Works are underway to construct a new 3G pitch and three grass pitches to help turbocharge women’s and girls’ football in Leeds, thanks to investment from the Premier League, The FA and Government’s Football Foundation.
The new pitch at The Hunslet Club is one of at least 30 set to benefit from The Lionesses Futures Fund – a £30 million cash injection from the Government and The FA delivered by the Football Foundation.
The pitches will celebrate the Lionesses roaring to victory at the 2022 UEFA EUROs as well as their achievement of making the final at FIFA World Cup 2023 and will help meet the growing demand for women’s and girls’ football.
Since the Lionesses lifted the trophy in 2022, 68,000 more girls are playing football compared to before the tournament. However, too often, badly lit pitches, unsuitable changing facilities and late-night kick-off times put women and girls off taking to the pitch.
Like every Lionesses Futures Fund site, the new pitch at The Hunslet Club will prioritise access for women and girls through reserved peak-time slots and welcoming changing facilities to create a best-in-class experience.
This is a significant step forward in improving the football facilities at The Hunslet Club and creating more opportunities for young people to play the game they love. These new pitches will provide more access to high-quality training and matches, ensure all-weather facilities for year-round football, support the growth of the club’s teams and community programmes, and enhance player development with top-class surfaces for training and competition.
As part of this expansion, the club is also launching a new JPL team, Leeds Riverside Elite Football Centre, the first of its kind in the area. This team will create a structured pathway for young players into semi/professional football, giving them exposure to elite coaching, high-level competition within the Junior Premier League, and greater development opportunities.
Ryan Grant, Business and Education Manager at The Hunslet Club said:
“After a lot of hard work behind the scenes it is finally time to announce the development of the new 3G pitch at The Hunslet Club, which will contribute to our wider plans of the Hunslet Sports Village. The new development in collaboration with The Football Foundation will allow our junior grassroots football and rugby teams to see a closer pathway to our open age section following the ‘golden thread’. By having a world-class facility on-site it will allow all members of The Hunslet Club to experience elite facilities in the heart of South Leeds.
“It also see’s the launch of our new Junior Premier League team Leeds Riverside EFC which will provide local talent an opportunity to play in the shop-window of professional academies whilst still playing for their grassroots Sunday teams. It’s exciting to be working with partners Leeds United Foundation on raising the profile of our female teams, as well as creating a new open-age ladies team and we are delighted to be hosting their girls section. The whole project will see the site thrive and make most evening and weekends feel like a gala with young people taking part in Sport, keeping active and healthy whilst keeping off the streets!”
This post is based on a press release issued by The Hunslet Club
Photo: Hunslet Club CEO Dennis Robbins, Jennie Baldwin-Baker, Operations and Finance Manager and Ryan Grant, Business and Education Manager at the site of the new pitch.
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It’s fantastic to hear about the new natural grass pitches but we are disappointed that the Hunslet Club has not heeded advice regarding rubber crumb infill on the new 3G pitch.
An alternative could have been used. In Shetland we see a similar brand new 3G pitch using corn infill and Glasgow is currently removing the toxic rubber crumb infill from 3G pitches citywide and replacing with similar organic alternative.
It’s nearly 10 years since the eye-opening Dutch documentary ‘Dangerous Play’ aired. You can watch the documentary and sequel on the link below. It includes an interview (from 8 minutes 8 secs) with Nigel and Lewis Maguire.
https://www.bnnvara.nl/zembla/artikelen/new-carcinogens-discovered-in-rubber-granulates
Lewis, a promising young goalkeeper, had trials with Leeds United but sadly passed away in 2018 from Hodgkin lymphoma. Nigel has campaigned against rubber crumb infill since Lewis’s diagnosis. Nigel, a former Chief Executive of NHS Cumbria, suspects it played a part in his illness.
The Netherlands is now phasing out artificial pitches by 2030 and returning to natural grass. Whilst the EU rubber crumb infill ban will take full effect in 2031. A ban in place for both environmental and human health concerns. The European Chemical Agency states that rubber crumb infill is the largest single source of (intentionally added) microplastics in the European environment.
Unfortunately the new Hunslet 3G pitch cannot be described as ‘World Class’ or ‘Elite’ given the controversial choice of infill. But we are hopeful, even at this late stage, that the Club will seek advice and additional funding from the UK Sports Bodies to replace the rubber crumb as Glasgow is doing.