The next item on the agenda is a statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure on the European football championships, and I call on Ken Skates.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. As Members will be aware, this week sees the start of the fifteenth UEFA European Championship in France and I am delighted that this year, Wales will be one of the nations taking part in the newly expanded 24-team tournament. On behalf of the Welsh Government and this Assembly, can I begin by congratulating the Welsh team on what has been a hugely successful qualification campaign and also wish them all the very best for the coming tournament?

This is, of course, the first major championship finals that Wales has competed in since 1958. Many of us will recall quite vividly the painful series of disappointments that the team has experienced over the years and so it is with great pleasure, and indeed pride, that we have seen the team make this year’s tournament. Under the direction of Chris Coleman, the squad has shown great resolve, determination and teamwork and it’s only right to place on record our recognition of the leadership his coaching team and the FAW have shown over the last couple of years. The achievement of qualification is a fitting tribute to Gary Speed, who helped lay many foundations of the team’s current success and who was respected and admired by so many people across Wales.

The first Wales match against Slovakia will kick off at 6 p.m. UK time on Saturday 11 June in Bordeaux, with further group games being played against England in Lens at 2 p.m. on Thursday 16 June, and the final group game against Russia, beginning at 8 p.m. on Monday 20 June in Toulouse. The European championship is one of the world’s highest profile sporting events. In total, in Euro 2012 there was an aggregated TV audience of 1.9 billion and the global profile Wales will achieve in the coming weeks is something the Welsh Government is keen to maximise.

Alongside the other countries competing in Euro 2016, Wales will be represented at a European Village in Paris, organised by the city mayor’s office. The Welsh Government has been working closely with them and with the British Embassy, but in light of the recent flooding in the city the opening of the village has sadly been delayed, due to its location on the banks of the river Seine. Our thoughts are with those in Paris who have worked hard to prepare the European Village on time. When the village does open, the Welsh Government-funded stand will showcase some of our country’s diverse and exciting tourist destinations and adventure hotspots, celebrating our Year of Adventure and providing a distinctive presence for Wales in the centre of the French capital and alongside other nations.

The Wales team media centre is located at the team’s base in Brittany—an appropriate location given the long-standing relationship between Wales and Brittany. Adverts about Wales in several languages will be displayed during the tournament, and information about Wales will be provided to the estimated 300-plus international media who will be covering Wales’s journey in the tournament. Visit Wales has also arranged for promotional videos to be shown on the screens at the special fanzones in Toulouse and Bordeaux, which are expected to attract fans from across Europe. Closer to home, iconic Welsh buildings, including Cadw castles, will be illuminated in red to support the team during group games.

The demand for tickets alone is testimony to how much the whole country is intending to be part of the championships. Around 30,000 Welsh fans are expected to travel to France. The FAW have been clear that the fans have played a huge part in this success and they will, I am sure, add passion to the tournament. Wales play group games against Slovakia in Bordeaux and Russia in Toulouse—sizable cities with plenty to keep fans entertained. However, the Wales versus England match is being played in Lens, a significantly smaller town. Now, whilst I’m sure the inhabitants of Lens will be as welcoming to fans as anywhere else in France, outside of the stadium there are very few places available to watch the game. I fully endorse the messages given to the Welsh fans by the police that they should not travel to Lens if they do not have match tickets.

We are all aware of the current security environment, both in the UK and in France. Fans need to leave plenty of time to travel to games as there will be enhanced security. They should report anything suspicious to the police. The strong advice is to take note of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office travel advice, which will be updated on its website throughout the tournament. The police have also advised that fans need to pre-book accommodation and look after their passports, and have emphasised that fans are acting as ambassadors for our country. I fully support this last point. I hope that Welsh fans will travel to France to enjoy themselves, to make friends and to leave a lasting positive impression of Wales with the people they meet.

This is a fantastic time to be a Welsh football fan and an exciting time to be Cabinet Secretary with responsibility for major events. There is a real feeling that qualification is only the beginning for this talented group of players. I, for one, cannot wait to see the team run out onto the pitch in Bordeaux and represent Wales on the world stage. The team, the players and all of the fans have certainly embraced the ‘Together Stronger’ theme, and I know we all take great pride in the success of that team. The whole nation is behind them.

Everybody in the Plaid group wishes the Wales football team and all supporters a successful, enjoyable and safe trip to France. Reaching the Euro finals is a dream come true for many of us, and the achievement of the players, the manager and the FAW has been enormous, and I just really hope they go to France, play football with a smile on their faces and do us all proud. I’m really glad that you mentioned also the enormous contribution of Gary Speed.

