cash and investment balances. Donations received during the year were £144m (2024: £128.8.m). In addition, the Foundation received income of £0.3m (2024: £0.8m) from The Premier League Stadium Fund Limited to cover salaries and other administrative costs incurred on the company’s behalf. There were no other income generating activities carried out by the Charity during the year. 

Donations from the Premier League, The FA and the Government (through Sport England) are accounted for on a receivable basis in the year in which the income falls due. 

## **Operating Expenditure** 

The operating expenditure of the Foundation is comprised primarily of grants payable (including specific grant legal costs and AGP framework costs) of £149.1m (2024: £109.2m), with additional expenditure items such as direct staff costs £4m (2024: £3.8m), and other support costs £6.1m (2024: £6.4m) (such as consultancy support and recruitment and training). 

## **Grants committed** 

In the last 12 months the Foundation awarded grants with a total value of £145.6m (2024: £109.2m). Grants outstanding at the 31 May 2025 totalled £223.5m (2024: £168.7m). 

The movement in funds in the year reflects the balance between income recognised and the grants awarded. 

The Foundation awards the grant to the applicant once the assessment of the application is complete, and this award is the trigger for the project to start. Grants are then paid when the applicant is able to claim their costs, which must include a paid or partially paid invoice as evidence of the costs incurred. A single grant can be covered by a single or multiple claims and is dependent on how the applicant incurs the invoices and how often they wish to claim. 

## **Funds** 

FY25 represented the final year of the current funding cycle and there was an uptick in activity to ensure that remaining funds were committed as a result of this funds decreased by £9.2m to £27.3m (2024: £36.5m). These funds comprise of two elements: unrestricted funds and restricted funds. 

Each of these categories are described as follows: 

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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

## **Unrestricted funds** 

Unrestricted funds are those funds that we can use for any activity that meets our charitable objectives. At the end of 2025 unrestricted funds amounted to £23.0m (2024: £32.7m) 

Unrestricted funds comprise of two types of reserves: general and designated funds. There were no designated funds in 2024 or 2025. 

## **Restricted funds** 

These are unexpended funds that have been donated to The Football Foundation with specific conditions attached to their use. As at 31 May 2025 restricted funds were £4.3m (2024 £3.8m). These cover areas such as Active Through Football, Sport England Core Funding, Sport England multi-sport funding, and Rugby Football Union funding towards multi-sport work. 

## **Reserves Policy** 

It is the Foundation’s policy that the aggregate of grants awarded will not exceed known current and future funding therefore the present Reserves Policy is to hold reserves at a level to cover the Foundation’s operational expenditure for three months in the event of a major fall in income or unforeseen expenditure while plans to replace income or change activities are put in place. Given these requirements the Trustees consider the target for unrestricted funds should be no lower than £3.2m. The level of free reserves (unrestricted funds less fixed assets) as at 31 May 2025 is £22.4m. The level of free reserves is significantly higher than our target of £3.2m, and allows a level of comfort  should there be any delays in funding. 

Should there be any indication of a cessation of funding to any major extent the Foundation would have to implement an exit strategy that would allow all grant awards to be honoured, including the provision for sufficient staff to remain in place to meet such a requirement. Given the cyclical nature of the Foundation’s funding, the Trustees are investigating with the funders an approach that will give a greater certainty to future funding and, where necessary, may include an exit strategy that will ensure operating costs are met. This Foundation Reserves Policy statement is reviewed on an annual basis. 

## **Balance sheet** 

The Foundation’s net assets at 31 May 2025 were £27.3m (2024: £36.5m); principally comprising cash and other investments of £129.9m, amounts due from the Funding Partners of £120.9m, the management charge owed from Premier League Stadium Fund to the Foundation, along with other intercompany items of £0.4m, fixed assets of £0.5m less grants outstanding of £223.5m, and less other creditors of £0.5m. 

## **Investment powers, policy and performance** 

Investment powers are governed by the Charity’s Articles of Association, which permit any surplus funds to be invested by the Board of Trustees. The Trustees intend that the real value of the Charity’s investments be maintained and enhanced over 

21 

## **The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

the long-term by investment in a lower risk portfolio comprising solely of capital protected cash funds. Decisions on investment purchases and sales are made by the Audit, Remuneration & Governance Committee, which the Senior Management team then actions. No environmental, social or governance (ESG) or ethical considerations are specified. The performance of investments has been in line with Trustees’ expectations. The Group had cash on deposit of £51.1m (2024: £77.1m), shortterm investments of £78.8m (2024: £55.2m), and debtors due within the next 12 months of £121.9m (2024: £69m) at the end of the financial year. These will be used in future periods to pay grants that the Trustees have authorised and communicated to recipients. At the end of the financial year there were outstanding grants payable totalling £223.5m (2024: £168.7m). The Trustees’ policy is not to commit funds beyond known funding. As part of the terms and conditions attached to every grant awarded, an applicant agrees and accepts that payments of a grant can only be assured to the extent that the Foundation has available funds. 

## **Going concern** 

The financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis. Future funding has been confirmed in writing from the Premier League and The FA through to March 2028. DCMS Funding (via Sport England) has been confirmed for through to March 2026 and future funding is contingent on the Government’s Current Spending Review. It is the Trustees’ policy to not to commit funds beyond known funding, the trustees are confident that the Foundation is a going concern for 12 months from the signing of the accounts. 

## **Financial risk management** 

The Foundation’s operations expose it to a variety of risks that include liquidity risk, interest rate risk and credit risk. The Foundation only invests in schemes which will preserve capital.  The Trustees delegate day-to-day responsibility for managing these risks to the Chief Executive, supported by the Chief Financial Officer. 

Liquidity risk. Investments and cash are managed to ensure that there are sufficient funds available to meet the liabilities of the Foundation in a timely manner. Consequently, significant levels of funds are held on short-term deposit and are therefore, available at short notice. 

Interest rate risk **.** Interest rate risk is managed by exploring the investment options available to the Foundation and investing where the best returns possible can be achieved at the lowest possible risk. 

Credit risk **.** Credit risk is managed by reducing the cash collection period for trade debtors. The investments and cash are all held within UK-based banking institutions and building societies. 

## **FY26 priorities and plans** 

For FY26 and beyond, the Football Foundation Senior Management Team with the support of the Board of Trustees have created a five-year strategy, which sets the organisation’s priorities until May 2030. These priorities are categorised into five Game Changers: 

1. Lead with 3G – Focus on building new and improving 3G pitches. 

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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

2. Prioritise Place – Deliver 3G projects identified by Local Football Facility Plans in Sport England’s Place Partnership Areas 

3. Support women and girls – Meet the needs of the growing women’s and girls’ game. 

4. Back our Clubs – Sustainable facilities that support community clubs. 

5. Know our Pitches – Know all our pitches and support them to achieve the intended impact. 

## **Energy and Carbon Reporting** 

As part of the obligations set out under the Energy and Carbon Report Regulations 2018, the Foundation is required to disclose the energy and carbon created as an organisation over the last year. To fulfil this, we have measured our UK Energy and greenhouse gas emissions as classified within scope 1 and 2 (Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR)) which are presented in tables 1 and 2. 

## _Organisational and Operational Boundaries of the Foundation_ 

The Foundation does not have a complex structure and therefore it accounts for 100 percent of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from operations over which it has control. The Foundation’s structural and operational boundaries are the same with the company operating from its sole operating base in London, around 60% of Foundation staff are remote workers who work from home and travel to Foundation funded sites to progress their work. 

## _Energy Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emissions_ 

The methodology used for determining energy and carbon emissions within this section of the report come from the UK Government HGH conversion factors for Company Reporting: 

- Fuel consumption in vehicles that are used for business including staffowned vehicles (Scope 1). 

- Electricity used for lighting, cooling, heating and air conditioning in office. 

There is no metric for Electricity consumption as the Foundation is based at Wembley Stadium, and the office electricity usage is now covered by our service charge and reported as part of the Stadium’s overall energy footprint. 

Fuel consumption is measured from the direct use of employee’s personal vehicles and journeys by employees travelling to Foundation funded sites. As per Scope 1, where employees have used their own vehicles for business purposes a mileage allowance is paid, and this is identified by mileage claims put through our expenses software for FY25. 

The Foundation’s consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions for the financial year 1 June 2024 to 31 May 2025 are shown below, along with the same information for FY24 for comparative purposes. 

