New Sports Minister Tracey Crouch has said that the Premier League should give more to grassroots football - and says there are a "variety of levers" to encourage the top flight to do so.
Crouch told her local radio station in Kent that funding was a "massive issue" for small clubs in her first interview since being appointed in the post-election reshuffle.
She flagged up the Premier League's domestic television rights deal announced in February - mistakenly referring to the figure as £6billion instead of £5.1billion - and claimed that of the £1billion the league has promised will be invested outside of the top flight, only a third of that will go to the real grassroots.
Asked on BBC Radio Kent if the Premier League should give more to the grassroots, Crouch said: "I do. We need to be aware that the Premier League is one of the richest leagues in the world and a lot of grassroots clubs - and I have been a member of one for the last eight years - struggle for a whole variety of reasons. Funding is a massive issue particularly around the infrastructure that supports the clubs.
"The Premier League has recently just got £6billion worth of TV rights. That's just the UK rights, it doesn't include foreign countries buying the rights yet.
"They have said they'll put £1billion into grassroots which sounds fantastic but I guess only a third of that will filter down to what you and I would call grassroots and I don't think that's enough.
"We can certainly persuade them to put more money into the grassroots and encourage them do to so through a variety of levers."
The Premier League has declined to respond to her comments.
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