Goals Soccer Centres
Encyclopedia
Goals Soccer Centres is a large operator of 5-a-side football centres throughout the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and partnership with Umbro
Umbro
Umbro is an English sportswear and football equipment supplier based in Cheadle, Greater Manchester, England. The company is now part of Nike. Umbro designs, sources, and markets sport-related apparel, footwear, and equipment...

 and FourFourTwo
FourFourTwo
FourFourTwo is a football magazine published by Haymarket. Published monthly, costing £4.50, and at about 164 pages long, it published its 200th edition in February 2011...

.

Centres

Goals Soccer Centres currently has 42 5-a-side branches around the United Kingdom plus a centre in Los Angeles. The two largest branches in size are located in Wembley
Wembley
Wembley is an area of northwest London, England, and part of the London Borough of Brent. It is home to the famous Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena...

 and Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, with these hosting 14 and 18 separate pitches respectively. According to the Goals website, the branch of Leeds alone deals with just short of 380 league teams, which means that an estimated 2300 individuals compete in league matches. The majority of these teams are charged between £35 and £40 to compete. Goals also offers non-league pitch bookings and allows people to book their pitch at an hourly rate. At the end of 2010 Goals exceeded 140,000 adult and 40,000 junior customers per week. Goals state that each centre has a “capital cost of around £2.2 million and a build time of approximately 5 months”. Goals has a strong pipeline of sites for future development, many of which are with school or college partners, who gain use of the facilities for their students at no cost. Goals Soccer Centres Plc is the most successful company involved in this sector in Western Europe based on profitability. Goals opened its first centre in the USA at Los Angeles during June 2010.

F.A. Small Sided Football Award

Goals was awarded the English Football Association Small Sided Football Award to Advanced Standard for all its centres in England. This award was in recognition of the quality of its facilities and operations and placed Goals in a unique position within the market place.

History

Goals started when Keith Rogers co-founded Anchor International Limited and set up what was to be its first branch in 1987. The business's popularity increased and it expanded. Keith Rogers sold the business to 3i
3i
3i Group plc is a multinational private equity and venture capital company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It has offices in 13 countries across Asia, Europe and the Americas and had total assets under management of £12.7 billion as at 31 March 2011...

 for £28 million in 1999. Keith Rogers then led an MBI
Management buy-in
A management buy-in occurs when a manager or a management team from outside the company raises the necessary finance, buys it, and becomes the company's new management. A management buy-in team often competes with other purchasers in the search for a suitable business...

of an existing five-a-side football business in proving top quality five-a-side football facilities. Since then Goals Soccer Centres has increased in popularity and has become the most successful commercial 5-a-side operator in Europe. Goals are also currently in the process of developing a number of sites in South Africa and across California.

External links

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