Football Foundation grants of upto £25,000 available for the purchase of portable floodlights.
Portable floodlights can be a cost-effective way for you to use your facilities during the hours of darkness. The Football Foundation will accept applications for both new and previously owned portable floodlights for use on artificial or natural turf training areas.
Eligibility
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Who can apply?
You don’t have to be a football club to apply to the Football Foundation, however grassroots football must be an integral part of your offer.
You can apply if you’re:
- A not-for-profit football club or voluntary group
- A Local Authority
- A County FA
- A Professional Club Community Organisation
- An educational establishment providing facilities for the community
- A registered charity
- A not-for-profit company
- A community interest company (CIC) or other social enterprise
- A company limited by guarantee
You can’t apply if you’re:
- An individual or sole trader
- A national governing body
- A commercial / for-profit entity
- A club within the Premier League, Football League, National League System (Step 1 to 6), Women’s Football Pyramid (Tier 1 – 4) or the Welsh Premier League
- Educational establishments providing facilities solely for their students
About the grant
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What we’ll fund
- New portable floodlights for use on artificial or natural turf training areas
- Previously owned portable floodlights for use on artificial or natural turf training areas
What we won’t fund
- Portable floodlights for use on grass pitches that are used for match play, due to potential overuse during the winter months which would be detrimental to their playing quality
- Fixed floodlights on grass pitches
Grant criteria
To apply for a grant, you’ll need to provide an explanation for why you’re proposing to purchase portable floodlights and demonstrate your training area can cope with additional use (e.g. how usage will be rotated to ensure one area isn’t over-used). Funding won’t be provided to purchase floodlights on grass pitches that are used for matchplay.
If your organisation is a partner on an existing or proposed Football Foundation 3G FTP, we require evidence on why these portable floodlights were required. If we’ve made a significant investment into a 3G FTP on the basis of your organisation being a key partner, we’d require written assurance that this floodlight investment would not have any negative impact on the 3G site and isn’t to the detriment to their Site Development or Business Plan.
If successful with your application, we ask that:
- Floodlights are covered by suitable insurance and securely stored when not in use
The floodlights should be stored securely at the applicant’s site as named in the grant application. Purchasing and storing equipment off site or at a personal residence is not permitted.
- Floodlights are only used by suitably trained personnel, over the age of 18, and will be operated and maintained in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations
- If they’re previously owned, the equipment should be purchased from a reputable dealer, with a minimum 12-month warranty
Grant limits
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The Foundation will award a maximum grant of £25,000 that does not exceed 75% of the total project costs.
To manage high demand and ensure all clubs/organisations get the funding they need, we ask that applicants make no more than one application per season unless otherwise agreed with the Foundation.
Therefore, it’s really important that you take time over your application and ensure you’ve included everything we’ve asked for. This helps make quicker decisions and prevents you from having to submit multiple applications for the same item.
Please note that we cannot accept multiple sites under one application.
Please note: As of 1 July 2023, we will only accept applications from people holding the role of either Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary or Treasurer of the club applying. This will be verified with the County FA during the assessment process and any applications submitted by people not in one of these roles will be withdrawn.