Everybody here knows that sport is so important to Wales, so I’m a little confused by the Government’s approach, really. On the one hand, we have a Minister for elite sport, and on the other hand we have a Minister for the grass roots. One question is: don’t you realise that, to get to the elite level in sport, you need the grass roots? The splitting of the portfolio tells me that you’re not really taking this too seriously. So, the first question, really, is: could you tell me what an elite sport is?

Secondly, and moving on, just a mile down the road there’s an all-weather pitch, which is locked and is empty, and nobody’s playing on it, hardly. You’ve got the local kids in Grangetown locked out, in some cases with faces pressed against the fence, unable to play because Cardiff’s Labour council wants them to pay between £34 and £39 an hour. In terms of elite sport, how is tomorrow’s Gareth Bale going to become an elite footballer if he or she is unable to use pitches because they cost too much? [Interruption.] So, will you join me on a visit to Channel View to talk to the children and parents? Also, on a practical level of a Euro legacy project, will you commission an audit of all sports facilities all over Wales, with a view to developing schemes to get facilities used to enable the development of elite sport and to improve public health?

Finalement, je dirais bonne chance à nos garçons en France et ‘Allez les rouges’. Merci. Diolch yn fawr.

I thank the Member for his contribution and say, well, actually, for many of us, it’s going to be the first time that we’ve ever seen the Welsh national squad campaign on the world stage, so it’s going to be a life first for many of us that I’m sure we’re very excited about. On the last point about carrying out an audit of facilities across Wales—I forgive the Member because he wasn’t in this Chamber at that time—it was actually carried out towards the back end of the previous Assembly. So, that work has been carried out in conjunction with Sport Wales. With regard to pitch fees, this has been a contentious issue across Wales, particularly in the last 12 months, but as my colleague Lee Waters rightly mentioned, it’s also been a problem in his part of Wales, in Carmarthenshire. Perhaps we could visit one of the pitches there as well.

In terms of elite and grass-roots sport, the Member should now be aware that both are now in the hands of full budget-holding Ministers; that was not the case previously. So, actually, I would have thought he’d welcome the fact that we now have two people around the Cabinet table with an interest in promoting sport at a community level and sport at an elite level. Grass-roots sport has more than just leisure and elite sport to serve, it also has health and well-being to support and to serve. By placing it in the hands of the Cabinet Secretary for health, it’s my belief that we can expand grass-roots sport to include all forms of physical activity that serve the health and the well-being of Wales.

Firstly, I would like to welcome the Cabinet Secretary to his new role and thank him for the statement this afternoon on the forthcoming European football championships. For the first time since 1958—that’s long before I was born—people across Wales will have the opportunity to proudly watch our team in a major football championship, and I would like to join you in wishing Chris Coleman and the Welsh football team all the very best. I’m sure that the whole Chamber will agree that the Wales team will do us proud and that we hope that all UK home nations stay in Europe as long as possible.

Will the Cabinet Secretary, therefore, confirm that fans in all parts of Wales will be able to enjoy the championships in fanzones across the country? During the Rugby World Cup almost 150,000 people visited fanzones at Cardiff Arms Park, but there has been some concern from supporters in all parts of Wales that fanzones will not be used to the same extent in Euro 2016. So, I’ll be interested to know what steps the Welsh Government has taken to encourage local authorities, the FAW and other partner organisations to establish fanzones so that communities across Wales can get behind the Welsh team and share the experience together. It will, of course, be a huge boost to the players out in France to know that fans back home are behind them.

Secondly, major sporting events create interest and demand for sporting activities at both junior and grass-roots levels. So, I would suggest a spike in interest should be used to increase the health of our nation. There’s a golden opportunity to boost sporting participation so that we can inspire the next generation and improve public health in general. So, will the Cabinet Secretary, therefore, outline what steps the Welsh Government has taken to use Euro 2016 as a means of boosting the virtues of an active lifestyle and other health benefits of sporting activity?

Thirdly, you referred to the potential for security threats at the championships. Can I fully endorse your advice for spectators to remain vigilant and take note of the FCO advice? However, I would be grateful if the Welsh Government could outline what discussions it has had with the UK Government and with the French Government following concerning statements from Scotland Yard and others in the French interior ministry that it’s impossible to guarantee the safety of supporters who are travelling to France. And, finally, the success of Wales’s football team, clearly, has the potential to bring economic benefits to Wales. You have provided some detail in your statement, but perhaps you could also comment on how this event has the potential to host future major sporting events to ensure that Wales’s success in Euro 2016 will have a lasting legacy. On behalf of the Welsh Conservative group, Presiding Officer, I would like to join others in wishing the Welsh team every success.

