City of Football ?

[davieG]

Nottingham has been chosen as England's first City of Football ahead of rivals Manchester and Portsmouth.

The three cities were selected by Sport England from 22 bids because of their commitment to promote the sport at grassroots level.

Nottingham will receive £1.6m in National Lottery funding to run a two-year pilot programme.

The city was praised by Sport England for its new ideas for "getting more people playing the national game".

Digital focus

Phil Smith, director of sport at Sport England, said: "Nottingham has an exciting and inventive response to the challenge of getting more people to play the game and we will look forward to working with them to make this happen.

"Nottingham was simply the best - it was a terrific bid."

Sport England said Nottingham's focus on a digital platform called Playbook, which helps promote football activities in the city, would bring more people to the sport.

Mr Smith said the £1.6m will be spent on a variety of projects including new sporting facilities and the digital service, which would help reach young people via their smart phones.

Nigel Cooke, head of One Nottingham, which promotes the city, said: "We will... encourage more people to play, especially 14 to 25 year olds, women and girls and people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds."

[David Guiza]

I just don't understand these kind of things - city of culture etc. Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, London and Birmingham for example are all better suggestions and yet Nottingham wins? I know it's not all about the success of the city's football sides, but still.

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

I suppose of historic importance you have County, being the world's oldest professional team and Clough's legacy, but these days? Come on. I'm guessing someone on the board is getting refrigerated backhanders

[Mark_w]

Do Forest have a level one academy or not?

Hopefully this leads to them producing some incredible young talent we can nick on the cheap.

[Alf Bentley]

 

Nottingham has been chosen as England's first City of Football ahead of rivals Manchester and Portsmouth.

 

 

I reckon they should pay a bit more attention to Nottingham's role in history.

 

In particular, it would be good if they could link the title to the legend most closely associated with Nottingham - Robin Hood.

 

So, they should declare Nottingham to be England's City of Hoodlums. 

[Famous Team]

I just don't understand these kind of things - city of culture etc. Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, London and Birmingham for example are all better suggestions and yet Nottingham wins? I know it's not all about the success of the city's football sides, but still.

Have you read the details of the bids from each of those cities? If not how on Earth do you know which one was best?

 

This has got nothing to do with the success or otherwise of the professional teams in the cities who bid for it. It's about spending money on getting more members of the public playing football.

[David Guiza]

Have you read the details of the bids from each of those cities? If not how on Earth do you know which one was best?

 

This has got nothing to do with the success or otherwise of the professional teams in the cities who bid for it. It's about spending money on getting more members of the public playing football.

if you actually bothered to read to the end of my mightily long post of one and a half lines, you'd see that I am well aware that many factors are considered. My point is that it's about as relevant as Hull (I think were the eventual winners) being the City of Culture.