Letters

摘要

I would like to respond to Bagehot's contention that "Premier League football clubs are destroying their roots as they grow" (May 3rd). In fact, the Premier League's success is explained by the close ties clubs maintain with their fans. We invest in grassroots football and develop some of the world's finest talent to provide a compelling league and are funding more than 200 community artificial pitches over three years. Hundreds of thousands of children will get involved in sport as a result of club-based programmes. We provide solidarity payments to lower league clubs and are investing £34om ($575m) to create the best possible youth-development system that ensures our clubs produce more and better home-grown players. Youth ticket concessions mean that more young people attend games today than in the 1980s.