Can I thank Russell George for his valuable contribution and for his kind words and I look forward to working with him in the fifth Assembly as well? If I could just pick up on that final point about promoting Wales moving forward, this, of course, is only the beginning of what I see as a golden period for Welsh football and for Wales promoting the game on a global stage, because, of course, next year Cardiff is the host city of the Champions League final—the single biggest day’s sporting event in the calendar. It will be a monumental occasion and this is a perfect opportunity to segue into another grand football occasion.

In terms of fanzones, I’m delighted that Cardiff and Swansea are organising fanzones for the tournament. I am aware that many Members have contacted their own local authorities to urge them to do likewise, including my colleague from Wrexham, who’s been in touch with Wrexham County Borough Council. I’m not aware of other local authorities having agreed to fanzones. But certainly my officials have been in touch with local authorities and with the WLGA to discuss where and what forms of public gatherings could be organised. I think it’s worth saying at this point, though, that the tournament also offers a great opportunity to pubs and restaurants to capitalise on the events, and, indeed, to breweries. So, where those fanzones are being held I would urge the organisers, where and when possible, to make sure that local suppliers and services from within Wales take advantage of those opportunities.

In terms of our promotion, I’d like to inform Members that it’s my intention, I will say ‘if and when’ we qualify for the knockout stages, to open up all Cadw sites on that first Sunday after qualification for free entry for everybody, as what you might call a ‘celebration Sunday’ during the tournament. I think it just marks the importance of the tournament for Wales, and gives people of all ages an opportunity to experience some of our fantastic heritage, which is what so many people come to Wales to experience.

In terms of the legacy of the tournament and what we do to support particularly the development of the game at a grass-roots level, we invest something in the region of £1 million a year in grass-roots football through the Welsh Football Trust, and I’d like to put on record my thanks to them for doing a sterling job, not just in promoting the game but in engaging many young people who might otherwise disengage from education. And, in doing so, they keep them in education and make sure that they get a good schooling.

Now, going forward, the Welsh Football Trust plan to use qualification for Euro 2016 as a catalyst to move closer to their vision of football being more than a game, and there will be four delivery strands that will see football become stronger and more sustainable in Wales, and football enabling the transformation of communities to take place. Those four strands involve boosting grass-roots clubs, and so there is an ambition, for example, to create 100 community football recruitment days across Wales over the course of the summer. Thirty dates have been established so far, but this will significantly help grass-roots clubs.

The second strand is boosting recreational participation within the community. And so, in this regard, the Football Association of Wales have launched Cwpan y Bobl, which is a national recreational five-a-side competition with five participatory groups, including a male and female seniors group, junior group, a walking football group, and also disability participation, to make sure that this truly is inclusive.

The third strand is recreational participation within the school environment, and, again, the Welsh Football Trust, and Lidl as well, are doing sterling work in this regard. And then the fourth is to use football as a tool to inspire and assist education, and you may be aware that there has been the launch of the Euro 2016 primary school education programme, which is available to primary schools from the WJEC on the Hwb.

It’s a significant achievement for the Welsh squad to qualify for major finals for the first time in 58 years, so I’d like to add the congratulations of the Welsh UKIP group to those of everybody else for that achievement in getting there to Chris Coleman and his team and the squad. It’s good that there is thought being given to grass-roots sport in the future with the investment into the Welsh Football Trust, and I hope that will continue. Perhaps for the duration of the tournament it might be an idea—perhaps the Minister can tell me if this can be achieved—if all public buildings in Wales could fly the Welsh flag for as long as Wales are actually participating in the tournament. It could be possibly more striking if we removed the EU flags in the meantime because then it would be more distinctive, and, who knows, by the time the tournament’s over, we may never need to put them back up again. [Laughter.]

I rather fear that, if they did remove the European flag in some places, they could be discarded and then considered litter in the streets, and then we might have politicians accusing immigrants of doing it. [Laughter.] I’d welcome the Member’s warm embrace of the national spirit that we feel the length and breadth of Wales, and, other than to say I would encourage all public buildings to have the Welsh flag hoisted above them, I would just like to point out as well, with regard to Russell George’s comments about safety, that we are in regular contact with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office regarding the threat of terrorism, and the need to maintain the best behaviour of fans at matches. I would encourage all fans to check regularly with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website. There is a headline section called ‘Be on the Ball’ on the website, and I’d encourage all fans travelling to France to take close notice of that.

