Maria Miller, Basingstoke MP and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, called in recently at Hampshire Football Association HQ at Winklebury, to see 130 children aged 5 to 11 from local football clubs being put through their paces in an FA Tesco Skills Session and then take part in Hampshire FA’s 4 v 4 tournament.

The FA was putting on one of its Tesco Skills sessions, which they run at schools, clubs and other locations during the school holidays. Hampshire was chosen as one of the pilot counties for the original programme five years ago and over 500,000 boys and girls in the county have taken part in one of the FA’s free coaching sessions.

Maria joined the coaches on the pitch to take the session and met some of the children taking part, their parents and the coaches.

Maria said: “It is great to see so many children here in Basingstoke enjoying football at an event like this. I was really interested to see the FA Tesco Skills programme in action. It not only brings coaches to schools, but also provides expert training for teachers.”