Added DMU investment to support grassroots football

A £2.3million investment has seen football pitches transformed for hundreds of players, thanks to De Montfort University Leicester (DMU).



DMU has invested in Beaumont Park Sports Facility, Beaumont Leys, to boost community sports and support student teams.

It also aims to encourage more people – especially children - to take up the sport and develop a passion for it. Already, DMU’s investment has led to FA backing to create a network of community grassroots football schemes throughout Beaumont Leys and Leicester.  

DMU is working in partnership with established community club Beaumont Town FC, whose teams also use the facilities, offering them increased training time and more space. This season the club's players have 29.5 hours a week across all pitches, an hour more than last season. DMU teams have 16 hours a week. Photographs and trophies celebrating Beaumont Town FC's history will also be on display at the newly-refurbished clubhouse.

Beaumont Park now boasts:

•    A new 3G artificial pitch which is suitable for all-weather playing conditions
•    Two FA-compliant pitches, including floodlights for night games
•    Increased changing room and storage facilities
•    Improved paths around the site
•    An extended and modernised clubhouse

DMU has also been working in Beaumont Leys for 18 months on projects aimed at tackling issues identified by the community including the lack of facilities for young people and raising skills levels.

Led by the award-winning DMU Square Mile through its #DMUlocal programme – which helps support positive change with more than 60 public good projects across the city – is working with police, Leicester City Council and community leaders and voluntary groups in the area.  

In August, the FA announced  it would award DMU £20,000 to become a football ‘super hub’ building strong sporting links throughout the local community.

Money will be used at DMU to fund football at DMU and in the community, with extra work being done to find more chances for people to play and progress in the sport.

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DMU has a proud record of working with the community on projects. Square Mile volunteers, working with De Montfort Students’ Union, regularly sends students into schools to help with a wide range of sporting activities from Tae Kwon Do to cricket.  

For the past four years DMU has supported Studs FC, a community club in the west of Leicester. During this time, they won the titles and trophies and lifted the County Cup.

The club has a network of 300 players and students have been coaches for some of the youth teams.

Wayne Gale, club chairman, said: “We’ve worked with DMU for over four years as a community club. We’ve had student coaches from DMU in the past helping the teams and it’s a supportive, mutual relationship."