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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

Table 1: Total energy consumption associated greenhouse gas emissions from Scope 1 and Scope 2 for SECR Year 1 Reporting period. 

|**Transport**<br>**(Scope 1)**|**Energy**<br>**Consumption**<br>**(kWh)**|**Fuel**<br>**Conversion**<br>**Factor ***|**Emissions**<br>**(tCO2e/yr.)**|
|---|---|---|---|
|**FY25**|**223,180**|0.2318|**51.74**|
|**FY24**|**201,199**|0.2324|**46.76**|



_*UK Government GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting, 2024 and 2005, BEIS and DEFRA_ 

Vehicle use is based on employee travel using their own vehicles for business use. An assumption has been made that all vehicles use standard petrol and have and fall into the average petrol car for conversion figures. 

## _Intensity Ratio_ 

Intensity ratios compare emissions data with an appropriate business metric or financial indicator. This allows comparison of energy efficiency performance over time and with other similar types of organisations. We have chosen to compare our overall emissions with our annual income for the 2024/25 year. 

Table 2: Intensity Ratio – Energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions per £100,000 of annual income 

||**Energy**<br>**Consumption**<br>(kWh)|**Total**<br>**green-**<br>**house**<br>**gases**<br>**emissions**<br>**(tCo2e)**|**The**<br>**annual**<br>**group**<br>**income**<br>(£’m)|**Intensity**<br>**Ratio**<br>(kWh /<br>£100,000<br>income)|**Intensity**<br>**Ratio**<br>(tCO2e /<br>£100,000<br>income)|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**FY25**|**223,180**|**51.74**|150.1|148.687|0.035|
|**FY24**|**201,199**|**46.76**|135.5|148.486|0.031|



## _Energy Efficiency Key Points_ 

The Foundation is committed to reducing its carbon and greenhouse gas emissions and one of the major areas of focus in recent years has been to adopt a model of hybrid working allowing us to work with a down-sized office space. 

## **Related Parties** 

In the pursuit of its charitable objectives, the Foundation has historically utilised its trading subsidiary, FFTL, which in 2025 had no trading activity. 

Employees of the Foundation have joint employment contracts with the Premier League Stadium Fund Limited to deliver grants from both entities. Employees working solely for the  Premier League Stadium Fund are charged directly and a further proportion of the salary costs incurred by The Foundation form part of the annual administrative expenses recharged to the company, £0.3m in 2025 (2024: £0.8m). 

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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

## **Principal risks and uncertainties** 

The business, its management and execution of the Charity’s strategy are exposed to several risks; these risks are identified and mitigated where possible. Within the work of the Foundation, there are broadly three types of risk: 

- **Strategic risks** : These are major concerns, such as reputational risk or the risk that the Foundation will fail to deliver on a major strategic target, objective or project. They are more often external issues with high impact which require a response plan to mitigate the effects of the risk event happening, as controlling the occurrence may be outside the Foundation’s sphere of influence. The Foundation’s risk assessment process analyses these risks to establish their root cause and then considers appropriate management responses. These are collated into the Strategic Risk Register, which is reviewed monthly by the Senior Management Team. The Strategic Risk Register is presented at every ARG and Board meeting. 

- **Operational risks:** Operational risks are part of day-to-day management, and the Senior Management Team are expected to articulate an understanding of the key risks in their area of operation, together with an explanation as to how these are being managed and mitigated. With the support of Heads of Department, each Director inputs into a risk and control framework, which is monitored regularly throughout the year. Whilst each risk is “owned” by the relevant Head of Department, any risks which increase significantly in terms of either Likelihood or Impact are escalated to the Senior Management Team and are then managed as a part of the Strategic Risk Management process. Operational risks are presented quarterly to the Audit, Remuneration and Governance Committee. 

- **Grant project risks** : These are risks arising from a particular programme or project (such as increased project costs and the on-going inflation risk) and are managed as part of the grant-giving governance for that activity. These are regularly reviewed and monitored by Heads of Department, the Senior Management Team and the Grant Panel. 

The Foundation’s Risk Register contains two sections: strategic risk and operational risk. Strategic risk is managed by the Senior Management Team and Board; whereas operational risk is managed within functional teams, except for operational risks that are considered significant which are reported to the Board ”. 

Throughout 2025 we continued to monitor the following risks: 

|||
|---|---|
|**Risk**|**Mitigation**|
|People Leadership and<br>Culture: the ability to recruit<br>and retain|The employee proposition is regularly reviewed<br>and adjusted if necessary to ensure the<br>Foundation is an attractive place to work. This is<br>supported by succession planning and<br>investment into salary and training to support<br>progression of key personnel and those with<br>specialist skills.|



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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

|||
|---|---|
|Income and financial<br>sustainably (potential<br>reduction in funding levels)|The external environment and political landscape<br>are monitored, and the organisation has<br>strategies that it can deploy to emerging issues<br>e.g. cost volatility. Financial resources are<br>reviewed on an annual basis and over the<br>strategic plan period|
|Cyber security, malware,<br>ransom ware and phishing<br>scams|The Foundation has robust Information Systems<br>security processes in place software and<br>password requirements. As per the internal Audit<br>plan a review is underway Awareness training<br>modules are mandatory for all staff.|
|Failure to deliver inclusive<br>outcomes|KPI’s have been established and performance is<br>reviewed monthly by the Senior Management<br>team and quarterly by the Board. This ensures<br>that we remain on track or take corrective action<br>if necessary.|
|Restriction of use of<br>microplastics|Football Foundation have been leading a three-<br>year research project to test alternative infill<br>solutions.  DEFRA are actively reviewing this issue,<br>working towards a sustainable solution. The<br>Football Foundation are maintaining a regular<br>dialogue with DEFRA. Simultaneously<br>containment is being considered|
|Impact of climate change on<br>pitch quality|The Football Foundation educate site owners on<br>how to deal with continuing extreme and<br>unpredictable weather conditions. The Grounds<br>Management Association, whom we work with,<br>provide additional advice on dealing with harsh<br>conditions across the year.|
|Funded sites having<br>insufficient pitch<br>replacement funds and/or<br>no plan to replace surface|Grant terms and conditions are in place which<br>obligate Grant Recipients, to set aside funds for<br>pitch replacement. The National Pitch<br>Replacement Programme, introduced this year,<br>strengthened this requirement by requiring<br>applicants to set-up virtual accounts<br>administered by the Football Foundation.|



The Report of the Trustees prepared under the Charities Act 2011, which also contains all the information required in a Directors’ Report by the Companies Act 2006, and the incorporated Strategic Report prepared under the Companies Act 2006, were approved by the Board of Trustees on 1 October 2025 and signed on behalf of the Trustees by Jennie Goodman, Company Secretary. 

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**The Football Foundation – Trustees’ Report to 31 May 2025** 

## **Approved by order of the Board** 

## J Goodman 

J Goodman (Oct 3, 2025 07:11:06 GMT+1) 

## **J Goodman Company Secretary** 

1 October 2025 Reg no: 387630 

27 

## **The Football Foundation - Financial Statements for the year ended 31 May 2025 INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF THE FOOTBALL FOUNDATION** 

## **Opinion** 

We have audited the financial statements of The Football Foundation (the ‘parent charitable company’) and its subsidiaries (the ‘group’) for the year ended 31 May 2025 which comprise the Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities, the Group and Charity Balance Sheets, the Consolidated Cash Flow Statement and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). 

In our opinion the financial statements: 

- give a true and fair view of the state of the group’s and the parent charitable company’s affairs as at 31 May 2025 and of the group’s incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended; 

- have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and 

- have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006. 

## **Basis for opinion** 

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the group and parent charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. 

## **Conclusions relating to going concern** 

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate. 

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the group’s or parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue. 

28 

## **The Football Foundation - Financial Statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report. 

## **Other information** 

The other information comprises the information included in the Annual Report other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the Annual Report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. 

Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated.  If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves.  If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. 

We have nothing to report in this regard. 

## **Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006** 

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit: 

- the information given in the Trustees’ Report, which includes the Directors’ Report and the Strategic Report prepared for the purposes of company law, for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and 

- the Directors’ Report and the Strategic Report included within the Trustees’ Report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements. 

## **Matters on which we are required to report by exception** 

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the group and the parent charitable company and their environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Directors’ Report or the Strategic Report included within the Trustees’ Report. 

