Sacred Heart on road to recovery
ROCHDALE Sacred Heart FC reopened one of its pitches recently, following work carried out to repair damage caused by Storm Desmond in late 2015.
This was made possible by a grant from the Emergency Football Relief Fund, delivered by the Football Foundation.
Many grassroots football clubs saw their pitches, changing rooms and stands damaged by strong winds and heavy rain fall, causing matches and training sessions to be postponed.
In the case of Rochdale Sacred Heart FC, the storm caused their 9v9 junior training area, which had a poor drainage capacity already, to be severely flooded. This prevented the club’s Under10 teams and Youth Academy from training and playing fixtures. In addition to this, the water was also backing up onto the main playing surface and preventing club fixtures.
Rochdale Sacred Heart FC was given assistance thanks to a £17,450 grant from the Emergency Football Relief Fund – a scheme delivered by the Football Foundation that awarded grants to football facilities damaged as a result of the storm.
The grant has enabled Rochdale Sacred Heart FC to complete a renovation project, including the removal of rubble from the training pitch, levelling works and installing a state-of-the-art new drainage system.
Up to £750,000 was made available by the Premier League, The FA, and the Government, via Sport England to rebuild and repair grassroots football pitches and facilities that suffered storm damage and flooding, to enable football to continue across the affected regions as quickly as possible.
This Emergency Fund was available for grassroots football clubs across all levels of The FA National League System (Step 1 to Step 7) that required assistance to make facilities safe and fit for purpose again.
Tracey Crouch MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport, Tourism and Heritage, said: “It’s incredibly encouraging to see that the facilities damaged by floods in Rochdale have been rejuvenated by the Football Foundation’s Emergency Football Relief Fund.
Grassroots facilities are vital to boosting local communities and it shows what the Premier League, The FA and the Government can achieve when working in partnership to help improve them.”
Roger De Nobrega, Chief Executive of the Lancashire FA, said: “This is great news for Rochdale Sacred Heart FC and we are pleased to hear that the funding received has enabled the club to reopen and provide football opportunities in the local community once again.”
Tony Kershaw, Development Officer for Rochdale Sacred Heart FC, said: “Without this funding, we would not have been able to start up our youth academy section that today supports 30 grassroots footballers between the ages of 16 and 19-years-old.”
‘It’s incredibly encouraging to see the facilities damaged by floods have been rejuvenated’