England may have missed out on the World Cup but don't let this leave you feeling despondent. On a positive note both you and your family can use the rest of the summer to play the beautiful game rather than watching it on the TV. And there are many local teams and facilities you can join and use to get a taste of what true grassroots football is all about.

Signing up not only expands your social circle but it will have positive impacts on your health as well.

Aside from increased stamina, it can help you lose weight and tone up and if your children join a team of their own there will be plenty to keep them occupied over the summer holidays.

But if you have not played since school and wouldn't know where to start, then help is at hand.

In order to get you started, The Football Foundation has launched PitchFinder, the largest database of football facilities in Britain. It allows you to find local pitches and provides information on the type of facilities that you can expect to find there. It also allows you to get route planning information, street maps and aerial views of these sites.

With over £900m worth of funding in over 7,800 grassroots projects over the last ten years by the Football Foundation and its funding partners, getting out there locally is easily achievable.

If all of this leaves you hungry for football glory then log onto this live webTV show where the Chief Executive of the Football Foundation Paul Thorogood will be offering his advice on how you can get your foot on the ball.

Paul Thorogood joins us live online at www.studiotalk.tv on Thursday 8th July at 14:00 to discuss how you can become a bigger part of football

For more information visit www.footballfoundation.org.uk

Football Foundation Webchat

H: Gavin Ramjaun, host

A: Paul Thorogood, chief executive, the Football Foundation

H: On today's show I'll be finding out about the UK's largest sports charity which has been supporting grassroots football over the last decade, spending nearly £1 billion on the beautiful game

Titles

H: Hello and welcome to Sport Talk, I'm Gavin Ramjaun. Now just because England didn't do quite so well in South Africa there's no reason why you can't get involved in a kick about about where – well near where you live this summer. For the last 10 years the Football Foundation has been investing in thousands of grassroots football projects across the country, with money spent on everything from kit to changing rooms. Well joining me today to discuss the work of the foundation and the recent launch of a new service bringing you one step closer to a kick about in your neighbourhood, I'm delighted to be joined by the chief executive Paul Thorogood. Now we are live today so if you have any questions for Paul then please use the box on your screen and we'll do our best to tackle them over the next 15 minutes or so. And if you are Tweeting whilst watching the program please use the hash tag and then type "Studio Talk" and we'll try and give you a mention. Well coming up on today's show – how the Football Foundation has been supporting grassroots action over the last decade. Football in your neighbourhood and how a new service can bring you one step closer to a kick about. And all your questions answered live. Before we kick off though, let's take a look at what grassroots football is all about.

Video Footage

Song

"You've got to be dedicated. You've got to be very dedicated."

H: So plenty of pride and passion there Paul. Tell us a bit more about the work of the Football Foundation. You've been supporting grassroots football for the last ten years haven't you?

A: Yes this month we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Football Foundation – started in 2000. Football Foundation is a partnership really between the government, the FA and the Premier League. It's the largest sports charity in the UK. Over the past 10 years it's invested nearly £1 billion in grassroots football and that's for – you know large grants up to £1 million for facility projects, local grassroots facility projects, the latest artificial pitch or grass pitches, changing rooms, floodlights, through to small grants just to get things going, you know a new boiler or a new roof on the changing rooms, right through to giving out literally 300,000 kits to young people, young footballers free – free of charge. Small grants to get young, you know to get young teams going, provide extra boys and girl's teams, adult teams. So yes a wide range of things we've been doing over the last 10 years to support grassroots football, for people who want to play football for the love of playing football

H: Sure. Now we saw just then Sir Alex Ferguson is one of the names who've got involved in the past. You do work with a lot of managers and players over the course of the projects you work on, don't you?

A: Yes we do and it's a privilege really and it's something that we're very, very lucky to have, this sort of – our funding partners the FA, the Premier League and the government, the spin-off benefit is they help us support the work that we do, so you saw some of the players there, Rio Ferdinand and Alex Ferguson, and even some of the mascots that help out, whatever it takes really to push the work of the Football Foundation. But it's not just current players that manage to help us, it's players of the past like Peter Beardsley, John Scales, people like that, Robbie Earle, who all given their time, Graham Taylor – all give their time to support the Football Foundation and they really are genuine in their support and we're grateful for that support

H: And tell us a bit about how much it means to the youngsters who sort of have visits from people like that – you know what are the sort of inspirations for them I guess when they come and visit the school? What type of things do they say –?