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where the Companies Act 2006  requires us to report to you if, in our opinion: 

29 

## **The Football Foundation - Financial Statements for the year ended 31** 

## **May 2025** 

- adequate accounting records have not been kept by the parent charitable company, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or 

- the parent charitable company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or 

- certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or 

- we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit. 

## **Responsibilities of trustees** 

As explained more fully in the Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities set out on page 12, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. 

In preparing the financial statements, the  trustees are responsible for assessing the group’s and parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the group or parent charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so. 

## **Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements** 

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements. 

## **The extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities,** 

## **including fraud** 

Irregularities are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations.  The objectives of our audit are to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence regarding compliance with laws and regulations that have a direct effect on the determination of material amounts and disclosures in the financial statements, to perform audit procedures to help identify instances of non-compliance with other laws and regulations that may have a material effect on the financial statements, and to 

30 

## **The Football Foundation - Financial Statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

respond appropriately to identified or suspected non-compliance with laws and regulations identified during the audit. 

In relation to fraud, the objectives of our audit are to identify and assess the risk of material misstatement of the financial statements due to fraud, to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence regarding the assessed risks of material misstatement due to fraud through designing and implementing appropriate responses and to respond appropriately to fraud or suspected fraud identified during the audit. 

However, it is the primary responsibility of management, with the oversight of those charged with governance, to ensure that the entity's operations are conducted in accordance with the provisions of laws and regulations and for the prevention and detection of fraud. 

In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud, the group audit engagement team : 

- obtained an understanding of the nature of the sector, including the legal and regulatory frameworks that the group and parent charitable company operates in and how the group and parent charitable company are complying with the legal and regulatory frameworks; 

- inquired of management, and those charged with governance, about their own identification and assessment of the risks of irregularities, including any known actual, suspected or alleged instances of fraud; 

- discussed matters about non-compliance with laws and regulations and how fraud might occur including assessment of how and where the financial statements may be susceptible to fraud. 

As a result of these procedures we consider the most significant laws and regulations that have a direct impact on the financial statements are FRS 102, Charities SORP (FRS 102), Companies Act 2006,  Charities Act 2011, the parent charitable company’s governing document and tax legislation. We performed audit procedures to detect non-compliances which may have a material impact on the financial statements which included reviewing the financial statements including the Trustees’ Report, remaining alert to new or unusual transactions which may not be in accordance with the governing documents and evaluating advice received from internal advisors. 

The group audit engagement team identified the risk of management override of controls as the area where the financial statements were most susceptible to material misstatement due to fraud.  Audit procedures performed included but were not limited to testing manual journal entries and other adjustments, evaluating the business rationale in relation to significant, unusual transactions and transactions entered into outside the normal course of business. 

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is provided on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at 

31 

## **The Football Foundation - Financial Statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

http://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities.  This description forms part of our auditor’s report. 

## **Use of our report** 

This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006.  Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose.  To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed. 

Nicholas Sladden (Senior Statutory Auditor) 

For and on behalf of RSM UK AUDIT LLP, Statutory Auditor Chartered Accountants 25 Farringdon Street London EC4A 4AB United Kingdom 

16/10/2025 Date 

32 

## **The Football Foundation - Financial Statements for the year ended 31 May 2025 Consolidated statement of financial activities (including the income and expenditure account) for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

|**Note**<br>Charitable Activities<br>2<br>Investment Income<br>14<br>Interest income<br>4<br>Other income<br>4<br>**Total Income**<br>**Expenditure on:**<br>Charitable activities<br>5<br>**Total expenditure**<br>**Net income/**<br>**(expenditure)**<br>7<br>**Net movement in**<br>**funds**<br>**Reconciliation of**<br>**funds:**<br>Funds brought<br>forward at 1 June<br>**Funds carried**<br>**forward at 31 May**<br>17|**Restricted**<br>**funds**<br>**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**Total**<br>**funds**<br>**Total**<br>**funds**<br>**2025**<br>**2025**<br>**2025**<br>**2024**<br>**£’000**<br>**£’000**<br>**£’000**<br>**£’000**<br>100,062<br>43,910<br>**143,972**<br>**128,801**<br>-<br>3,505<br>**3,505**<br>**2,545**<br>-<br>2,061<br>**2,061**<br>**2,820**<br>-<br>529<br>**529**<br>**1,339**|
|---|---|
||100,062<br>50,005<br>**150,067**<br>**135,505**|
||(99,612)<br>(59,731)<br>**(159,343)**<br>**(119,446)**|
||(99,612)<br>(59,731)<br>**(159,343)**<br>**(119,446)**|
||450<br>(9,726)<br>**(9,276)**<br>**16,059**|
||450<br>(9,726)<br>**(9,276)**<br>**16,059**|
||3,836<br>32,711<br>**36,547**<br>**20,488**|
||4,286<br>22,985<br>**27,271**<br>**36,547**|



The notes on pages 36 to 53 form part of these financial statements. 

33 

## **The Football Foundation - Financial Statements for the year ended 31 May 2025 Group and Charity Balance sheets as at 31 May 2025** 

|**025**|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Note(s)**|**Group**||**Charity**|||
|||**2025**|2024|**2025**||2024|
|||**£’000**|£’000|**£’000**||£’000|
|**Fixed assets**|||||||
|Intangible assets|11|**485**|619|**485**||619|
|Tangible assets|12|**53**|68|**53**||68|
|||**538**|687|**538**||687|
|**Current assets**|||||||
|Debtors: amounts falling due<br>within one year|13|**121,921**|69,004|**121,921**||69,004|
|Debtors: amounts falling due<br>after one year|13|**-**|4,800|**-**||4,800|
|Investments|14|**78,780**|55,181|**78,780**||55,181|
|Cash at bank and in hand||**51,145**|77,057|**51,144**||77,055|
|||**251,846**|206,042|**251,845**|206,040||
|**Creditors**: amounts falling due<br>within one year|15|**(225,113)**|(170,182)|**(225,112)**|(170,180)||
|**Net current assets**||**26,733**|35,860|**26,733**||35,860|
||||||||
|**Total assets less current**<br>**liabilities**||**27,271**|36,547|**27,271**||36,547|
||||||||
|**Net assets**|17|**27,271**|36,547|**27,271**||36,547|
|**Funds**|||||||
|Unrestricted funds:|||||||
|Funds retained within the|16|**22,985**|32,711|**22,985**||32,711|
|Funds retained within a non-<br>charitable subsidiary|16|**-**|-|**-**||-|
|Restricted Funds:|||||||
|Funds retained within the<br>Charity|16|**4,286**|3,836|**4,286**||3,836|
|**Total funds**|16,17|**27,271**|36,547|**27,271**||36,547|



A separate statement of financial activities and income and expenditure account are not presented for the Charity itself as permitted by Section 408 of the Companies Act 2006. The net expenditure for the Charity for the year was £9.3m (2024: net income of £16.1m). 

The financial statements on pages 36 to 53, which comprise the Consolidated statement of financial activities, the Group and Charity balance sheets, the Consolidated cash flow statement and the related notes were approved by the Board of Trustees on 1 October 2025 and signed on its behalf by: 

