THE gauntlet has been thrown down to Saints and their Premier League rivals – now grassroots sport must wait to see if it is picked up once the next record television deal kicks in.

Football was left stunned this week when it was revealed that Sky and BT have between them paid an astronomical £5.13 BILLION for the right to show Premier League games in this country between 2016-19.

And even more money will be raked in from selling the league’s overseas rights.

That means clubs like Saints – should they still be a top flight club by then – and their rivals stand to collect a mindboggling £100m at least just by being part of the 2016/17 Premier League season.

But what impact will those sums of money – derided as obscene by many in these still austerity Britain days – have on amateur sport in the shires?

What trickledown effect will be felt by grassroots sports enthusiasts here in south Hampshire?

There are those who believe Saints and their fellow Premier League cousins have a moral right to plough more of their record-breaking windfalls back into local sport in their towns and cities.

Saints’ Katharina Liebherr and the other Premier League club owners have been challenged to commit five per cent of their new £5.136 billion windfall to grassroots football.

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Katharina Liebherr

Richard Caborn, a board member of the Football Foundation, is adamant top-flight clubs have a responsibility to put a chunk of the record TV deal back into the game at community level by funding facilities and coaches.

The Premier League is one of the joint funders of the Football Foundation, providing £12m annually, along with the FA and the Government who each provide £10m, which is used for community facilities.

Caborn said: “Community funding from the Premier League has not kept pace with its increase in television income and I would challenge the chairmen to commit five per cent of their total receipts to grassroots football.

“The number of 3G pitches we have in England is tiny compared with countries such as Germany, and the same goes for the number of coaches when you compare us with Spain for example.

“They have the privilege of being an owner of an English club and each should have to put back five per cent into the game.”

Five per cent of the 2016-19 UK television deal would work out at £86m a year, and if the overseas TV rights bring in another £3 billion that would total £136m annually for grassroots football under Caborn’s proposal.

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Richard Caborn

In addition, Bolton North East MP David Crausby has set up an e-petition calling for the Government to ensure the Premier League pumps 7.5 per cent of its money from broadcasting rights into grassroots football.

At the moment, 95 per cent of the Premier League’s television revenue is passed onto the clubs.

The Premier League has said it has committed five per cent of its 2013-16 UK rights to grassroots and good causes – £168m over the three-season term (£56m a season).

That includes the £12m per year investment in the Football Foundation, as well as investments in school sport, community coaching, Football League and Conference community projects, and Prince’s Trust Football Initiative.

Since it was launched in 2000, the Football Foundation has awarded around 13,000 grants worth more than £513m towards improving grassroots sport.

Only a few weeks ago, Braishfield FC were awarded £10,000 to buy new goalposts.

That £513m has been used to attract additional partnership funding of over £730m – in all, over £1.2 billion of investment into the grassroots game in just over 14 years.

Since 2000, the Football Foundation Funding Partners’ investment has provided 235 grants worth £10.4m towards grassroots sports projects worth over £24.3m across the whole of Hampshire.

Caborn is right to highlight how few 3G pitches there are in England compared to abroad.

For example, England has under 800 pitches – compared to over 4,000 in Germany.

The Hampshire FA has already highlighted the need for more 3G pitches in the south of the county, and would welcome extra funding.

The county FA’s development manager, Sacha Nicholas, said: “There are plenty of facilities that need investment.

“We certainly wouldn’t have any problem spending the extra money.

“The Premier League already gives money to its clubs’ community schemes but we also receive some [from the television rights] via the Football Foundation, which on average provides grants that fund about 50 per cent of a given project.

“We have many projects and a limited amount of funding so if that pot gets bigger and more becomes available to us that can only be a good thing.

“Hopefully the size of the grants will increase.”

The main Saturday afternoon adult league in the area is the Drew Smith Southampton League.

They have had problems in recent years regarding teams pulling out due to a lack of players, and clubs complaining of having to play on poor pitches.

In 2012, a Daily Echo investigation highlighted the poor state of city council pitches and facilities for amateur footballers.

Players complained of pitches full of holes, others with uneven surfaces and some covered in dog mess, which teams have to pick up before games get under way.

Only last year the Southampton Sunday League was forced to fold due to a lack of clubs.

Rod Sutherland, secretary of the Drew Smith League, is not hopeful the record amount of cash coming into the Premier League will have any impact on his clubs.

“There’s no money spent on city council grounds at the moment,” he said. “In the league we only use four city council pitches every match day.

“The majority of clubs now use outlying (away from Southampton) pitches.

That’s mainly because they are better cared for and they know they will be able to play football on Saturdays.

“There’s nicer venues in those areas and it’s got to the point where teams would rather use those than the council ones in Southampton.

“We don’t discourage teams from using the city council pitches.”

The cost of playing football at grassroots level has been rising in recent years.

Last year pitch hire rose from £55 to £62, while teams also had to pay an extra £26 for insurance a year to cover serious injuries.

Then there is the cost of referees too.

Sutherland added: “If we got any money it would spread out so broadly between a number of teams and it would be a drop in the ocean of what is probably needed.

“It’s all about perception of what grass roots is.

“For many people it’s Southern League, Wessex and possible the Hampshire League. Unfortunately, for many, we don’t come into the equation.”