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Frequently Asked Questions

Pitching In is a Scottish FA campaign in partnership with the Scottish Football Partnership Trust to raise £50m by 2030 to invest in Scottish football’s main infrastructure: pitches and changing facilities. 

We will bring together association profits and government funding, along with philanthropic donations and sponsor and partner investment, to deliver three key pillars:

  1. The Equaliser – Upgrade or replace 75 changing rooms more accessible for girls, women and para footballers.
  2. The Comeback – Upgrade up to 50 existing 3G pitches in the areas of greatest need.
  3. The New Signing – Increase the football footprint by up to 40 new 3G pitches.

The aim will be to achieve 6.8m visits: enabling hundreds of games, thousands of goals, millions of smiles and limitless fun.

Recent consultation with sportscotland, guided by recent pitch strategy work conducted in partnership with local authorities, has highlighted a significant deficit in pitches across Scotland. This means there are not enough 3G pitches to support the growth of the game.

It is our strategic priority to address this deficit to ensure the power of football can continue to inspire the nation and transform lives across Scotland, for all ages and abilities.

Our aim is to ensure as many people as possible can play the game. Most ‘hired’ facilities are still owned by local authorities or Leisure Trusts and while we will work with those across the public estate, our focus is on growing the provision of facilities across our grassroots community football club network, along with our member clubs.

The simple answer is that anyone – whether they are a grassroots or member club – can apply for funding from the fund to support the development of their facilities through development and upgrading of existing facilities and pitches, or the installation of a new pitch.

Growing the game for all is our priority, but within that goal, developing existing changing rooms – especially in older facilities – will help us accelerate the growth of girls’, women’s and para football to meet the increasing demand.

Ultimately, we need to ensure that the application can help deliver on the key pillars outlined in the strategy but also that it can be done as cost-effectively as possible. We are aware of rising costs for materials and labour but we also need to make sure that any investment is financially viable and sustainable by that club or organisation for the future.

Sustainability is at the heart of Pitching In: facilities will be built to the highest environmental standards; upgraded spaces must be able to serve communities for decades, and new places to play and meet will be created with innovation in mind. We will do this in a sustainable way in all senses of the word — environmental, financial, and ensuring that clubs at all levels can flourish.

How you can Pitch In


You can support the fund generally or via one or more of the three key pillars.