New research by academics from the ICMA Centre looking at the impact of football clubs on the local economy has been awarded more than £15,000 in funding.

The project, titled The Impact of Football Clubs on the Local Economy and Society, will be led by Dr Ivan Sangiorgi and Dr Andrew Urquhart from the ICMA Centre at Henley Business School, and Professor Matthew Worley from the Department of History at the University of Reading.

They will investigate whether clubs generate benefits for the local economy and help shape the cultural identity of the region, using Reading FC as the basis of the pilot study.

The project is one of eight to receive funding from the University of Reading’s Research Endowment Trust Fund Open Fund (RETF), which supports research of up to two years’ duration, and was awarded £15,148.