**M R Glenn Chair** Martin Glenn (Oct 1, 2025 16:33:13 GMT+1) 

34 

## **The Football Foundation - Financial Statements for the year ended 31 May 2025 Consolidated cash flow statement** 

## **for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

|**May 2025**<br>**Consolidated cash flow statement**<br>**or the year ended 31 May 2025**||
|---|---|
|**Note**<br>**(a) Reconciliation of net (expenditure)/income to**<br>**net cash flow from operating activities**<br>**Net movement in funds (as per the consolidated**<br>**statement of financial activities)**<br>**Adjustments for:**<br>Amortisation of intangible assets<br>11<br>Depreciation of tangible assets<br>12<br>Income from interest on cash deposits<br>4<br>Interest received on investments<br>14<br>Interest accrued on investments<br>14<br>Increase in debtors<br>13<br>Increase in creditors<br>15<br>Decrease in stock<br>**Net cash (used in)/ provided by operating**<br>**activities**<br>**(b) Statement of cash flows**<br>**Net cash (used in)/ provided by operating**<br>**activities**<br>**Cash flows from investing activities:**<br>Income from interest on cash deposits<br>4<br>Purchase of investments<br>14<br>Purchase of tangible assets<br>12<br>Purchase of intangible assets<br>11<br>**Net cash (used in)/provided by investing activities**<br>**Net cash (outflow)/inflow**<br>Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year<br>Cash and cash equivalents at 1 June<br>**Cash and cash equivalents at 31 May**|**2025**<br>**£’000**<br>2024<br>£’000<br>**(9,276)**<br>16,059<br>**231**<br>213<br>**29**<br>26<br>**(2,061)**<br>(2,820)<br>**(2,918)**<br>(2,082)<br>**(586)**<br>(463)<br>**(48,117)**<br>(9,127)<br>**54,931**<br>18,038<br>**-**<br>27|
||**(7,767)**<br>19,871|
||**(7,767)**<br>19,871<br>**2,061**<br>2,820<br>**(20,095)**<br>-<br>**(14)**<br>(39)<br>**(97)**<br>(112)|
||**(18,145)**<br>2,669|
||**(25,912)**<br>22,540|
||**(25,912)**<br>22,540<br>**77,057**<br>54,517|
||**51,145**<br>77,057|



35 

## **The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

## **1. Principal accounting policies** 

## **General information** 

The Football Foundation (the ‘Foundation’ or the ‘Charity’) is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated in the United Kingdom in November 1999 as The Football Trust Charitable Trust, changing its name to The Football Foundation in April 2000 and registered with the Charity Commission. The other company included within the group is the non-charitable wholly owned trading subsidiary The Football Foundation Trading Limited (FFTL), which was incorporated in April 2001. 

The address of the Foundation’s registered office is Wembley Stadium, Wembley Park, London HA9 0WS. 

## **Basis of accounting** 

The financial statements are prepared under the historical cost convention and in accordance with the Charities Act 2011, the Companies Act 2006, the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Charity, and Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their financial statements in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019). 

A summary of the principal accounting policies, which have been applied consistently unless stated, is set out below. 

## **Going concern** 

The financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis. Future funding has been confirmed in writing from the Premier League and The FA through to March 2028. The Government (via Sport England) have confirmed funding through to March 2026 and we expect to have a longer-term settlement confirmed in Autumn 2025 after completion of the Comprehensive Spending Review. As it the Trustee’s policy to not to commit funds beyond known funding, the trustees are confident that the Foundation is a going concern for 12 months from the signing of the accounts. 

## **Basis of consolidation** 

The consolidated statement of financial activities, the consolidated balance sheets and the consolidated cash flow statement include the financial statements of the Charity and its subsidiary undertaking (together the ‘Group’) made up to 31 May 2025. The subsidiary has been consolidated on a line-by-line basis. Intra group transactions and profits and balances have been eliminated on consolidation, where material. The Charity has adapted the Companies Act formats to reflect the Charities SORP and the special nature of the Charity’s activities. A separate SOFA has not been presented for the standalone Charity, as permitted by Section 408 of the Companies Act 2006 and 2019 SORP. 

## **Currency** 

The Charity’s functional and presentational currency is pounds sterling. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £’000. 

36 

**The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

## **1. Principal accounting policies (continued)** 

## **Income** 

Donations that provide core funding or are of a general nature are included in the statement of financial activities on the following bases: 

All donations received are recognised when the Foundation is entitled to funds, where there is probability of receipt, and the amount can be reliably quantified. The Foundation has three-year funding cycles with its funders The FA, the Premier League, and the Government (via Sport England). The FA and the Premier League’s funding is accounted in the financial year to which the funders have indicated that income is for in their funding agreements and these funds can be used for operational and grant expenditure. Donations from the Government (via Sport England) is received in arrears following evidence of grant expenditure. Donations to the restricted fund are recognised on a receivable basis, where there is a signed funding agreement and there is commitment by the Foundation of such funds to the agreed programme. 

Income from commercial trading activities is recognised as earned (as the related goods and services are provided). Income from cash deposits and other investments is recognised on an accruals basis. 

## **Investment income** 

Income from cash deposits, held with a maturity of greater than three months, is accounted for on an accruals basis. 

## **Gifts in Kind** 

Income arising from Gifts in Kind are only recognised in the financial statements where material. 

## **Expenditure** 

Expenditure is recognised when a liability is incurred. 

Grants payable are recognised in the statement of financial activities when the grant has been authorised and communicated to the recipient. This is deemed to have created a constructive obligation and liability as there are no significant conditions attached to payment of the grants. 

Charitable activities include expenditure associated with sport related grants and include both the direct and support costs relating to these activities. 

Governance costs include those incurred in the governance of the Charity and its assets and are primarily associated with constitutional and statutory requirements. Support costs include the central functions of finance, human resources, information technology, external relations and general administration, and have been allocated to activity cost categories on a basis consistent with the use of resources (see note 6) including travel & meetings, office & premises, public relations & marketing, recruitment and training, consultancy and accountancy & professional costs. 

## **Operating leases** 

Rental costs are recognised in the statement of financial activities on a straight-line basis. 

37 

**The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

## **1. Principal accounting policies (continued)** 

## **Recognition of liabilities** 

Liabilities are recognised when an obligation arises to transfer economic benefits as a result of past transactions or events. 

## **Fund accounting** 

The funds of the Charity have been segregated as follows: Restricted funds consist of donations received, for which the donor has specified the purposes for which the resources can be utilised. Expenditure on restricted funds reflects the appropriate expenditure that has been charged to those funds. All other funds are unrestricted and available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the Group and which have not been designated for other purposes. 

## **Pension costs** 

The Group makes contributions to defined contribution pension schemes on behalf of certain staff members, the assets of which are held separately from those of the Group in an independently administered fund. The cost of these contributions is charged to the statement of financial activities as incurred. 

## **Tangible assets and depreciation** 

## _Capitalisation and replacement_ 

The cost of tangible assets is their purchase cost, together with any incidental costs of acquisition. Assets of over £250 are capitalised. 

## _Depreciation_ 

Depreciation is calculated on a straight-line basis so as to write off the cost or valuation of tangible assets, less their estimated residual values, over the expected useful economic lives of the assets concerned. Assets in the course of construction are not depreciated until they are brought into use. The principal annual rates used for this purpose are: 

|ot depreciated until they are brought into use. The<br>his purpose are:|principal annual rates|
|---|---|
||**Years**|
|Fixtures and fittings|10|
|Computer software and equipment|4|



## **Intangible assets** 

Intangible assets represent software development costs and are capitalised when it is probable that the expected future economic benefits that are attributable to the asset will flow to the entity and there is a readily ascertainable market value for the asset being developed, and the cost of these assets can be measured reliably, consistent with the requirements of FRS 102 Section 18. Those costs are amortised on a straight-line basis over seven years, in line with the amortisation period for computer software. 

38 

## **The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

## **1. Principal accounting policies (continued)** 

## **Deferred taxation** 

A provision is made for deferred taxation using the incremental liability method where the Group consider deferred taxation has a material impact on the financial statements. Material deferred tax assets are only recognised to the extent they are recoverable. 

## **Irrecoverable Value Added Tax** 

Any irrecoverable VAT is charged to the statement of financial activities or capitalised as part of the cost of the related asset, where appropriate. 

## **Investment Policy** 

Our investment policy is: 

   - To protect the value of our investments in real terms while seeking an appropriate return. 

- Not to invest directly in any company with a significant interest in any activity that runs contrary to Football Foundation’s charitable objectives and mission. 

- We consider this to be a prudent policy that challenges managers to produce excellent results. 

Our Audit Remuneration & Governance Committee reviews investment performance on an annual basis. 

## **Cash and cash equivalents** 

Cash and cash equivalents includes cash in hand, short-term deposits held at call with banks and other short-term highly liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less. 

## **Critical accounting judgements and key estimates** 

The preparation of the financial statements requires judgements, estimations and assumptions to be made that affect the reported values of assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses. The nature of estimation and judgement means that actual outcomes could differ from expectation. There are no estimates and assumptions that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next financial year 

## **Critical areas of judgement** 

- (a) The Charity allocates support costs between different charitable activities using Executive Management’s judgement of the proportion of effort expended on each category during the year. 

