The city’s football club has been awarded £40,000 by the Football Conference Trust to help it deliver on a two-year community project which would see young people across the district encouraged into sports.

The project - a collaboration between St Albans City Football Club and St Albans City Youth Community FC - aims to promote a healthier lifestyle for primary school students and to educate young people between the ages of 14 and 16 into becoming role models, providing them with level one and two coaching certification, and ultimately a ‘sports leader’ qualification.

Lawrence Levy, co-owner of St Albans City FC, said that the funding would continue to encourage the district’s youth to lead healthy and active lifestyles.

He said: “It’s all about getting kids running about. We’re not just promoting football in primary schools: we’re trying to encourage kids to get involved in any sport. If we can use the football club to develop sports coaches, then that is a good thing.

“We, as a community football club, have a responsibility to the community. Football is a leveller. It’s the one sport everyone wants to get into.”

The funding will be used to send coaches into primary schools in the district and to offer coaching and support to the school’s sports departments - whether as extra-curricular or as a complement to their normal classes.

David Wray, who runs City Youth, told the Herts Advertiser that the project had so far received a positive response from many school in the district.

He said: “A lot of people we speak to can’t believe they have access to this sort of coaching for free.”

For more information about the project, click here.