A: Oh it's huge. First of all 40% of our funding goes to the top 20% of the most deprived areas of the country, so a lot of our work is done in really deprived areas, areas where don't get a lot of attention generally. So first of all we put this fantastic facility down in their area. They can't quite believe that somebody's invested in them. Then we bring along someone like Gareth Southgate, or somebody like that, you know a – Rio Ferdinand turns up, John Terry turns up, and the attention they get is – they will remember that for the rest of their lives. It's unbelievable that the- the sort of impression they make on young people. And actually their parents as well, because they turn up in their new kit as well so –

H: Yes. Now I guess a lot of the work you do, it's to help find the next generation of footballers, but you've also got quite a lot of other things that you're working on as well isn't there?

A: Actually it's not. The role of Football Foundation really is to provide access to grassroots football, people for the love of playing football, it's to broaden and deepen the number of people who participate in the game at the grassroots level. Now obviously if you apply talent spotting to that and you apply the correct coaches the link is made to the professional game whereby more people playing and participating the more chance there is with the correct nurturing that some of those players are going to get to the England team and hopefully win the World Cup one day!

H: Now I suppose you could sort of, especially include socially excluded children in that as well couldn't you?

A: Yes we can. Football is incredibly persuasive. It's one of - particularly young people. So what we do is we have projects that we use the power of football and the glamour of football to get young people particularly into areas, and then we try and give them positive messages. Positive messages about obesity, healthy eating, around that – you know social – anti-social behaviour issues. Education projects, trying to get what people who are not in education, employment or training into employment and training. Football and the glamour of football, and particularly when you add this mystical ingredient called professional footballers, has a massive effect and it can be very, very persuasive.

H: So I guess it's almost giving them a sort of goal for life really from the work that you're doing?

A: It is and we're not just about grabbing these young people and in some cases older people, we work with – in prison populations. You know it's about changing their life; it's about giving them the opportunity and using football as the structure to enable us to do that

H: Well that's the end of the first part, thank you very much for that Paul. Coming up in the next part of the show we'll be talking about how you can get involved in grassroots football

Break

H: Now if you've just joined me this is Studio Talk with me Gavin Ramjaun and we're talking about the work of grassroots football charity the Football Foundation. Paul Thorogood is joining me here today talking about all the work that they've been doing and if you've got any questions for Paul then do submit them in the box at the bottom of your screen, and if you're Twittering as well use the hash tag and then type "Studio Talk" and you can send your question and we'll try and give you a mention there. Now Paul, all this world cup fever that we've sort of been sampling at the moment – for someone who wants to get involved for the first time surely this is the ideal opportunity really, capitalising on all the popularity of it now?

A: Well clearly over the last month it's been 24 hours football on TV, it's been a huge amount of exposure on football and we found that people who don't normally watch football or get involved in football are actually watching the world cup, and it culminates on Sunday obviously. We've tapped into that and whenever there's a Euro's or a World Cup, particularly if England are playing, there is a spike in interest in football, and we – we under – we had a survey recently and in that survey 12% of respondents basically said they don't play football now but they want to get involved in football. Now the challenge is to make sure that we keep them, once the World cup bandwagon's moved on we want to keep them because it's very important that people get involved in football, get involved in sport and participate and we make sure that we want to keep them. A good way of doing that of course is making sure they have a good experience once they go along there; otherwise we're going to lose them, so good changing rooms, good football facilities and good coaching so they have a positive experience

H: Yes it's interesting you say that, England's performance in the World cup, do you think that might have put people off?

A: Clearly a successful England team drives participation, there is absolutely no doubt about that, you saw it when the rugby world cup in 2003, a huge increase in people interested in playing rugby. If Andy Murray had have won the tennis there'd have been a huge explosion of people wanting to play tennis, but I don't think – I think football is very interesting because it is by far the greatest participation sport we've got and had England done well clearly it would have been better but actually this 12% of extra people is very, very important

H: Now in terms of someone wanting to get involved in a kick about, you mentioned a lot about the structure of sort of the charity putting in – money into grassroots football for changing rooms, kits, facilities – how easy is it for someone who has never played before to get involved from scratch?