39 

## **The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

## **2. Charitable Activities** 

|**nded 31 May 2025**<br>**.**<br>**Charitable Activities**||||
|---|---|---|---|
|**Unrestricted**<br>The Football Association (FA)<br>Premier League<br>**Restricted**<br>The Government funds managed by Sport England<br>Sport England – Multi-Sport<br>Rugby Football Union – Multi-Sport<br>The Football Association - PEA<br>**Total**||**2025**<br>**£’000**<br>**23,410**<br>**20,500**|2024<br>£’000<br>17,790<br>17,600|
|||**43,910**<br>**96,140**<br>**3,800**<br>**122**<br>**-**|35,390<br>88,700<br>4,600<br>56<br>55|
|||**100,062**<br>**143,972**|93,411<br>128,801|



## **3. Subsidiary undertaking** 

The subsidiary undertaking of the Charity, FFTL, is a company registered in England and Wales (no. 4202574) in which the Charity holds 1 £1 ordinary share representing 100% of the issued share capital. 

There was limited business activity in FFTL in FY2024 and FY2025. 

|Income<br>Administrative expenses<br>Operating Loss<br>**Loss on ordinary activities before taxation**<br>Tax charge<br>**Loss for the financial year**<br>Retained earnings brought forward at 1 June<br>Dividend paid to the Football Foundation<br>**Retained earnings carried forward at 31 May**<br>Cash at bank and in hand<br>**Creditors:**amounts falling due within one year<br>**Net Assets**<br>**Total Shareholders Funds**||**2025**<br>**£**<br>**-**<br>**-**|2024<br>£<br>-<br>**(50)**|
|---|---|---|---|
|||**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**2025**<br>**£**<br>**1**|(50)<br>(50)<br>-<br>(50)<br>246<br>(196)<br>-<br>2024<br>£<br>2,305|
|||**1**<br>**-**|2,305<br>(2,304)|
|||**1**<br>**1**|**1**<br>1|



40 

## **The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

|**4.**<br>**Interest and Other income**<br>**All included in unrestricted funds**<br>Interest receivable on cash deposits<br>Other income<br>Management fee (Premier League<br>Stadium Fund)<br>**5.**<br>**Analysis of expenditure**<br>**Direct**<br>**staff**<br>**costs**<br>**Other**<br>**direct**<br>**costs**<br>**Activity:**<br>**£’000**<br>**£’000**<br>**Awarding of**<br>**grants**<br>Unrestricted:<br>Grants payable<br>3,952<br>67,274<br>Governance costs<br>(see note 6b)<br>-<br>-<br>Restricted:<br>Grants payable<br>97<br>81,918<br>**Total**<br>4,049<br>149,192|**4.**<br>**Interest and Other income**<br>**All included in unrestricted funds**<br>Interest receivable on cash deposits<br>Other income<br>Management fee (Premier League<br>Stadium Fund)<br>**5.**<br>**Analysis of expenditure**<br>**Direct**<br>**staff**<br>**costs**<br>**Other**<br>**direct**<br>**costs**<br>**Activity:**<br>**£’000**<br>**£’000**<br>**Awarding of**<br>**grants**<br>Unrestricted:<br>Grants payable<br>3,952<br>67,274<br>Governance costs<br>(see note 6b)<br>-<br>-<br>Restricted:<br>Grants payable<br>97<br>81,918<br>**Total**<br>4,049<br>149,192|**2025**<br>**£’000**<br>2024<br>£’000<br>**2,061**<br>2,820<br>**276**<br>529<br>**253**<br>810<br>**2,590**<br>4,159<br>**Support**<br>**costs**<br>**2025**<br>**Total**<br>2024<br>Total<br>**£’000**<br>**£’000**<br>£’000<br>5,150<br>**76,376**<br>27,032<br>603<br>**603**<br>562<br>349<br>**82,364**<br>91,852|
|---|---|---|
||4,049<br>149,192|6,102<br>**159,343**<br>119,446|



Grants awarded during the financial year are summarised in note 23. Support costs are further analysed in note 6a. 

41 

## **The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

## **6. Allocation of support costs and analysis of governance costs** 

## **6a. Allocation of support costs** 

|**Support costs:**<br>Indirect staff<br>costs<br>Apportionment<br>of staff costs<br>Travel and<br>meetings<br>Office and<br>premises<br>Public relations<br>and marketing<br>Recruitment<br>and training<br>Consultancy<br>Accountancy<br>and<br>professional|**Unrestricte**<br>**d Grant**<br>**payable**<br>**£’000**<br>2,055<br>-<br>214<br>134<br>809<br>86<br>1,747<br>105<br>5,150|**Governanc**<br>**e costs**<br>**£’000**<br>-<br>439<br>15<br>4<br>23<br>3<br> <br>53<br>66<br>603|**Restricte**<br>**d Grants**<br>**payable**<br>**£’000**<br>-<br>-<br>-<br>-<br>-<br>-<br>-<br>349<br>349|**2025**<br>**Total**<br>**£’000**<br>**2,055**<br>**439**<br>**229**<br>**138**<br>**832**<br>**89**<br>**1,800**<br>**520**<br>**6,102**|2024<br>Total<br>£’000<br>2,046<br>407<br>226<br>829<br>634<br>139<br>2,096<br>57<br>6,434|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|



## **6b. Analysis of governance costs** 

|**Costs/category:**<br>External audit<br>Apportionment of staff costs<br>Apportionment of support costs<br>Trustee Board costs|**2025**<br>**£’000**<br>**62**<br>**439**<br>**94**<br>**8**<br>**603**|2024<br>£’000<br>47<br>407<br>107<br>1|
|---|---|---|
|||562|



The apportionment of staff costs has been assumed by using an estimated percentage of total employee time spent on governance related work. This varies depending on employee roles. 

42 

## **The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

|**7.**<br>**Net income / (expenditure)**|||
|---|---|---|
||**2025**|2024|
||**£’000**|£’000|
|**Net income is stated after charging:**|||
|Depreciation on tangible assets|**29**|26|
|Amortisation on intangible assets|**231**|213|
|Loss on disposal of tangible fixed|**-**|-|
|assets|||
|Amounts payable under operating|**3**|2|
|leases|||
|Auditor’s remuneration for:|||
|Audit services|**43**|39|
|Tax and other services|**1**|6|



The Charity incurred audit costs of £43,105 excluding VAT (2024: £39,000) and taxation and other services costs of £1,417 excluding VAT (2024: £6,000). 

|**8.**<br>**Employee information**<br>Average monthly number of persons<br>employed by the Group and Charity<br>during the year was:<br>Foundation<br>**Staff costs**<br>**Group and Charity**<br>Wages and salaries<br>Social security costs<br>Other pension costs||**2025**<br>**Number**<br>**111**<br>**2025**<br>**£’000**<br>**5,553**<br>**571**<br>**421**<br>**6,545**|2024<br>Number<br>**108**<br>2024<br>£’000<br>5,190<br>554<br>410<br>**6,154**|
|---|---|---|---|
|||||



The Group operates a defined contribution pension scheme contributing 8.0% (2024 8.0%) of gross salaries on behalf of employees. 

43 

## **The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

## **8. Employee information (cont.)** 

The number of employees whose emoluments exceeded £60,000 was: 

|**Group**|**2025**|2024|
|---|---|---|
||**Number**|Number|
|£60,001 - £70,000|**8**|11|
|£70,001 - £80,000|**7**|6|
|£80,001 - £90,000|**3**|2|
|£90,001 - £100,000|**1**|1|
|£100,001 - £110,000|**-**|1|
|£110,001 - £120,000|**2**|1|
|£130,001 - £140,000|**1**|-|
|£140,001 - £150,000|**1**|1|
|£150,001 - £160,000|**-**|1|
|£240,001 - £250,000|**1**|1|



For those staff whose emoluments exceeded £60,000, pension contributions amounting to £184,601 (2024: £161,005) were for the provision of money purchase benefits. No Trustee received any remuneration from the Group during the year. One Trustee (2024: Two Trustees) was reimbursed for expenditure on travel and subsistence, incurred for attendance at Board meetings on behalf of the Foundation totalling £857 (2024: £530). 

Senior employees who have the authority and responsibility for planning, directing, and controlling the activities of the Group are considered to be key management personnel. Total costs (including Employers’ NIC) in 2025 in respect of these eight (2024: Six) individuals was £1,194,356  (2024: £875,600). 

