The Scottish Football Partnership Trust and The Crerar Trust have teamed up to support the provision of new portable floodlights for two grassroots community football clubs in the North of Scotland. Each club will receive a set of eight portable floodlights from funding kindly donated by The SFP Trust and The Crerar Trust.  Nairn County F.C. Youths and Forres Mechanics F.C. Youths, Scottish F.A. Quality Mark accredited clubs, were fortunate enough to be the two clubs selected. The dedication of the clubs’ coaches allows all players to enjoy the game in a positive, safe and friendly environment within the Scottish FA’s Quality Mark accredited club structure.  This type of initiative is key to the development of football in Scotland as the new floodlights will help both clubs enhance their ability to provide training activity throughout the winter months.

Nairn County F.C. Youths, a community youth football club offers football to local youngsters over four age-groups, from their newly formed Under-13 team to an Under-20 side.    Donald Matheson, Club Chairman had this to say about the award “Nairn County F.C. Youths currently operate teams at Under-13, Under-15, Under-17 and Under-20 levels, with our players training three times a week. The new portable floodlights will allow the players across all age-groups to increase their activities and train on grass throughout the dark winter months. This will allow the teams further opportunities to develop and enhance their skills. We are indebted to The SFP Trust and The Crerar Trust for this generous donation which will transform our training evenings and help remove some of the financial burden on our club.”

Forres Mechanics F.C. Youths, a community youth football club offers football to over 60 players from Under-13 level through to Under-17 level.   Dave McCartney, Club spokesman commented on the award “Forres Mechanics F.C. Youths currently operate teams at Under-13, Under-15 and Under-17 levels involving over 60 boys who train three times a week. We have plans to introduce a girls’ team very shortly and have a female coach who is due to undertake her 1.2 coaching qualification. Forres is unique in Moray. Of all the centres of population, not only does our town of 12,000 people not have an all-weather floodlit pitch, it does not even have a floodlit grass area for training. As a result of this, from October to March every year during the months of darkness, our players and their coaches are forced to undertake a 20+ mile round trip to Elgin or Nairn where we are able to hire facilities. This obviously comes at a cost, both for the club and for the parents who provide transport for the players and we are therefore most grateful to The SFP Trust and The Crerar Trust for this generous award.”

Paddy Crerar, Chairman of the Crerar Trust and Chief Executive of Crerar Hotels added; “We are delighted to have made this award to The SFP Trust and look forward to hearing how this funding impacts their works. Crerar Hotels is committed to giving back to the local community to help it grow and thrive and provide opportunities that may otherwise seem out of reach. For every stay our customers have with us they are supporting others who really need it. It is great for our folk in the hotels to see their hard work and efforts helping people in their own communities as well as those from throughout the whole of Scotland and Yorkshire.”