Northern Suburbs Football Association (NSFA) has secured $150,000 in funding through the NSW Government’s 2015 Asian Cup Legacy Fund grant program.

The Fund was established with the Government’s surplus from the 2015 AFC Asian Cup and will see an investment of $4 million to deliver better community facilities for football clubs across NSW.

Member for Ku-ring-gai, Alister Henskens SC MP, said that the funding will facilitate the improvement of local facilities in NSW’s highest participation sport.

“The NSFA will use the funding as a contribution towards the cost of the installation of a synthetic playing field at Norman Griffiths Oval in West Pymble.

“The field is currently a natural turf field and approximately 25% of allocated bookings are lost each season during inclement weather so the upgrade will substantially increase capacity in that regard.  The new synthetic field will greatly benefit the local football competition.”

The booming popularity of football is already bringing communities together, and now players at all levels again benefit from the success of the 2015 Asian Cup.

“Almost 330,000 participated in football across the state last year, a very encouraging increase on the previous year”, Mr Henskens said.

“Through the allocation of surplus funding from the elite level Asian Cup in 2015 to community football, it ensures that we continue to see Australia succeeding on the international stage, while getting kids more active at the same time.

“Players, referees, coaches and administrators of all ages and abilities are set to benefit from the fund which will magnify the social, health, educational and cultural benefits our game brings to society”, said Mr Henskens.