£37,500 investment at Llanyrafon AFC

Players and coaches at Llanyrafon AFC are celebrating a £37,500 investment in their facilities and the launch of a ‘pathway’ from juniors to seniors.

Players and dignitaries in a football changing room — (l to r standing) Cllr Anthony Hunt- leader of Torfaen Council, Community Cllrs Darrell Dewar and Stewart Matthews, Tom James- Llanyrafon AFC seniors chair and Anthony Smith- Llanyrafon AFC juniors chair

Llanyrafon Juniors AFC and Llanyrafon AFC Seniors have been working in partnership since 2019 to make it possible for players to represent the club from the mini section right through to the senior teams.

Their new changing rooms were officially opened on Saturday 3 October 2021.

The new home changing room at Llanyrafon AFC

A spokesman for Llanyrafon AFC said: “Our juniors and seniors share a logo and a name, which aligns our clubs externally to members, players, coaches, the local community and other clubs in Torfaen. We also sharing support and expertise on projects such as tournaments, shared grant applications and events.

“Both our clubs are run by Llanyrafon residents, sponsored by local businesses, play our home games in Llanyrafon and have access to club facilities at Llanyrafon Social Centre.

“Juniors and seniors share the same facilities, changing rooms and clubhouse we are able to create a single football pathway for Llanyrafon over the coming seasons, which is going to benefit both clubs, its coaches, players of all age groups and Llanyrafon residents.”

A football changing room — The new home changing room at Llanyrafon AFC

Who funded the work at Llanyrafon AFC?

£25,000 from Welsh Government Community Facilities programme
£12,500 matched to Welsh Government funding from Croesyceiliog and Llanyrafon Community Council

The club used local businesses to carry out the work:

Bits4vans Cwmbran
Action Electrical – electrics and energy efficient lighting
Max Adams for plumbing and tiling
Next Gen Sports – kits and other refurb works

What work has been done at Llanyrafon AFC?

Barriers have been erected and surface improvements have been completed around their youth/senior ladies and men’s pitch to Meet Gwent County FA standards.
This allows them to host an under 18s side in the Gwent County league and provides the platform for the men’s senior team to get promoted to Gwent County standard.
This also allows the under 18s and senior team men’s teams to integrate, train and play together.
Complete refurbishment of their home changing rooms, showers, referee’s room, away team changing rooms and other areas of their clubhouse.
Pitch Improvement work has been carried out on their junior pitches. This will improve the drainage, flatten the surface of pitch and create a much more resilient playing surface for the numerous junior teams that the club has.

During the event, Cllr Hunt presented the Terry Eaton award to Evan Dunn.