Meet the county's new Mr Football

Ted Mitchell, 24, took up the full-time position last week and he will be based in the county office in Witney.

His brief will be to deliver Football Association initiatives across Oxfordshire and to help leagues and clubs improve their services to their members.

He will also visit schools to help in raising the profile of the game and support the teaching staff. Ted Mitchell, the OFA's football development officer shows off his skills in his Witney office

The Oxfordshire FA said, in a statement: "We have appointed Ted to deliver and improve the participation in football in the county.

"He has experience of Lottery applications and will help clubs in attempting to gain funding to improve their facilities and hopefully membership. This will not happen overnight but having someone dedicated to doing this will hopefully make a great difference.

"For many years we have stood still in the county, for whatever reason, but we have started to move rapidly forward to improve things for our members and we see this appointment as yet another positive commitment to the game in Oxfordshire."

Mitchell, who currently lives in Milton Keynes, had previously been Schools and Youth Sports Development Officer for Milton Keynes Council, where he set up a number of initiatives aimed at involving more people in sport. While there, he instigated and co-ordinated the Milton Keynes School Sports Federation.

He said: "I'm really going to look at the participation side more than facilities, and will try to see if there can be more opportunities, and better quality opportunites, to play football.

"I'll be supporting anyone who needs assistance in trying to get more people to participate, especially at grass-roots level, and that includes at primary schools, trying to get festivals going and will be targeting specific areas such as giving girls' football higher profile."

Mitchell can be contacted at the Oxfordshire FA office on 01993 778371 or visit the OFA website