PILOTING OF A PROGRAMME TO BUILD CANOPIES FOR FOOTBALL PITCHES IS LAUNCHED

The aim of the initiative is to create conditions for year-round training and football training

On 8 October in Mielec, at the Stadium of the Municipal Sports and Recreation Centre, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Minister of Sport and Tourism Witold Bańka announced the start of the pilot edition of the Program for the construction of football pitch roofing.

– We are starting the program of building canopies for football pitches, because we have to equalize the chances for our young athletes with their peers from other countries – stresses Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

The aim of the program is to create conditions for year-round football training and training, and thus to eliminate problems with the availability of football infrastructure in the autumn-winter season. The program is an element of the realization of the broader governmental strategy of football development in Poland. It creates a basis for all other activities – infrastructure.

– The years 2016-19 are a powerful investment in sports infrastructure. In total, we will co-finance over 6000 facilities, allocating about PLN 2.3 billion for this purpose. We have already supported, among other things, the construction of nearly 3000 Open Activity Zones and the construction or modernization of over 60 indoor swimming pools, nearly 540 sports halls and gymnasiums, almost 520 athletic facilities, including 117 stadiums, 384 football pitches and nearly 750 multifunctional ones. Today we are launching another important project – the roofing of football pitches – says Minister Witold Bańka.

The program is a response to the identified deficit of facilities of this type and is the first undertaking of a national character, initiating and supporting investments in the field of football pitch roofing. Thanks to the favorable conditions of co-financing, the project is to mobilize sports clubs to implement such important facilities for Polish football. The investment may be subsidized up to 50% of its eligible costs.

Options for investment realization under the program:

The investment tasks will be subsidized in two variants:

Roofing of an existing football pitch with a synthetic surface (the roofing itself will be created).
Construction of a new football pitch with a synthetic surface and roofing.
The choice of the variant of investment execution and detailed technology will occur each time the investor decides.

The amount of the subsidy:

The estimated cost of variant I is in the range of PLN 2 – 2.5 million, while variant II – PLN 5 – 6 million,
The proposed amount of co-financing is 50% of the eligible costs of the task.