## **9. Taxation** 

The Foundation is a registered charity and, as such, is entitled to certain tax exemptions on income and profits from investments, and surpluses on any trading activities carried on in furtherance of the Charity's primary objectives, if these profits and surpluses are applied solely for charitable purposes. 

The Charity is not registered for VAT and, accordingly, all its expenditure is recorded inclusive of any VAT incurred. 

FFTL is registered for VAT and, consequently, all its income and expenditure is recorded net of VAT. As per policy, FFTL gift aids all of its available realised profits to the Charity. 

A deferred tax asset of £113,129 (2024: £113,129) has not been recognised on the losses arising in FFTL on the basis that sufficient profits cannot be guaranteed at this stage of FFTL’s development and historical deficits brought forward exceed profits generated to date. 

## **10. Net income dealt with in the Charity’s financial statements** 

The income attributable to the Charity was £150.1m (2024: £135.5m). The expenditure for the year attributable to charitable activities was £159.3m (2024: £119.4m). 

44 

## **The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

## **11. Intangible assets** 

|**Group and Charity**<br>**Cost**<br>At 1 June 2024<br>Additions<br>Disposals<br>**At 31 May 2025**<br>**Accumulated**<br>**amortisation**<br>At 1 June 2024<br>Charge in year<br>Disposals<br>**At 31 May 2025**<br>**Net book value**<br>**At 31 May 2025**<br>At 31 May 2024||**Total**<br>**£’000**<br>**2,591**<br>97<br>(942)|
|---|---|---|
|||**1,746**|
|||**1,972**<br>231<br>(942)|
|||**1,261**|
|||**485**|
|||**619**|



Intangible assets comprise software development, _Pitchfinder_ , _PitchPower_ and the Foundation website. 

## **12. Tangible assets** 

|**Group and Charity**<br>**Cost**<br>At 1 June 2024<br>Additions<br>Disposal<br>**At 31 May 2025**<br>**Accumulated depreciation**<br>At 1 June 2024<br>Charge in year<br>Disposal<br>**At 31 May 2025**<br>**Net book value**<br>**At 31 May 2025**<br>At 31 May 2024|**Fixtures**<br>**and**<br>**fittings**<br>**Computer**<br>**software and**<br>**equipment**<br>**Total**<br>**£’000**<br>**£’000**<br>**£’000**<br>**33**<br>**2,584**<br>**2,617**<br>-<br>14<br>14<br>(18)<br>(2,344)<br>(2,362)|
|---|---|
||**15**<br>**254**<br>**269**|
||**24**<br>**2,525**<br>**2,549**<br>2<br>27<br>29<br>(18)<br>(2,344)<br>(2,362)|
||**8**<br>**208**<br>**216**|
||**7**<br>**46**<br>**53**|
||9<br>59<br>68|



45 

## **The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

## **13. Debtors** 

|**13.**<br>**Debtors**||
|---|---|
|**Amounts falling due within one**<br>**year:**<br>Amounts owed by PLSF<br>Trade debtors<br>Prepayments and accrued income|**Group**<br>**Charity**<br>**2025**<br>2024<br>**2025**<br>2024<br>**£’000**<br>£’000<br>**£’000**<br>£’000<br>**427**<br>1,056<br>**427**<br>1,056<br>**42**<br>282<br>**42**<br>282<br>**121,452**<br>67,666<br>**121,452**<br>67,666|
||**121,921**<br>69,004<br>**121,921**<br>69,004|



DCMS (via Sport England) committed to funding up to £14.5m for Active Through Football to the Foundation of which £5.8m remained outstanding as at 31 May 2025 (2024: £6.8m). This was included as part of accrued income and is expected to be received in full at the conclusion of the programme at March 2026. 

In addition, there is £43.4m remaining outstanding from DCMS’s core funding for FY25, due to live projects claims which will fall into FY26. In addition to this, there is £37.5m (2024: £41.4) remaining outstanding from DCMS’s core funding for prior years, due to live projects claims which will fall into FY26 and beyond.  These amounts will be drawn down on a quarterly basis are expected to be received before the end of the current funding cycle. 

DCMS Lionesses funding has all been fully committed and is expected to be received by the end of the current financial year, at 31 May 2025 £18.5m of this funding was accrued. Also included within accrued income was £3.8m from DCMS relating to Multi-Sport and £80k from RFU (both of which are expected to be received by the end of the FY26 financial year. 

At year-end outstanding funding from football funding partners of £11.9m (2024: nil), was included in accrued income, this has been received post year-end. 

|**Amounts falling due after one**<br>**year:**<br>Prepayments and accrued income|**Group**<br>**2025**<br>**£’000**<br>2024<br>£’000<br>**-**<br>4,800<br>**-**<br>4,800|**Charity**<br>**2025**<br>**£’000**<br>2024<br>£’000<br>**-**<br>4,800<br>**-**<br>4,800|**Charity**<br>**2025**<br>**£’000**<br>2024<br>£’000<br>**-**<br>4,800<br>**-**<br>4,800|
|---|---|---|---|
||||4,800|



46 

## **The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

## **14. Investments** 

|**Group and Charity**<br>At 1 June<br>Purchases<br>Interest received on investments (re-invested)<br>Interest accrued on investments (for re-<br>investment)<br>**At 31 May**|**2025**<br>**£’000**<br>**55,181**<br>**20,095**<br>**2,918**<br>**586**<br>**78,780**|2024<br>£’000<br>52,636<br>-<br>2,082<br>463|
|---|---|---|
|||55,181|



The Foundation invests available funds into notice accounts and fixed-term cash deposits. The maximum duration was twelve months. 

## **15. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year** 

|Trade creditors<br>Taxation and social security costs<br>Other Creditors<br>Grants payable<br>Accruals<br>**16.**<br>**Funds**<br>**Group**<br>**2024**<br>**Balance**<br>**£’000**<br>**Unrestricted funds**<br>General funds retained<br>within the Charity<br>32,711<br>**Restricted funds**<br>Active Through<br>Football Income<br>1,715<br>Sport England – Core<br>Funding Income<br>-<br>Sport England – multi-<br>sport Income<br>2,121<br>RFU – multi-sport<br>Income<br>-<br>**Total funds**<br>36,547|**Group**<br>**2025**<br>2024<br>**£’000**<br>£’000<br>**1,039**<br>1,059<br>**174**<br>164<br>**124**<br>20<br>**223,541**<br>168,677<br>**235**<br>262<br>**225,113**<br>170,182|**Group**<br>**2025**<br>2024<br>**£’000**<br>£’000<br>**1,039**<br>1,059<br>**174**<br>164<br>**124**<br>20<br>**223,541**<br>168,677<br>**235**<br>262<br>**225,113**<br>170,182|**Charity**<br>**2025**<br>2024<br>**£’000**<br>£’000<br>**1,038**<br>1,057<br>**174**<br>164<br>**124**<br>20<br>**223,541**<br>168,677<br>**235**<br>262<br>**225,112**<br>170,180<br>**Investme**<br>**nt income**<br>**2025**<br>**Balanc**<br>**e**<br>**£’000**<br>**£’000**<br>3,505<br>**22,985**<br>-<br>**1,545**<br>-<br>**-**<br>-<br>**2,741**<br>-<br>**-**<br>**3,505**<br>**27,271**|**Charity**<br>**2025**<br>2024<br>**£’000**<br>£’000<br>**1,038**<br>1,057<br>**174**<br>164<br>**124**<br>20<br>**223,541**<br>168,677<br>**235**<br>262<br>**225,112**<br>170,180<br>**Investme**<br>**nt income**<br>**2025**<br>**Balanc**<br>**e**<br>**£’000**<br>**£’000**<br>3,505<br>**22,985**<br>-<br>**1,545**<br>-<br>**-**<br>-<br>**2,741**<br>-<br>**-**<br>**3,505**<br>**27,271**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||||**225,112**||
||**Income**<br>**£’000**<br>46,500<br>-<br>96,140<br>3,800<br>122<br>**146,562**|**Expenditur**<br>**e**<br>**£’000**<br>(59,731)<br>(170)<br>(96,140)<br>(3,180)<br>(122)<br>**(159,343)**|**Investme**<br>**nt income**<br>**£’000**<br>3,505<br>-<br>-<br>-<br>-<br>**3,505**||
|||||**27,271**|



