Football Participation Hits Five-Year High

Results from the Sport England’s ‘Active People Survey’ reveal that adult participation levels in football is higher than it has been during any time in the past five years.

It is estimated that 2, generic 184, symptoms 600 are now playing the sport, which is the highest participation figure since the organisation began conducting the survey in 2005/06, giving the impression that programmes such as FA Mars Just Play, GetIntoFootball Officers have done wonders for the game, as well as the extensive work done within higher education.

In addition, the total aged 16+ playing the beautiful game once a week has increased by almost 40,000 since 2007/08.

The 20+ age group has witnessed a rise of 178,000 partakers overall, while the 25-34-year-old age group has also seen a large increase.

Despite a small increase in participation, both recreationally and in higher education, 16-19 youth involvement is still quite a distance away from where it should be.

The number of disabled people playing the game has also increased by 22% to over 120,000.

To continue to boost the numbers, Sport England and County FA will continue to work through the FA National Game Strategy and the Whole Sport Plan 2013-17.