A: Well the first thing to say is having invested such an enormous amount of money over the last ten years, nearly £1 billion, this is money as I said funded and provided to us by the FA, the Premier League and the government, we've got to make sure people know where those facilities are, and so we're launching today actually a facility or a service called Pitch Finder, it's a website, pitchfinder.org.uk, go there, put your postcode in, put a – there's a click-on button that tells you what radius, a mile or five miles, and it will tell you where all the facilities are around your area. Click on the icon, various icons, it will tell you what's on those facilities, whether it's grass pitches, multi-use games areas, whether there's changing rooms, car parks – all those facilities. Now the great thing about it is its interactive. We think we've done a great job of being accurate as to where these facilities are and what's on them, but going forward it's going to change, so actually you can use the website to come back and tell us whether things have changed. So that's how it's going to be kept up-to-date as we go forward

H: So it's quite interactive then, so you literally just type in your postcode and it tells you where –

A: Type your postcode in and it tells you where all the facilities are. You'd be amazed how many facilities are around your area

H: Well fantastic. And I guess if anyone's a bit apprehensive about sort of you know donning the boots for the first time, what would you say to them?

A: Well again all that does is shows you where the facilities are. There's another facility on the FA website, fa.com which is "Get into football" and there's lots of information there how if you want to get into football. Not just your local club, it will tell you where your local club is, and then you can link with the places that – you know the facilities, but also if you want to be a referee or if you want to be a volunteer or a coach, how do you get to be a level one coach etc. All that information on the FA website

H: And I guess from a sort of new area perspective you're moving to an area for the first time, you could then say that could enhance your sort of community feel really by going to a sports club in an area that's new to you

A: Well football and any sport generally, any team sport, provides so many benefits, from a healthy pursuit, getting some fresh air, running around, but also it's a community in itself, and sadly the work community, it doesn't have the same feel as it did a few years ago. But if you turn up with like minded people and play sport, particularly football, that has huge benefits. So yes if you're joining a new area, you tap on that Pitch Finder you'll find out where the facilities are and where your local club is

H: Sure, have a look at that myself later on. Now what funding opportunities are there for someone who wants to improve the facilities in their area?

A: Yes there are a number of – there are a number of funding streams the foundation uses. There is, if you want a brand new facility the first thing to say is we do expect people to, you know a local authority, or a match funding, because that's how we make our funding go furthest, but we'll fund up to £500,000 for a new facility. We'll also have smaller funding streams, quicker turnaround streams, there's an under £20,000 grant you can get from the Football Foundation if you need a new boiler, new showers or just to sort of increase the size of your changing room or something. Or there's one for £50,000 which is if it's drainage, larger type of projects and they're again, they're a quick turnaround project or grant streams. Or there's other funding streams, smaller funding streams that you can get to increase the number of teams that you – girls or boys teams or adult teams

H: And in your eyes how attractive is it for someone who wants to get involved in sport to have really good facilities, does that really play a part in someone's uptake?

A: It does and people talk about you know facilities supporting you know, the elite end, but actually as I said before we're about making sure that when people do engage in grassroots football they enjoy the experience. Far too often still, unfortunately, and although we've invested that significant amount of money, people are still getting changed in their cars on a Sunday morning for their local league, it's raining, or they're playing on a pretty awful pitch, or there is a changing room and the boiler doesn't work or the shower – that's not going to encourage people to come back, so what the Football Foundation is all about is trying to address those issues so when you turn up and play your Sunday football you get a good playing experience and you get a good general experience, you're going to come back

H: You mentioned earlier that girl's get involved nowadays more and more so with football. Previously obviously a lot of people might have just associated it with a boys' sport, you know. How important is it to get more girls involved in football?