47 

## **The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

## **16. Funds (continued)** 

|**Group**<br>**Unrestricted funds**<br>General funds retained<br>within the Charity<br>General funds retained<br>within FFTL<br>**Restricted funds**<br>Active Through<br>Football Income<br>Sport England – Core<br>Funding Income<br>Sport England – multi-<br>sport Income<br>RFU – multi-sport<br>Income<br>The FA – Post Event<br>Assurance<br>**Total funds**<br>**Charity**<br>**Unrestricted funds**<br>General funds<br>retained within the<br>Charity<br>**Restricted funds**<br>Active Through<br>Football Income<br>Sport England – Core<br>Funding Income<br>Sport England –<br>multi-sport Income<br>RFU – multi-sport<br>Income<br>**Total funds**|**2023**<br>**Balance**<br>**£’000**<br>**18,211**<br>**-**<br>**1,988**<br>**-**<br>**289**<br>**-**<br>**-**|<br>**Income**<br> <br>**£’000**<br> <br>39,549<br> <br>2<br> <br>-<br> <br>88,700<br> <br>4,600<br> <br>56<br> <br>56|**Expenditur**<br>**e**<br>**£’000**<br>(27,594)<br>(2)<br>(273)<br>(88,700)<br>(2,768)<br>(56)<br>(56)|**Investme**<br>**nt income**<br>**£’000**<br>2,545<br>-<br>-<br>-<br>-<br>-<br>-|**2024**<br>**Balanc**<br>**e**<br>**£’000**<br>**32,711**<br>**-**<br>**1,715**<br>**-**<br>**2,121**<br>**-**<br>**-**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**20,488**|<br>**132,963**|**(119,449)**|**2,545**|**36,547**|
||**2024**<br>**Balance**<br>**£’000**<br>32,711<br>1,715<br>-<br>2,121<br>-<br>36,547|**Income**<br>**£’000**<br>46,500<br>-<br>96,140<br>3,800<br>122<br>**146,562**|**Expenditur**<br>**e**<br>**£’000**<br>(59,731)<br>(170)<br>(96,140)<br>(3,180)<br>(122)<br>**(159,343)**|**Investme**<br>**nt income**<br>**£’000**<br>3,505<br>-<br>-<br>-<br>-<br>**3,505**|**2025**<br>**Balanc**<br>**e**<br>**£’000**<br>**22,985**<br>**1,545**<br>**-**<br>**2,741**<br>**-**<br>**27,271**|



48 

## **The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

|**16.**<br>**Funds (continued)**|**16.**<br>**Funds (continued)**|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Charity**|**2023**|**Income**|**Expenditur**|**Investme**|**2024**|
||**Balance**||**e**|**nt income**|**Balanc**|
||||||**e**|
||**£’000**|**£’000**|**£’000**|**£’000**|**£’000**|
|**Unrestricted funds**||||||
|General funds retained|**18,211**|39,549|(27,594)|2,545|**32,711**|
|within the Charity||||||
|General funds retained|**-**|2|(2)|-|**-**|
|within FFTL||||||
|**Restricted funds**||||||
|Active Through|**1,988**|-|(273)|-|**1,715**|
|Football Income||||||
|Sport England – Core|**-**|88,700|(88,700)|-|**-**|
|Funding Income||||||
|Sport England – multi-|**289**|4,600|(2,768)|-|**2,121**|
|sport Income||||||
|RFU – multi-sport|**-**|56|(56)|-|**-**|
|Income||||||
|The FA – Post Event|**-**|56|(56)|-|**-**|
|Assurance||||||
|**Total funds**|**20,488**|**132,963**|**(119,449)**|**2,545**|**36,547**|



The restricted funds detailed above have been provided by Sport England, the Rugby Football Union, and the FA. 

**Active Through Football** - is a multi-year revenue programme funded by Sport England 

**Core Funding Income** – Exchequer funding for capital projects via Sport England, Lionesses capital funding and revenue funding for environmental infill feasibility **Multi-Sport Income** – comprises both revenue and capital grants relating to multisport activities and funded by Sport England and the Rugby Football Union. **Post Event Assurance** – additional funding provided by the FA for the review and improvements to the Foundation’s assurance processes. 

## **17. Analysis of the net assets between funds** 

|**Group**<br>Intangible assets<br>Tangible assets<br>Net current assets<br>**Net assets**|**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**£’000**<br>485<br>53<br>22,447<br>**22,985**|**Restricted**<br>**funds**<br>**£’000**<br>-<br>-<br>4,286<br>**4,286**|**Balance**<br>**2025**<br>**£’000**<br>485<br>53<br>26,733|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**27,271**|



49 

## **The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

## **17. Analysis of the net assets between funds (continued)** 

|**Group**<br>Intangible assets<br>Tangible assets<br>Net current assets<br>**Net assets**<br>**Charity**<br>Intangible assets<br>Tangible assets<br>Net current assets<br>**Net assets**<br>**Charity**<br>Intangible assets<br>Tangible assets<br>Net current assets<br>**Net assets**|**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**Restricted**<br>**funds**<br>**Balance**<br>**2024**<br>**£’000**<br>**£’000**<br>**£’000**<br>619<br>-<br>619<br>68<br>-<br>68<br>32,024<br>3,836<br>35,860<br>**32,711**<br>**3,836**<br>**36,547**<br>**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**Restricte**<br>**d funds**<br>**Balance**<br>**2025**<br>**£’000**<br>**£’000**<br>**£’000**<br>485<br>-<br>485<br>53<br>-<br>53<br>22,447<br>4,286<br>26,733<br>**22,985**<br>**4,286**<br>**27,271**<br>**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**Restricte**<br>**d funds**<br>**Balance**<br>**2024**<br>**£’000**<br>**£’000**<br>**£’000**<br>619<br>-<br>619<br>68<br>-<br>68<br>32,024<br>3,836<br>35,860<br>**32,711**<br>**3,836**<br>**36,547**|**Balance**<br>**2024**<br>**£’000**<br>619<br>68<br>35,860|
|---|---|---|
|||**36,547**|



|**18.**<br>**Reconciliation of net cash flow to movement in net funds**<br>**Group**<br>**2025**<br>**£’000**<br>Change in net funds:<br>(Decrease)/Increase in cash<br>**(25,912)**<br>Net funds at 1 June<br>**77,057**<br>**Net funds at 31 May**<br>**51,145**<br>**Charity**<br>Change in net funds:<br>(Decrease)/Increase in cash<br>**(25,911)**<br>Net funds at 1 June<br>**77,055**<br>**Net Funds at 31 May**<br>**51,144**|**18.**<br>**Reconciliation of net cash flow to movement in net funds**<br>**Group**<br>**2025**<br>**£’000**<br>Change in net funds:<br>(Decrease)/Increase in cash<br>**(25,912)**<br>Net funds at 1 June<br>**77,057**<br>**Net funds at 31 May**<br>**51,145**<br>**Charity**<br>Change in net funds:<br>(Decrease)/Increase in cash<br>**(25,911)**<br>Net funds at 1 June<br>**77,055**<br>**Net Funds at 31 May**<br>**51,144**|**18.**<br>**Reconciliation of net cash flow to movement in net funds**<br>**Group**<br>**2025**<br>**£’000**<br>Change in net funds:<br>(Decrease)/Increase in cash<br>**(25,912)**<br>Net funds at 1 June<br>**77,057**<br>**Net funds at 31 May**<br>**51,145**<br>**Charity**<br>Change in net funds:<br>(Decrease)/Increase in cash<br>**(25,911)**<br>Net funds at 1 June<br>**77,055**<br>**Net Funds at 31 May**<br>**51,144**|**2024**<br>**£’000**<br>22,540<br>54,517<br>77,057<br>22,538<br>54,517|
|---|---|---|---|
|||||
|||**51,144**|77,055|



50 

**The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

## **19. Operating leases** 

Annual commitments in respect of land and buildings under operating leases: 

|**Group and Charity**<br>Operating leases which<br>expire:<br>Two to five years|**2025**<br>**£’000**<br>**2024**<br>**£’000**<br>**3**<br>2|
|---|---|
||**3**<br>2|



## **20. Commitments** 

All grant commitments have been recognised once a grant offer letter has been issued. 

## **21. Capital** 

The Charity is a company limited by guarantee. Each member has undertaken to contribute £1 to the assets of the company to meet its liabilities if called on to do so. The total amount guaranteed by members at 31 May 2025 is £2 (2024: £2). 