I had begun to fear that Wales would never again qualify for a major championship in my lifetime. I was one when they qualified in 1958; most Members in this Chamber probably weren’t born. But it’s a tremendous achievement for Wales to get to a major tournament, and I’m very, very pleased that they have done so.

I think that we need to look at it not just as being good for morale and good for self-confidence in Wales, which it definitely is, but for the effect it’s going to have on promoting Wales. In many parts of the world Swansea is incredibly well known because of the success of its football team. I mean, how much would it actually have cost to get the same level of publicity Wales is going to get on television and in printed newspapers over the next few weeks, and, hopefully, over the whole tournament? I remember Greece winning it, I remember Denmark winning it, so we’re not asking for the impossible. How much would it actually cost to get that level of publicity for Wales that we’re going to get now?

But can I add a plea, and I think it’s very similar to what Neil McEvoy was saying? I think that we need to get more 3G and 4G pitches in Wales because we need to strengthen football at a grass-roots level, and we need to get more young people playing it and the opportunity for them to do it. I’m looking forward to the women’s football team also qualifying and I’m hugely disappointed they lost 2-0 last night to Norwich—Norway, sorry—which means that they cannot now qualify. I’m disappointed by that, but I think that, with the progress women’s football has made in Wales, the progress that men’s football has made in Wales, we’re certainly punching well above our weight and I would hope that we can get more 3G and 4G pitches out there, to get more people playing more of the time. Because you may not have noticed, but in winter in Wales it gets awfully wet and some of the grass pitches become unplayable for a long period of time.

Can I thank Mike Hedges for his contribution? I hadn’t realised that he was only one year old in 1958; I now know his age. The advertising equivalent would amount to many, many millions of pounds for the tournament. In fact, when we launched the Year of Adventure at the start of this year, we calculated that, in the first 72 hours, the advertising equivalent, simply by promoting Wales in 2016 as Year of Adventure, had amounted to more than £800,000 globally, with the press attention that it was given. So, I think it would probably be unaffordable to pay for the sort of promotion that Wales is going to enjoy during the course of the tournament.

The Member also will be aware of the collaboration that is taking place between the Welsh Rugby Union, Hockey Wales and the Football Association of Wales in the creation of 100 new 3G pitches across Wales—[Interruption.]—in key sites, including, the Member is right, in Deeside. This links in with a point that was raised by Neil McEvoy about the need for a strategic approach to ensure that people have access to modern facilities as close to their communities as possible.

In terms of promoting Wales, in addition to the incredible value that this will bring us in terms of the advertising equivalent for Wales as a tourist destination, I’m pleased that we’re able to take to France as well some experiences that are compelling and unique. So, for example, in the European Village that is being staged in Paris, within the Welsh zone, there will be a virtual reality experience that will enable visitors to Paris to zip across the industrial and natural environment of north Wales.

Can I thank the Cabinet Secretary for a very good and comprehensive statement? I have to confess at the outset that I’m a failed hooker. I’m a follower of the squashed form of football and fail to understand fully the rules still, but I will be watching and I will be cheering our team on.

There are two outcomes that I’m looking for from our remarkable achievement of getting through to the Euro championships. One is that this now—far beyond rugby, far beyond any other sport—is the world stage of the biggest sport, the massive reach that it has—. I hope, both in terms of the immediate impact on restaurants and cafes and bars and others, but also the longer-term impact of promoting inward tourism into Wales, this great place that we have, this adventure tourism paradise that we have in Wales, but also sporting paradise as well—that’s one of the outcomes, and the Cabinet Secretary has shown some of the great initiatives that are already under way on that.

The second is for those teams—and there are far more, I have to say, football teams than rugby teams in my own patch—in Gilfach Goch and Ogmore Vale, Llangeinor, Maesteg, Caerau, all of those teams are going to benefit, I’m sure, from that grass-roots participation—and their health and well-being—through seeing this on television. And I have to say as well, the Welsh junior girls squad and team who’ve had such a successful year. They train in Bridgend College, at the Pencoed campus in my constituency as well. But I would just give this note of hope as well to those football aficionados here and ask the Minister if he’d agree with me that there can be moments where Davids beat Goliaths. Nantyffyllon youth rugby football team—all my three boys have played for that team—they just won the all-Wales league cup—their own league—and also the Welsh cup, beating on the way there, with apologies to colleagues, Caerphilly, Pontypridd, Bridgend and many others as well. David can beat Goliath. Let’s not give up on hope. This is our Euro championship. [Laughter.]

