Welsh football to lead the way in measuring sport’s true impact

TTB Sport and Cymru Football Foundation launch five-year partnership to unlock the full social value of football facilities across Wales

TTB Sport has announced a new five-year partnership with the Cymru Football Foundation (CFF) that will transform how the health, wellbeing, and economic impact of football facilities is understood and acted upon across Wales.

The collaboration will support CFF’s ambition that every community in Wales has access to high-quality football facilities within a 15-minute travel time. By bringing together CFF’s vision and TTB Sport’s specialist impact technology, the partnership aims to create one of the most comprehensive pictures of football’s contribution to society anywhere in the world and support CFF’s ambition to become Wales’ most impactful sporting charity by 2030.

At the heart of the programme is xi (eXpected Impact), TTB Sport’s proprietary social value platform, which will help CFF measure, benchmark, and maximise the impact of investments in pitches, clubhouses, and community hubs across all 22 Local Authority areas. Over five years, xi will provide real-time impact intelligence to CFF, enabling smarter decisions on where and how to invest, and helping to make every pound of funding work harder for people and places in Wales.

xi, A new standard for community sport intelligence

xi is a purpose-built social value calculator and impact management platform, developed by TTB Sport in partnership with GIST Impact. It quantifies sport’s financial and non-financial contribution to society, translating outcomes into credible, decision-ready insight for rights holders, funders, and delivery partners.

By adopting this approach now, CFF, TTB Sport, and Welsh football are helping to set a new benchmark for community sport impact measurement in the UK, with lessons that can be shared internationally.

Nick Pryde, Global Lead – Community & Social Impact at TTB Sport, said:

“An outstanding first experience of sport at a young age is the single most important factor in creating lifelong fandom and engagement, yet participation and grassroots programmes remain dramatically undervalued. This partnership is about changing that by putting robust, people-centred evidence into the hands of those making decisions for Welsh football."

“Cymru Football Foundation has set a bold and incredibly important ambition for communities across Wales. Our role is a simple one: to listen, to bring the best tools and insight we can, and to work alongside Aled and the team so that every facility, in every community, has the strongest possible case for investment and support.”

Aled Lewis, Director of the Cymru Football Foundation, said:

“Our mission is that everyone in Wales, wherever they live and whatever their background, can reach a quality football facility within 15 minutes of home. To achieve that, we must show clearly – and honestly – how these facilities improve health, strengthen communities, and open opportunities for people who are too often left behind.”

What it means for communities across Wales

The partnership will move beyond counting participation to capture the wider difference that football facilities make to people’s lives. Using data from clubs, programmes, and communities, xi will enable CFF to evidence outcomes such as:

• improved physical and mental wellbeing

• increased participation among priority groups, including women and girls, disabled people, ethnically diverse communities, and those in lower-income areas

• local economic uplift through employment, volunteering, and reduced pressure on public services

• stronger community cohesion, safer spaces, and more connected neighbourhoods.