A: Imperative, and actually girls football for some years now is the fastest growing sport in the country, girls' and women football. The Football Foundation has invested a significant amount of money to make sure that the girls and women's game is increasing and accelerating, and it's a fantastic success. When I was young there wasn't a girls' team in my school. Now practically every school – every girl and every woman feels as if the game is for them, and I think that's a huge step forward and I think that if you look at some of the fan parks that we've seen across the world, huge amount of them are women and girls who are just interested in the beautiful game

H: Paul thank you very much for those answers. That's the end of part two. Coming up in the last part of the show we'll be taking some of your questions, hearing how Paul answers those

Break

H: Well welcome back to Studio Talk I'm Gavin Ramjaun and I'm joined by Paul Thorogood of the Football Foundation, we're talking about some of the fine work that the Football Foundation has done in investing in grassroots football over the last ten years. Now Paul we're going to go to some viewer's questions for your now. We'll start with one here from Howard Mitchell – "can I get any help towards setting up an inter-village pub tournament?" Now how would the Football Foundation go about sort of tackling that?

A: Unfortunately not, it's – whilst it's a great idea and great community that's not what the Football Foundation really is about. The Football Foundation is about increasing the number of people who play football, and for people who play grassroots football to improve their enjoyment of playing football. So anything that's going to increase a facility or anything that's going to drive more enjoyment out of football, that's what we would fund, and as I said there are various funding streams to do that from large streams to a lot smaller – well to just sort of paint and putting a new boiler in.

H: Sure. Here we've got one from Alan, he's interested in the ambassador's work you do. "Do any of the current England team get involved?"

A: Very much so you know as I said earlier we're very, very fortunate – Theo Walcock for example is our ambassador for our junior kit scheme and literally we've kitted out hundreds of thousands of young people over the last ten years on brand new kit, free kit for nothing, so he's ambassador. Faye White who is the captain of the England women's team, she's the ambassador for that as well. It's not just current England players – John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, all people, all those high – you know celebrity footballers get involved. It's those of yesteryear, Peter Beardsley, Peter Shilton, John Scales, Graham Taylor, all these people have and continue to support the work of the Football Foundation and they have a genuine interest in grassroots sport and grassroots football in particular

H: Sure. Now this one here's from Pete – "my local pitch is rubbish. Can you help fund a part-time grounds man to sort it out?" So is that the sort of work that you could imply maybe?

A: Sadly not. I think that yes unfortunately as I explained earlier, my Sunday football pitch is rubbish is all too often true, is getting much, much better with the investment that we're actually putting into the facility. We insist when we make a grant that there is a maintenance policy in place, and a lot of the facilities we put in place have an artificial pitch. The reason we put in artificial third generation pitches in is because you get more hours out of it, you can play, it's hard-wearing, we'll put floodlights in to make sure you can play in the evening. They have a specialist maintenance regime for them and we insist that they actually maintain it properly

H: Now this one here is from James, he wants to know where he can find out about clubs and facilities in his area? Perfect one for Pitch Finder that

A: Yes, go to Pitch Finder.org.uk, click on the icons and it'll tell you exactly you know what facilities are around your area

H: And in terms of the postcode there, you just need to literally type in the postcode?

A: You go there, you literally put the URL in, www.pitchfinder.org.uk and the first thing you see is a box, it will say put your postcode in, you put your postcode in and all the facilities around your area will come online to you

H: Now this one here's from the sounds of it from a parent, Sylvia. Her 5 year old son says he doesn't want to get involved with his football team and he thinks he'll regret it, but she thinks that he'll regret it in the long run so what do you think about that?

A: All I can say is just keep talking about the positive elements of playing sport, generally, but football in particular. The benefits that a 5 year old would get, and older, at being involved in a team that shows structure, discipline, knows how to get on with people, relying on people – and running around has got to be healthier than being on a Playstation or something

H: Yes so I guess the parent's role could be quite critical

A: Very, very important that and youth football in particular would not operate in this country without parents and volunteers to support the clubs. Very much like the old youth clubs, people used to volunteer, very much is true of the football clubs now. So volunteers, parents have a critical part to play in making sure we increase our youngsters and getting them running around every Saturday or Sunday or wherever

H: Paul Thorogood thank you very much for joining us today. That's all we've got time for, just again thanks to my guest Paul and also thank you to you for submitting some of your questions. More information can be found on the Football Foundation website, that's footballfoundation.org.uk and to find out about the facilities in your area then check out the new Pitch Finder service, pitchfinder.org.uk. Thanks for watching, see you again