Let’s Light Up Football – Football Facilities Fund

Football NSW is excited to announce a first for football in NSW with the creation of a new facilities fund known as “Let’s Light Up Football”. The fund will be solely administered by Football NSW with specific focus on improving lighting conditions on football fields across the state.

Facilities are recognised as a key factor in keeping and attracting players by providing spaces that not only enable play, but also inspire to play. Lights are a crucial element of a football facility, and are a simple but effective way to improve the quality and capacity of many facilities.

Football is the largest participated sport in NSW and Australia, and with the volume of players brings great strain on facilities across the state. Football NSW strongly believes investment in football infrastructure is vital to ensure people can actively and safely engage in sport and recreation.

“Unfortunately, there are many football fields across the state that simply don’t meet the minimum Australian Lighting Standards for training and we want to help change this. Football NSW wants players of all ages and standards to be participating in a safe and beneficial environment at all times” said Stuart Hodge, CEO Football NSW.

Hodge continued “Our aim is to spread the funding and therefore the benefits to as many parts of NSW as possible, and we are seeking applications from clubs from metropolitan Sydney and throughout our country regions”.

The ‘Let’s Light Up Football’ fund of $300,000 will provide Football NSW Member Associations and Clubs with the opportunity to upgrade lighting to safe and suitable standard for the community, improve training conditions and allow night competition.

The fund will provide up to 20% of a floodlighting project with a maximum of $20,000 available per project. Clubs and/or Associations must match the contribution provided by the ‘Let’s Light Up Football’ Fund with the remainder to be met by local Councils. The project will also need confirmed approval from the relevant local government authority as part of the eligibility criteria.

Further details of the ‘Let’s Light Up Football’ facility fund will be released shortly including the fund’s guidelines and application process.

Football NSW encourages clubs and associations to begin the conversation with their local councils immediately in preparation for the fund to open in April 2018.

Stay tuned for further information on how you can brighten up your facility with the ‘Let’s Light Up Football Fund’.

For any preliminary questions or queries regarding ‘Let’s Light Up Football’ please contact Daniel Ristic, Football NSW Manager – Government Relations, Funding and Infrastructure (02) 8814 4451 or danielr@footballfacilities.com.au.