Here we grow...

Cheers . . . players from Chadderton Juniors celebrate the cash bonanza

YOUNG sporting stars from Chadderton are celebrating a bumper pay-day after scooping a £10,000 grant from the Football Foundation.

The cash bonanza will allow Chadderton FC Juniors to develop its soccer school, establish new Under-7s teams and provide youth team football for players when they finish at junior level.

The Football Foundation, Britain’s largest sports charity, is dedicated to revitalising the grass-roots of the game, constructing modern football facilities, developing football as a force for social cohesion and as a vehicle for education within communities.

Funded by the Premier League, the Football Association and the Government, the Football Foundation has a bumper £40m budget.

Paul Thorogood, chief executive of the Football Foundation, said: “Sport is playing a central role in helping people to stay fit, strengthen communities and promote responsibility among youngsters.

“It is thanks to funding from our partners the Premier League, the FA and Government that the Football Foundation exists to support this type of excellent project in Oldham.”

Peter Hamilton, chairman of Chadderton FC Juniors, said: “As a result of our links with local primary schools, we are attracting boys and girls from all backgrounds from the age of four-years-old and upwards to our soccer school.

“This generous grant will enable the club to develop its facilities and ensure that we have enough FA-qualified coaches on hand to cater for the number of children attending the soccer school.

“At the other end of the scale, may youngsters drop out of the game after finishing junior football.

“We aim to bridge the gap between junior and open-age football by running youth team football in conjunction with local clubs.”