PROFESSIONAL football is a multi-billion-pound industry and for years fans have demanded that the game give back to its grassroots. A Labour government will do that.

As someone who has played football for leisure and competitively for over two decades, the current state of parks and pitches is abysmal and with more and more cuts under a Conservative government, it will only get worse.

As a dad myself, I want my son to be able to enjoy the luxuries I had playing sport growing up. That won’t happen if Theresa May and the Tories are in power.

A vote for Labour on June 8 is the only way to ensure that the next generation will have a safe place to enjoy playing the game they love, with Jeremy Corbyn ensuring that the Premier League upholds the promise to put 5 per cent of its domestic and international TV rights money into grassroots football.

In 2015 Sky and BT Sport paid a record £5.14bn for live Premier League TV rights for three seasons from 2016-17, which means under a Labour government over £250m will be invested back into the sport instead of the measly £30m a year the Conservative party claims to give back.

Effectively, Labour will double what the Tories currently spend.

Labour also pledges to work with train operators, broadcasters and football clubs to stop fans being left with worthless train tickets and having to buy new ones just because Sky and BT Sport want to move a game to television at a few weeks’ notice.

Supporters are charged extraordinary amounts for match tickets alone and are then left short-changed when the train ticket they have bought in advance, to save money, has gone to waste so clubs can pocket even more cash.

The Conservatives do not even mention sport in their manifesto and should that come as a surprise? What they pledged to do in their 2010 manifesto has turned out to be nothing but empty promises.

That manifesto said it would ensure that the 2012 Olympics would “leave a quantifiable and lasting sports legacy for the country.” Where is that legacy?

Does that legacy include education cuts which will force schools to slash sports teams and sell off playing fields?

Does that legacy include cuts to funding for a host of sports in the build-up to the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo?

Badminton, in which Britain won bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics, has had all its funding cut for the 2020 Olympics despite beating their target set by UK Sport.

UK Sport has had to appeal directly to May to make up the £30m shortfall in funding for Olympic and Paralympic athletes following a decline in National Lottery ticket sales.

In their 2010 manifesto the Tories set out plans meant to secure sports funding:

- Increase the proportion of National Lottery funding going to sport by increasing its share of good cause money to 20 per cent,

- Use the Lottery to create a new Community Sports Fund as part of our Olympic legacy strategy, which will improve grassroots sports facilities and provision.

But there has been no legacy — these pledges were poor to begin with and the reality has been even worse.

What about the promise to “create an annual Olympic-style schools sports competition between schools that will climax with a finals session held in the Olympic Stadium?”

Is that the same stadium in which West Ham are virtually playing in rent-free, with taxpayers being forced to foot the bill, and that in 2016 Karren Brady, West Ham vice-chair, said “should be congratulated,” as it was supposedly a “good deal for West Ham, the taxpayer and the community.”

A spokesman for West Ham United may have said that they “only use the stadium facilities on matchday so, as tenants, we pay for the share of rates on those matchdays,” but there is no denying that they truly have the “deal of the century.”

That same manifesto said it would enable “football fans to get involved in running their clubs,” but once again, this turned out to be a bald-faced lie.

Under a Labour government, we will see legislation for accredited supporters trusts to be able to appoint and remove at least two club directors and to purchase shares when clubs change hands.

Labour will also give back to women’s football to ensure that women and girls can benefit from playing the sport.

With England preparing for Euro 2017, on the back of a spectacular 2015 World Cup in which they finished third, more and more young girls are choosing the sport, not only as a hobby but they are beginning to see it as a possible profession.

While there is still so much to do at the professional level for it to be sustainable as a full-time job — the recent liquidation of the Notts County Ladies team is testament to that — Corbyn and Labour know that the foundations need to be in place for girls to get involved from as young an age as possible.

Football is a working-class game, a game for all, a “game for the many, not the few,” which under the Conservatives has left millions behind. Enough is enough.

Labour has pledged to improve access for disabled sports fans by ensuring that rapid improvements are made to grounds and by prioritising action to make clubs comply with obligations under the 2010 Equality Act.

Too many Premier League clubs are not meeting basic standards.

This will change under and a Labour government and this is why I will be voting Labour.