The Premier League provides funding for 164 football clubs across the Premier League, EFL and National League to deliver community programmes.
Premier League Foundation
Established in 2010 to create positive sporting, health, personal and education opportunities for children, young people and the wider community, the Premier League Foundation is one of the world’s largest sporting charities. Premier League success enables sustained investment to support community impact across England and Wales.
- Today, the independent charity supports 106 professional football club charities across the Premier League, EFL and National League to address important societal issues and to have a life-changing impact in their local communities.
- More than 2.5m participants have benefited from regular face-to-face delivery on Premier League programmes, with 1.3m young people engaged annually through digital resources.
- Currently 7,500+ people are employed by football club charities to deliver Premier League-supported activity.
Positively impacting the United Kingdom
The 20 Premier League club community charities and Premier League Foundation programmes deliver notable improvements in wellbeing, physical and mental health, education and employment, as well as strengthening social cohesion and community connection.
- An independent study by social research agency Substance found that these alone will generate more than £4.3bn in social value over the current three-year investment cycle (2025-2028).
- This positive impact is felt nationally, with 83 per cent of the social return on investment from the Premier League Foundation outside of London.
- Every £1 invested through the Premier League Foundation into community programme amounts to £21 in social value via education, employment, crime, mental and physical health benefits.
The programmes funded through the Premier League Foundation are:
Premier League Kicks
The League’s longest-standing community programme began in 2006, providing young people with access to free weekly football and multi-sport sessions, mentoring and education workshops.
- It has engaged more than 600,000 young people, delivering over 1m hours of free sessions at 5,000+ venues across England and Wales.
- Sessions take place in some of the most high-need areas, with 93 clubs currently delivering the programme.
- Seven-hundred-and-fifty people in the club charity workforce are currently employed through Premier League Kicks, and around 310 people in the current club charity workforce are former participants of the programme.
- An independent evaluation of Premier League Kicks found that 93 per cent of alumni believe the programme helped them get into less trouble and 86 per cent believe it played an important role in improving their career opportunities.
- The Premier League has invested more than £96m into the programme, with a further £33m committed over the next three years.
Premier League Primary Stars
Premier League Primary Stars is the Premier League's primary school education programme. It uses the appeal of football to inspire children aged five-to-11 to be active and develop essential skills.
The programme is delivered in more than 19,400 primary schools (86 per cent) across England and Wales.
- There have been over 20m attendances by primary school pupils at club-led sessions since 2017, with 104 club charities across the football pyramid currently delivering school-based sessions.
- A total of 1.3m children have engaged with the Premier League Primary Stars digital resources. More than 79,000 teachers are registered for free downloadable lesson plans, with 93 per cent of teachers saying Primary Stars has increased pupils’ enjoyment of sport.
- The total Premier League investment in primary school sport via the Premier League Foundation since 2013 is more than £73million, with a further £30m committed over the next three years.
Premier League Inspires
Premier League Inspires uses the appeal of football to help young people develop the personal skills and positive attitude to succeed in life, supported by the Premier League and Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA).
- More than 40,000 young people have received over 135,000 hours of targeted support across 1,000+ schools and educational facilities since the programme’s launch in 2019.
- Premier League Inspires is delivered by 54 club charities.
- The Premier League has invested more than £16.2m into the programme, via the Premier League Foundation, with a further £11.8m committed over the next three years.
- Independent research revealed that 92 per cent of schools believe Premier League Inspires helps to improve pupils' behaviour, while 96 per cent state that the programme increases pupils' engagement in lessons.
- The research also revealed that almost 80 per cent of schools feel Premier League Inspires helps to reduce pupil absenteeism, with 86 per cent saying the programme also reduces pupils’ risk of exclusion.
Premier League Fans Fund
The Premier League Fans Fund supports initiatives across all levels of the game that will help strengthen the bond between clubs, fans and local communities, including projects for under-represented groups.
- The Premier League is committing £5m over two years (2026-2028) in fan-led projects across the Premier League, EFL, WSL and WSL2, bringing investment into the Premier League Fans Fund up to £10m.
- More than 100 projects and 10,000 sessions were delivered during the Premier League Fans Fund Pilot phase (2023-2025), supporting over 150,000 participants through activity sessions, workshops, targeted interventions and events.
Premier League and PFA Players' Fund
Building on the League’s partnership with the PFA, the Premier League and PFA Players’ Fund seeks to further embed professional players and scholars into clubs’ community activity.
- The fund has engaged more than 250,000 participants in over 350,000 sessions across England and Wales.
- With 75 active projects, the fund has been delivered at more than 4,100 venues across England and Wales.
- To support delivery, more than £56m of funding from the Premier League and PFA has been distributed to football club charities by the Premier League Foundation over the last 15 years, with a further £14.8m committed over the next three years.
Premier League and PFA Core Funding
The Premier League and PFA Core Fund supports football club charities to become stronger, more sustainable organisations, underpinning key infrastructure and a network of staff and volunteers.
- More than £59m of funding from Premier League and PFA has been distributed by the Premier League Foundation to date helping football club charities to effectively respond to local need, delivering high-quality programmes and value for money.
- Between 2025-2028, £24m of Premier League investment through the Premier League Foundation will be delivered in partnership with the PFA.
- More than 7,500 staff and volunteers are supported to deliver programmes.
Economic and social impact
An independent EY study, focusing on the 2023/24 season, highlighted how the Premier League and its clubs drive significant economic activity across the UK, supporting thousands of jobs, creating expenditure across supply chains and generating sizeable tax revenue.
- The contribution of Premier League clubs to the UK economy grew to £9.8bn in 2023/24 – a 14x increase from Season 1998/99.
- The League and clubs generated a total tax contribution of £4.4bn, £2.1bn of which was accounted for by Premier League players and staff.
- The League and clubs supported more than 104,500 jobs in the UK.
- The League’s significant contribution is spread throughout the country, with 60 per cent (£5.9bn) of the League’s economic footprint located in regions outside London in 2023/24.
- The League and its clubs also generated £1.7bn in broadcast exports, almost matching the rest of the UK’s TV sector combined (£1.8bn).