Well, the Member is absolutely right. This is a tournament where Davids can be incredibly successful. We’ve seen some great surprises in recent tournaments with nations such as Denmark and Greece having won it. Actually, if we look at the rankings of Wales and the other teams that are in the group, we see that Wales is ranked at the moment globally twenty-sixth, Slovakia twenty-fourth, England eleventh—we were ahead of England not long ago—and Russia is ranked twenty-ninth. It’s one of the most compacted groups and it will be very difficult to predict the outcome of many of the matches. So, I firmly believe that, if Wales is David in this tournament, David will be most successful.

In terms of tourism, we’re breaking records in Wales right now, and I’m very pleased that Euro 2016 and, in 2017, the Champions League final, will assist in promoting Wales in 2017 as the Year of Legends, which I think again will capitalise on our uniqueness as a place of great culture and great heritage. So, I’m very excited about that as well.

In terms of grass roots and the role of the Welsh Football Trust in promoting—. And I think you’re absolutely right to identify the girls’ game. There are now 3,500 registered players who are under 18 in Wales. There are currently 1,465 adult female players, so we can see that there’s been a huge growth. But the Welsh Football Trust have great ambition in this regard. They aim to grow the game. They currently have been awarded gold standard association status under UEFA’s grass-roots charter in recognition of the scale and standard of the programmes delivered. And it’s interesting for Members to note that Wales is the first nation to provide education online attracting world-class coaches to our courses, including Thierry Henry.

Thank you to the Cabinet Secretary. I suspect it’s unanimous that we are behind Wales as our team for this tournament, regardless of who some Members may have supported in the past. Nonetheless, many Members will be aware of well-publicised incidents of major retailers in Wales promoting the England football team in their stores and on their merchandise. Clearly, this is not ideal, especially when Wales will be playing England in the tournament. I must also pay tribute to Lindsay Whittle, Steffan Lewis’s predecessor, because, when he discovered that Panini were selling England sticker books in Tesco and not Wales sticker books, he was climbing the walls, and anyone who knows Lindsay Whittle can imagine that. [Laughter.]

Does the Cabinet Secretary plan to hold any conversations with major commercial retail organisations about the appropriateness of promoting the England football team in Wales during Euro 2016? Would he remind them to act more sensitively when it comes to their stores’ merchandise so that we can all get behind Wales and wish them well in the month ahead?

The Member raises an important point, but I would say that I would like to see English visitors to Wales be able to purchase football items that carry the Welsh flag as well as the English flag if they wish to in order to build the economy of Wales. I am aware of shops—and it has been a contentious issue—that have been selling English merchandise, particularly in north-east Wales, where there is a very porous border. This is not new to this event; this is an issue that has been ongoing for many, many years. I think the key thing for us as politicians to recall is that this is Wales’s first opportunity to compete since 1958 and, rather than focus on what other nations might be doing, let’s focus on what Wales has achieved and what Wales should be doing and celebrate the success of the Welsh squad.

Finally, Jenny Rathbone.

I agree with you that we should be concentrating on focusing on the success of our own team. You’ve already mentioned that both in Swansea and Cardiff there will be a fanzone, and I am very pleased to congratulate Cardiff council on getting the sponsorship together so that there can be a fanzone in Bute park for the three events. I just wanted to raise with you the importance of making it a family-friendly event so that people can bring the whole family, safe in the understanding that this is going to be an event that they’ll want their children to go to. I’m just a bit concerned from the press reports that there’s not going to be any food or drink allowed into the fanzone, and I wondered whether this wasn’t an opportunity to try and force people to buy expensive items of refreshment when it’s incredibly important that people drink water if it’s hot. I just wondered whether you could look into that and make sure it isn’t an opportunity to take money off people rather than to celebrate the success of our team.

Yes. Can I thank the Member for her contribution? It is absolutely vital that, in particular during these hot spells, people do consume as much water as alcohol. It is a matter for Cardiff City Council as to who they have selling refreshments, but as I said a little earlier, I think it’s important that Welsh producers and Welsh suppliers are given every opportunity to capitalise from the event.

The Member is right that, insofar as the fans’ behaviour is concerned, it’s not just the players who are ambassadors for Wales abroad, it’s also the fans—both those who travel abroad and those who remain in Wales—so, I would urge them to present Wales in the best, most respectable way possible and to refrain from excessive drinking.

I thank the Cabinet Secretary.