NADHIM ZAHAWI MP OPENS
STRATFORD TOWN’S NEW STAND
AT CHARITY MATCH FEATURING
LOCAL RADIO STARS
Nadhim Zahawi, MP for Stratfordon-Avon, officially opened Stratford
Town FC’s new stand at the DCS
Stadium recently (Sunday 24 April),
which was marked with a charity
match contested between Touch FM
disc jockeys, Ollie Gallant and Simon
Alexander, with money raised going
to a local charity, Molly Olly’s Wishes, and the club.
The new stand was made possible
thanks to a £28,163 grant from the
Premier League through the Football
Stadia Improvement Fund (FSIF), the
largest funder of non league football
in the country.
The grant enabled the club to install a
new 94-seat covered spectator stand,
which includes three wheelchair
spaces, as well as carry out improvement works to floodlights and
dugouts. Toilet facilities and a new
covered terrace were also installed
thanks to the funding.
Stratford Town, who play at Step 3 in
the Premier Division of the Southern League, now meet the relevant
Ground Grading criteria to continue
playing at their current level.
Back in 2006 Stratford Town FC
received £100,000 from the FSIF and
in 2007 the club also received £1m
from the Football Foundation, which
invests in grassroots football facilities using money from the Premier
League, The FA and the Government
through Sport England. Both grants
went towards a new third generation
(3G) artificial grass pitch (AGP),
changing rooms, real grass pitch improvements and floodlights. The club
have also received new goalposts and
Grow the Game funding, towards
the creation of new teams, from the
Foundation.
Funded with £5.2m each year from
the Premier League, the FSIF is the
country’s largest provider of grants
From left to right: Melanie Tweddle, Chairman of Stratford Town FC; Nadhim Zahawi, MP for Stratford-on-Avon and
Denys Shortt, CEO of the DCS group, at the opening of the club's new stand.
GRASSROOTS FOOTBALL
www.grf-football.co.uk
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