Greg Dyke laments "crisis" in grassroots football

By Joe Fish, Reporter | 10 October 2014

FA chairman Greg Dyke admits that grassroots football in England is in "crisis" and reportedly wants to invest £250m to improve facilities and coaching in the game.

FA chairman Greg Dyke has admitted that there is "a degree of crisis" in English grassroots football.

The 67-year-old and his FA commission have issued its second report exploring how to improve the English game.

Dyke has lost support for his B-team league notion, but BBC Sport claims that he wants to invest £250m to better facilities and coaching in order to bring English standards closer to that of their European rivals.

"If you go to Germany or Holland we are miles behind in terms of facilities and the number of coaches," Dyke told reporters.

"It is clear we have a real problem with pitches. Local authorities' budgets are being squeezed and most of the pitches are owned by them. The maintenance of these pitches is not as good as it used to be and over the last two years there have been swathes of games called off, so it's a real issue.

"There's a degree of crisis in what's happening in grassroots football. Facilities are being lost and local authorities have come to us and said 'what can we do about it?'"

Dyke replaced David Bernstein as FA chairman in July 2013.