GRASSROOTS football has been boosted by a £200m cash injection from the Football Association (FA).
The FA national game strategy sets out the vision for developing grassroots football across England, with the London Football Association playing an integral role.
More than 37,000 people, including coaches, referees, players, fans and administrators, were canvassed by the FA for their views in the largest ever consultation in the organisation's history.
The FA's first national game strategy was launched in 2001 and, since then, London FA has been transformed with a football development team of six staff salaried by The FA.
London's FA are responsible for areas as diverse as developing league competitions, girls and women's football, disability football, facility development, as well as supporting and training grassroots coaches and volunteers in schools and clubs.
Despite the investment in manpower and facilities, some areas of the grassroots game are at a critical point and radical change is essential.
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The FA National Game Strategy 2008-2012 has four clear goals.
These are to grow and retain participation in the game, to raise standards and address abusive behaviour, to develop better players and to run the grassroots game more effectively.
During the period of the strategy, the London FA will be tasked with supporting the FA in implementing a number of measures.
These include: Launching the respect campaign to address poor behaviour from players to referees, and pushy parents on the sidelines; investing £15m a year into facilities through the Football Foundation, part of a £300m programme; training one million five to 11-year-olds through the FA skills programme; Investing £25m into more county FA development staff; creating more than 20,000 new teams nationally and 300 specifically in London; retaining 24,000 referees and recruiting 8,000 new ones, including 200 in London.
London FA chief executive David Fowkes said: "London FA has sought the opinions of people involved in the game regionally and have helped the FA devise a strategic plan which reflects what active participants want us, as the governing body to do.
"It's sometimes easy to forget the vast majority of football played in this country is played at the grassroots, involving millions of people, week in, week out.
"The people of London will hopefully now see a real change in the grassroots game from improved facilities to campaigns designed to improve player and spectator behaviour."
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