Chadderton Football Club have been given a major lift with the news that five refurbished playing pitches and changing rooms will be provided by Oldham Council at Crossley playing fields.
The council partnered with the Manchester Football Association to secure a £301,288 grant from the Football Foundation – the country’s largest sports charity.
Due to the significant upgrade in standards the pitches have now been levelled, re-soiled and seeded plus new drainage has been installed – meaning the pitches and changing rooms are now fully booked by local clubs for the upcoming season as they hope to attract future stars to the North West Counties club which has been in the area since 1946.
Councillor Graham Shuttleworth, Chair of Chadderton District Executive, said: “Firstly I’d like to thank the Premier League & The FA Facilities Fund and the other funding bodies for providing the money for, what are now, first class facilities for grassroots sports.
“Amateur sport is an important part of Oldham life and these new and improved pitches and changing rooms are great news for local footballers of all ages.
“The work has made a vast improvement to the site and the finished playing fields are a credit to the borough and are already attracting more and more people to use them.”
Chadderton FC has previously nurtured players through the ranks such as former England captain David Platt and former Crystal Palace and Leeds United player John Pemberton.
Since it was launched in 2000, the Football Foundation has awarded around 13,000 grants worth more than £530m towards improving grassroots sport, which it has used to attract additional partnership funding of over £740m – over £1.3bn of investment into the grassroots game.
Main image courtesy of Darren Gallagher via YouTube, with thanks.
