A grassroots initiative, with a goal to get South Yorkshire football clubs engaged with the environment, has kicked off today - and there are some amazing prizes to be won

Pitch Perfect aims to encourage all grassroots football teams across South Yorkshire to register and complete regular litter picks.

These picks can be completed before or after training sessions or game days and focus on teams looking to collect litter from the pitch or the immediate surrounding environment.

The outcome of this is to not only improve pitches and communities, but to educate youth players to be more aware of the environment, litter and recycling.

Each month a club will be announced as the winner.

Calum Oakenfold, marketing and communications officer for the Sheffield and Hallamshire County FA, said: "Once they register, they might organise a litter pick once a month, or they might choose to do it every game.

"They will register for free online and they will be sent a welcome pack and some details around what they have to do - from there, when they go out and organise a litter pick, we will encourage them to get photos and videos and send over as much information as they can about it, as well as taking a picture of the end amount they collect.

"They can enter as many times as they want in a month and they can do as much and as little as they want.

“We will be judging the entrants and decide who we think deserves to be the winner that month and they will come and collect their prizes from our various partners which will hopefully help their team going forward.”

To support the launch of the campaign, Sheffield and Hallamshire County FA staff donned their Pitch Perfect tracksuits and visited Sheffield playing fields to clear bags and bags worth of litter.

Calum added: "We wanted to use football to get a bigger message across - about litter and the environment and how much harm we can cause.

"The by-product of Pitch Perfect is that the children in our area, I hope, will be aware of litter and the environment around us."

The campaign already has the support of professional football sides including Sheffield United and Wednesday, as well as Sheffield-based kit manufacturer, Kitlocker.

An exciting recent addition is the announcement that Pitch Perfect has partnered with Keep Britain Tidy and the Great British Spring Clean initiative (www.keepbritaintidy.org), which will help to promote the campaign and also help with national figures for litter picking.

The Star will post regular updates and announce the monthly winners online and in print.

The Sheffield and Hallamshire County FA is in charge of 25 leagues, with over 3,000 clubs and over 50,000 registered players.

The FA have a page dedicated to Pitch Perfect that details how to enter each month, what prizes are on offer and support and guidance for organising a litter pick.

Registration for your club is open now and to keep up to date, or to register, visit www.sheffieldfa.com.