## **22. Related party transactions** 

The Football Foundation Trading Limited, has had very limited activity so there were no related party transactions during the year.  In prior years a dividend payment was made from FFTL to the Foundation (note 3), (2024: £196). 

Employees of the Foundation have joint employment contracts with the Premier League Stadium Fund Limited to deliver grants from both entities. The Premier League Stadium Fund Limited is funded by the Premier League and is also a grant giving entity, and the employees of the Football Foundation help to identify and deliver these grants under their joint employment contracts. The Premier League Stadium Fund Limited incurs direct salary costs, and also where appropriate contributes towards a proportion of salary costs incurred by the Football Foundation. This charge forms part of the annual administrative expenses recharged to the company, £0.3m in 2025 (2024: £0.8m). Mr R Master is the CEO of the Premier League. The Premier League donated £20.5m (2024: £17.6m) to the Foundation during the year. At the year end, £6m (2024: Nil) of the donated amount was outstanding. Also at the year end, the annual administrative expenses recharge of £0.3m remained outstanding (2024: £0.8m). 

Mr P D G McCormick OBE was an employee of the Premier League (Chairman of the Legal Advisory Group until 30 April 2025), Senior Partner at McCormicks Solicitors; The Football Association - Chairman of Professional Game Board and a member of FA Council Member and FA Cup Committee, Chairman of The Football Association Premier League Medical Care Scheme (until April 2025). He was a Chairman of the Premier League Stadium Fund Limited until 30 April 2025. 

Mr M W Bullingham is the Chief Executive Officer of The FA and Director of the Premier League Stadium Fund Limited. The FA donated £23.4m (2024: £17.8m) to the Foundation during the year of which £5.9m (2024: nil) remained outstanding at year-end. 

51 

## **The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

## **22. Related Parties (continued)** 

Mr J Pearce is member of The FA’s Board (National Game representative), Remuneration Committee, Judicial Panel, National Game Finance Committee and Alliance Committee. He is also a member of the Premier League Stadium Fund Limited Investment Panel, the General Manager and Vice-Chairman of Bognor Regis Town F.C. and a council member of Sussex County FA. 

Mr T Hollingsworth is the Chief Executive Officer of Sport England. The Government (via Sport England) donated £96.1m (2024: £88.7m) to the Foundation during the year. At year-end £43.4m of this remains outstanding and has been included in accrued income. In addition to this, there is £37.5m (2024: £41.4) remaining outstanding from DCMS’s core funding for prior years, due to live projects claims which will fall into FY26 and beyond. 

In prior years DCMS (via Sport England) committed to funding a multi-year revenue project (up to £14.5m for Active Through Football) of which £5.8m (2024: £6.8m) remained outstanding as at 31 May 2025. 

## **23. Grants awarded during the financial year** 

Grants awarded during the financial year amounted to £145.6m (2024: £109.2m). A list of the 50 largest facility grants awarded during the year is provided below. Each of these organisations received at least one grant in the financial year. The grants payable disclosed exclude grant delivery costs amounting to £10.9m (2024: £10.2m). No grant has been made to any individual (2024: same). 

**==> picture [420 x 254] intentionally omitted <==**

**----- Start of picture text -----**<br>
OrganisationName GrantValue £ OrganisationName GrantValue £<br>Manchester City Council 6,653,656 Bognor Regis Town Football Club 999,878<br>Stockton On Tees Borough Council 5,514,659 Bury Metropolitan Borough Council 999,498<br>Goole Town Council 2,278,385 Shildon A.F.C. 998,160<br>London Borough Of Haringey 2,041,298 Middlesbrough FC Foundation 990,248<br>Adur District Council 2,000,000 Rossendale Borough Council 987,100<br>Staffordshire County FA 1,944,743 Cheviot Learning Trust 983,013<br>Ashfield District Council 1,846,854 East Riding Of Yorkshire Council 974,832<br>Heanor Town FC (Holding) Company Limited 1,479,348 Northfleet Schools Trust 969,090<br>Broxtowe Borough Council 1,415,034 Excalibur Academies Trust 952,079<br>Southport Learning Trust 1,412,969 Turner Schools Trust 942,281<br>Dorset Council 1,357,457 Eastern Learning Alliance 938,807<br>The Nene Valley Partnership 1,352,483 The Marsh Academy 932,420<br>Brigg Town FC CIC (Community Interest Club) 1,287,510 Heart of Yorkshire Education Group 930,353<br>Earls Barton Parish Council 1,247,484 The Pinnacle Learning Trust 902,056<br>The Howard Academy Trust 1,197,536 Tudor Grange Academies Trust 881,314<br>AFC Sudbury Limited 1,127,005 Knowsley MBC 862,216<br>Cheshire East Council 1,113,370 The Hunslet Club 842,342<br>Insignis Academy Trust 1,108,224 Southend East Community Academy Trust 836,368<br>The National Football Trust 1,084,022 Pontefract Collieries F.C. 817,284<br>North Riding FA 1,062,178 North Northamptonshire Council 810,330<br>Great Baddow High School 1,044,668 Campsmount Technology College 807,385<br>Academies Enterprise Trust 1,000,000 The Cottesloe School 807,236<br>Telford & Wrekin Council 1,000,000 The Governing Body of the Phoenix Collegiate 803,541<br>Wickford Town F.C. 1,000,000 Greater Manchester Academies Trust 802,487<br>Godmanchester Football and Sports Association Trust 999,993 North East Derbyshire District Council 786,409<br>**----- End of picture text -----**<br>


52 

**23. Grants Awarded (continued)** 

## **The Football Foundation - Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2025** 

|**Grants**|**Total value**<br>**(£m)**|
|---|---|
|50 largest facility grants|66.1|
|Other|79.5|
|**Total**|**145.6**|



## **24. Ultimate controlling party** 

There is no ultimate controlling party of The Football Foundation. 

53 

## (INCORPORATED CHARITY – GROUP ACCOUNTS) 

Final Audit Report 

2025-10-16 

Created: 2025-10-01 By: Catherine Shiplee (catherine.shiplee@footballfoundation.org.uk) Status: Signed Transaction ID: CBJCHBCAABAAa5DZjKEJWjYDVe7-Y0DAqBTzi5vE70LD 

## "(INCORPORATED CHARITY – GROUP ACCOUNTS)" History 

- Document created by Catherine Shiplee (catherine.shiplee@footballfoundation.org.uk) 

2025-10-01 - 3:32:19 PM GMT 

Document emailed to Martin Glenn (mrg@footballfoundation.org.uk) for signature 

2025-10-01 - 3:32:26 PM GMT 

- Email viewed by Martin Glenn (mrg@footballfoundation.org.uk) 

2025-10-01 - 3:32:45 PM GMT 

- Document e-signed by Martin Glenn (mrg@footballfoundation.org.uk) 

Signature Date: 2025-10-01 - 3:33:13 PM GMT - Time Source: server 

- Document emailed to Jennie Goodman (jennie.goodman@footballfoundation.org.uk) for signature 2025-10-01 - 3:33:20 PM GMT 

- Email viewed by Jennie Goodman (jennie.goodman@footballfoundation.org.uk) 2025-10-03 - 6:10:42 AM GMT 

- Signer Jennie Goodman (jennie.goodman@footballfoundation.org.uk) entered name at signing as J Goodman 2025-10-03 - 6:11:04 AM GMT 

- Document e-signed by J Goodman (jennie.goodman@footballfoundation.org.uk) Signature Date: 2025-10-03 - 6:11:06 AM GMT - Time Source: server 

Document emailed to Nick Sladden (nick.sladden@rsmuk.com) for signature 

2025-10-03 - 6:11:08 AM GMT 

- Email viewed by Nick Sladden (nick.sladden@rsmuk.com) 

- 2025-10-03 - 7:13:39 AM GMT 

- New document URL requested by Nick Sladden (nick.sladden@rsmuk.com) 

2025-10-16 - 8:22:05 AM GMT 

- Email viewed by Nick Sladden (nick.sladden@rsmuk.com) 2025-10-16 - 8:37:43 AM GMT 

- Document e-signed by Nick Sladden (nick.sladden@rsmuk.com) Signature Date: 2025-10-16 - 8:39:23 AM GMT - Time Source: server 

## Agreement completed. 

2025-10-16 - 8:39:23 AM GMT