The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London (CONEL) is leading the grassroots football revolution after becoming one of the first facilities to join the groundbreaking project between the Football Foundation and MyLocalPitch.

The Football Foundation, the largest sports charity in the UK, has teamed up with MyLocalPitch to roll out its innovative booking portal for community football venues.

The partnership seeks to revolutionise the way grassroots players access football facilities by delivering cutting edge technology to venues.

Initially, 25 venues have been selected to take part, with the potential to extend this to the additional Foundation-funded facilities in future.

Set up by the Premier League, The FA and the government in 2000, the Football Foundation has delivered £1.5bn of community sports projects in that time, including the development of 700 all-weather pitches, 1,000 changing pavilions and 3,000 natural grass pitches.

MyLocalPitch, which was awarded the best iOS App of 2018 and nominated for the Best Technology for Participation at the 2018 London Sport Awards, is a free service that enables sports players to find and book their games online through the website or app.

It therefore combats a fundamental problem in the grassroots game, with research from the Football Foundation finding that 43 per cent of organisers are frustrated with not being able to see which pitches are available when trying to book.

Jamie Foale, MyLocalPitch CEO, said: “CONEL has some of the best football facilities around and we’re thrilled to be working together. The Football Foundation has made huge strides transforming the landscape of community football and delivering a digital solution using our platform will make access better for footballers all over the country.

“This ground-breaking partnership means the Football Foundation will be capable of accurately tracking the number of people playing, their time spent at the facility and the frequency of their visits, with both parties working together to increase football participation.

“As well as increasing the digital accessibility of facilities, the partnership will help the Foundation understand where best to direct their funding.”