The Chair of Lincolnshire FA, Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, has written an open letter to the grassroots football community of Lincolnshire. In it, he announces the Lincolnshire FA Board of Directors are committing to providing significant investment back into the game over the course of the next four years.

Please read Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam's open letter to the grassroots football community of Lincolnshire below:

Dear all,

I hope you are all keeping well, and have either enjoyed, are enjoying, or looking forward to a bit of a summer break.

Also, I hope you are looking forward to the start of the 2024/25 season. One of the great things about our game is that, no matter how things finished up for you in early summer, the renewed hopes and dreams of  ‘next season’ are just around the corner.

At Lincolnshire FA we have just completed a review of our strategic priorities, as a number of the previous ones have been successfully delivered over the last 3 years. As such, this review has led to an updating of our strategy for 2024-2028, and a commitment to new strategic areas for development for the game in Lincolnshire over the next four years.

Our strategic aims moving forward are:

• Tackling poor behaviour
• Continue to develop equal opportunities for Women & Girls to play
• Improve playing choice & opportunities
• Build more & improve existing facilities
• Develop a valued network of Volunteers, Coaches, and Referees
• To develop and support thriving community clubs

To support the delivery of our strategic aims, the Board of Directors are committed to providing significant investment back into the game over the course of the next four years.

This investment will be delivered through the utilisation of current reserves and through a commitment to redistribute a proportion of any annual surplus. It’s worth pointing out that we have already committed significant funds through our Strategy Innovation Fund - approximately £25,000 since that fund started.

I would like to share some further detail on potential funding available to clubs in Lincolnshire:

The Return to Football Fund

One of the focus areas for us is traditional 11v11 Male football. An investment fund of £15,000 has been launched, aimed at supporting the retention of existing and the development of new adult male 11v11 teams.

The scheme provides grants of £150 to clubs with male teams to support meeting essential start-up costs such affiliation, insurance, league entry fees, pitch hire, training venues and new kit and equipment costs.

This fund is to support the retention of current adult male teams but also to encourage long term sustainable development.

£150 is available to eligible clubs;

- For accredited clubs this can be paid in full upon completion of affiliation

- For non-accredited clubs £100 will be paid upon completion of affiliation and upon accredited status confirmation the additional £50 can be paid.

This fund will be open until the 31st August for clubs to apply for. To apply, complete the form here.

If you have any questions about any of the information listed please contact Luke.Craggs@lincolnshirefa.com or Jake.Park@lincolnshirefa.com. 

Clubs can apply before or after their affiliation has been completed but all funding will be paid post affiliation to ensure the criteria has been met.

The Matchday Environment Fund

We are delighted to announce a new strategy to help improve matchday behaviours and conduct within Youth Football, with £10,000 being put into the fund to support clubs in meeting our new Matchday Environment requirements.

Pending League approval, it will be mandatory for every youth match to have a physical Respect Barrier at the side of the pitch to act as a deterrent and stop spectators from entering field of play.

With it being set out as a mandatory rule, all clubs will be provided with at least one Respect Barrier ahead of the 2024/25 season free of charge. The cost of these are covered by Lincolnshire FA and the respective League.

All clubs will receive one respect barrier per league that they play in across the county.

Within the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons, the conduct of coaches and spectators accounted for over 50% of all reports received within youth football. The 2023/24 season saw incidents involving spectators rise by 4% with 12 more reports received than the previous season.

As part of the mandate, should a spectator(s) breach the respect barrier and enter the field of play uninvited, the game will be abandoned by the Match Official. There are no if’s or but’s. Our Referees are currently being briefed to apply this rule, without exception, and they will have the full support of the Association, its Board, and me the Chair, whenever they uphold this mandate.

The aim is simple; to see a reduction in instances of spectators and officials entering the field of play (the underlying intent is almost always to abuse an official or a player) when not invited to by the Referee.

Changes To Discipline In Lincolnshire

As everyone knows, all County FA’s act within the Nationally set Laws of the Game. However, certain elements do fall to the discretion of County FA’s. Since the beginning of 2024, we have convened and supported a Behaviours Working Group formerly chaired by Alistair Hayes - who’s recently left the Association to take up the role of Regional Discipline Manager at The FA - and with membership drawn from across football in Lincolnshire – Clubs, Referee Representatives, Council Members, Board Members and Professional Staff.

The role of this group has been to consider how we can drive positive change and influence decision making within Lincolnshire FA towards improving behaviours in grassroots football. We want Lincolnshire to be at the 'tip of spear' on this national priority. As such, the following proposed actions from the group have been approved by the Board for delivery. Going forward, we will:

• Name on our website, Clubs with poor disciplinary and behavioural records, not for the sake of it, but so that parents and players can make genuinely more informed decisions.
  
  
• Increase discipline points linked to increases in sanctions specifically for poor parent and/or coach conduct.
  
  
• Commence Matchday Assurance Visits (unidentified trained observers from within football will make visits unannounced and report back to our Safeguarding and Discipline Teams on what they see and hear).
  
  
• Mandate Physical Respect Barriers - with Leagues empowered to distribute fines for teams who don’t have these in place.
  
  
• Increase Referee support & coaching, giving confidence to abandon games if Respect Barriers are breached.
  
  
• Take Clubs' disciplinary records into account when considering applications for funding from the Association

All of this might sound a bit tough, but as I've said before, Enough really is Enough.

The vast majority of our Clubs are well-run and the vast majority of our participants do everything they do with respect for others, and genuine integrity. The above actions will have only a positive impact for them. Together, we can make football in Lincolnshire the best it can possibly be.

Club Development Fund

Turning to happier matters, while the delivery details of this fund are still being finalised, we can announce that we will be setting up an investment fund to support thriving community clubs and help them develop and grow participation in their communities.

This will include supporting clubs achieve their 3 Star England Football Accreditation status, by growing Male, Female, and Disability pathways within their settings.

The aim is to deliver more football to as many people as possible, and we will be investing in clubs to support them grow and develop and deliver this mission.

Facilities Investment

To further the key strategic aim of building more and improving existing facilities in Lincolnshire, the Association are developing a Lincolnshire FA Football Facility Strategy.

This strategy includes the identification and development of a new purpose-built Lincolnshire FA Football Centre, while supporting the growth of additional hub sites across the county.

To facilitate the delivery of our aspirations, the Directors have taken the decision to put our current HQ building in Nettleham up for sale, with the aim of releasing capital for reinvestment.

The proceeds of the disposal will be used, along with an element of current reserves, to deliver investment in key sites across the county.

As you can see, this is an exciting time for grassroots football in Lincolnshire - and we at Lincolnshire FA really are trying to make a difference by reinvesting in our local game to help grow participation whilst also making it a safe, enjoyable, inclusive, and accessible place for everyone in society.

We will be announcing and unveiling our new 2024-2028 Strategy at the beginning of September - ahead of the 2024/25 season - in which our stakeholders will be able to see in further detail our areas of focus and the objectives we aim to deliver on over the next 4 years.

I hope you all, as One Lincolnshire Community, share our excitement and ambition for making football a place for everyone in our region.

I wish you all an enjoyable August, and I look forward to sharing our new 4-year strategy with you in September.

Very best wishes,

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