Jim is offering his congratulations to youth football teams in his constituency who has been awarded grants of £5000 to help them to develop new teams. Soham Town Rangers Youth FC, Aztecs JFC (based in Linton), Over Sports Colts FC and Willingham Wolves have all been awarded ‘Grow the Game’ grants from the Football Foundation.

Jim said, “We are all enjoying Team GB’s incredible success on the world stage at the moment and it would be fantastic if part of the legacy of the London Olympics was to encourage more young people to take part in competitive sports. Therefore I’m absolutely delighted that more local young people will be able to be involved in community sport.”

Malcolm Peters, Chair of Aztecs JFC said, “Aztecs JFC is delighted to have been awarded a grant from the Football Foundation which will enable the Club to increase its commitment to providing mini soccer facilities for boys and girls in the local community.  More specifically it will allow the Club to increase its activity in grass roots football by creating additional teams, providing extra coaches and continuing to ensure an all-inclusive, safe and fun environment for young footballers.”

Tracey Durham of Soham Town Rangers Youth FC said, “The grant will enable the development of youth football throughout Soham Town Rangers Youth Football Club.  Boys and girls aged three to 11 are welcome to come and join in our sessions on a Saturday morning, we also have an established, successful under 17 team.  With a restriction on the number of players that can be signed within a squad for mini soccer this will allow a new contingent of players to enjoy taking part in coaching sessions and games and will also give an opportunity to anyone wishing to take up a coaching position.”

Adrian Winter, club secretary of Over Sports Colts FC said, ‘The grant is to assist the club to develop new teams over the time period and the club has already formed an under 8s and under 14s team.  The club will further this commitment by adding a new under 8s team for the 2013/2014 season.  The uptake has been amazing with fourteen players currently training at under 8s and a similar numbers interested in the under 14s. The awarding of this grant will help the club to develop even further and we hope at the end of the three years that the club will have around 150 children within the club system’.

Anyone wanting further information should contact Jim's office.