What is Premier League 4 Sport?

Barclays Premier League football clubs this year have been offering thousands of young people the chance to get involved with Olympic sports including Badminton, in a groundbreaking £3.8m partnership with the Government.

The two and a half year scheme aims to increase participation of many young people between the ages of 11 and 16. It offers an introduction to judo, volleyball, table tennis and badminton to those who may have never played before and by doing so hopes to actively increase participation in the sport.  

The football clubs of the Premier League will link up with local badminton clubs to help attract young people in their area to take up badminton.  The initiative will help the Government’s ambition to offer young people five hours of sport a week, as part of its 2012 plans. It also aims to decrease the amount of people who don’t continue in the sport when young people leave secondary school.

Working with the sports governing bodies, the Youth Sport Trust, Sport England and the Premier League, clubs aim to get 25,000 young people, aged between 11 and 16, to join local sport clubs in the four Olympic sports of Badminton, Judo, Table Tennis and Volleyball during the scheme.

BADMINTON England’s core aims is to increase participation, be fit for purpose and be recognised as the No. 1 nation in badminton by winning medals.  All these aims are covered in the Premier League 4Sport scheme and BADMINTON England is setting up 80 new Satellite Badminton Clubs to attract more people into badminton. Chief Executive, Adrian Christy had the following to say: “Badminton is proud to be one of the most popular and fastest emerging sports in England and we are delighted to enter into this partnership with one of the biggest and best league competitions in the world. We are excited at the opportunity of taking our sport from strength to strength at a local level through the vehicle and profile the Premier League brings. This project will assist badminton in its ambition to introduce and retain more young people in our sport and further enhance our club structure whilst giving them a quality experience that hopefully develops into lifelong participation.” 

How is PL4Sport being delivered?

The scheme began in April 2009 and many launches have been underway throughout the country with great success.  Event days are established with strong media connections invited to every launch of the scheme making all the PL4sport launches a fun unique and exciting day.  Below are some of the launches held to date:

Blackburn Rovers

Manchester United

Middlesbrough

Newcastle United

Tottenham Hotspur

Wigan Athletic

West Ham

Sunderland

Attending the launches have been badminton players such as Rajiv Ouseph, Munn Tzin Bong, Helen Davis, Jessica Fletcher as well as retired badminton star, Ambassador Gail Emms, MBE. You can watch a BBC video of the Manchester United PL4Sport launch featuring Emms by clicking here. 

Success

BADMINTON England aims to achieve the following with the help of the Premier League sport:

• 6,250 young people playing badminton over the next 2 ½ years

• 80 satellite badminton clubs around a minimum of 20 hub (Premier) badminton clubs working in partnership with the Premier League clubs

• Building closer links between badminton clubs and schools

Prime Minister Support

The Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: “This initiative is great news for young people and communities and will help get thousands more teenagers participating in sports over the next few years, building on our goal to get young people doing five hours of sport a week."

"In the run up to 2012, we want to see more young people from all walks of life getting involved in sport. These new clubs are an excellent example of how the Olympic legacy will benefit people right across the country in years to come and how the Games can be used to inspire more people to get active."For more information on this new and exciting project, please e-mail development@badmintonengland.co.uk or telephone 01908 268400

For more information about PL4Sport click here to visit the PL4Sport website or click here to go to the BADMINTON England website to read about the successful hub clubs.