Behind The Goals

We kick off our new Club Development Consultancy podcast with a fascinating interview with Andy MacRae, General Secretary of Bealonians FC who are currently petitioning Redbridge Council to keep their club at Oakfields Playing Fields. Bealonians FC have been in the London Borough of Redbridge since 1936 and are the largest grassroots football club in the borough. At the request of Redbridge council, Bealonians FC have been caretakers of Oakfields Playing Fields since 2020. Looking after it in the absence of a lease, they have invested in its maintenance and provided a vital lifeline to the community. The club have since learned that the council is planning on granting the lease to Premier League club West Ham United, which would leave Bealonians FC and its 29 youth teams (including two girls teams) and ten adult men’s teams, without a place big enough in the borough to relocate to. The club claims that if they were to lose the site, it would have a dramatic impact on the health and wellbeing of the com

In this 'Club Development Scotland meets' episode, Andrew chats to Mark Covington, CEO of SNAP Sponsorship (https://snapsponsorship.com/) about how clubs can attract and develop their sponsorship offering to businesses through the platform. SNAP Sponsorship helps clubs promote their opportunities to a wider audience while sharing best practices when it comes to negotiating and securing sponsorship, all within one easy-to-use platform. Through our partnership with SNAP, you can benefit from 12 months of support for the price of just 11 months by using the promotional code: “clubdevelopmentscotland”. What’s more, you’ll keep 100% of the sponsorship you raise.

In this episode I talked with my colleague Alan Russell who leads Supporters Direct Scotland, to talk about the recently-published project report from their study on volunteering in football "Giving volunteers the space to make a difference". The report is the culmination of a project which took place during lockdown, funded by SD Europe. Read the report at https://www.supporters-direct.scot/research/giving-volunteers-the-space-to-make-a-difference/ and support our work during 2021 via https://www.patreon.com/supportersdirectscotland

We talked to Mike McInnes about his book "Man the Footballer: Homo Passiens", available from the Blizzard bookshop (https://theblizzard.co.uk/homo-passiens-man-footballer/news/). Why would human beings choose just two legs for transportation rather than three, or even four? There can only be one explanation, according to Mike. He offers a radical hypothesis, grounded by principles drawn from the evolutionary and cultural history of mankind, that humans evolved bipedalism for the purpose of playing football. If you enjoy this podcast and would like us to do more, please consider becoming a patron of Supporters Direct Scotland. By making a small contribution towards SD Scotland, you can support our work helping community groups and sports clubs across the country. Sign up at www.patreon.com/supportersdirectscotland

We met this week with Steven Lawther, author of "Arrival: How Scotland's Women Took Their Place on the World Stage and Inspired a Generation" - now available for pre-order from Pitch Publishing at https://www.pitchpublishing.co.uk/shop/arrival In the 1970s women's football in Scotland was unrecognised by the SFA and there was no national team. Arrival tells the fascinating and inspiring story of how Scotland's female footballers fought for their right to play and battled intolerance in order to build a team that would compete with the best, qualify for the World Cup and inspire a nation. If you enjoy this podcast and would like us to do more, please consider becoming a patron of Supporters Direct Scotland. By making a small contribution towards SD Scotland, you can support our work helping community groups and sports clubs across the country. Sign up at www.patreon.com/supportersdirectscotland

This week, in the long-awaited return of Behind The Goals, we talk to James Atkins (https://twitter.com/footballpsl) - the man behind Planet Super League, a football tournament which brings the family together to help the planet and your football club. Planet Super League sets a number of different activities for you and your family to do. The more you do, the more points you win for your club, and the higher up the league your club will go. The first PSL season ran at the end of 2020 with Leicester crowned champions, PSL 2 is coming soon, and we're looking forward to a Scottish PSL later this year to coincide with the COP 26 Climate Change conference being held in Glasgow. All activities are lockdown-safe, and you’ll learn how to live more sustainably, save some money, have some fun, and compete for prizes and bragging rights. Visit https://www.planetsuperleague.com to sign up. James is also the author of "Climate Change for Football Fans: A Matter of Life and Death" - published back in 2010 but even more

In this week’s podcast we’re speaking to Stuart Haw, a PhD researcher looking at Community Asset Transfers in the sports sector. Community Asset Transfers are something you might already be familiar with, but equally, you might just be hearing about them for the first time. CATs could be increasingly relevant to sport organisations as recent research suggests that the impact of COVID19 will mean many community facilities across Scotland will never re-open. According to a recent survey of public operators, current forecasts are that around 116 public sport, leisure and culture facilities across all regions of Scotland – including 18 leisure centres and eight swimming pools – are facing permanent closure as a result of the lockdown. A further 900 that could re-open may not do so for some time. This threat to our facilities also presents an opportunity for sports organisations to take ownership of them through CATS, and we ask Stuart about what the process looks like for CATs, what kind of skill sets a club

In this week’s podcast, we speak to Mick Livsey, Commercial Director of Oxford City FC. This episode is a case study in how best to bring commercial income by getting it right ‘off the pitch’. We discuss the club’s extensive work in the community, including the delivery of a refugee league, the provision of 300 free meals a day during the lockdown and becoming the first team to offer free attendance for children. If you find the Club Development Scotland podcast useful, please consider becoming a patron of Supporters Direct Scotland. By making a small contribution towards SD Scotland, you can support our work helping community groups and sports clubs across the country. Sign up at https://www.patreon.com/supportersdirectscotland

In this week’s podcast, we speak to David Alexander, Operations Director of Our Club Lotto, a white label lottery platform available to clubs across the UK. In the podcast we discuss how clubs can use Our Club Lotto to generate funds for their work and ask for best practice when it comes to encouraging sign ups. You can find out more about Our Club Lotto by visiting https://www.ourclublotto.co.uk/. If you find the Club Development Scotland podcast useful, please consider becoming a patron of Supporters Direct Scotland. By making a small contribution towards SD Scotland, you can support our work helping community groups and sports clubs across the country. Sign up at https://www.patreon.com/supportersdirectscotland

In this episode of the podcast we speak to John Cleisham about My Club Hub, a platform which helps volunteers involved in the running of sports clubs effectively run and govern their organisations. We came across My Club Hub and John a couple of years ago when a club we support signed up to the platform and we’ve enjoy a very good relationship since, so it was a pleasure to have John onto the podcast to hear more about his journey. In the podcast we discuss why John started MCH, how clubs can benefit from it, some of the successes the business has enjoyed to date and some of the future plans he has in terms of functionality and features. Also look out for a mention for both Stuart McCaffrey of the Scottish Football Partnership and Trust and Deveronvale Community Football Club, our past two guests on the podcast. In the podcast, we discuss an article in the Trust's quarterly magazine looking at how My Club Hub has improved the sustainability and efficiency of Deversonvale Community Football Club which you

In this week's podcast we speak to Stuart McCaffrey, Chief Operating Officer at the Scottish Football Partnership & Trust, about the huge level of support the organisation's has provided Scottish football with since starting in 2000. We also chat about Stuart's transition from playing professionally with the likes of St Johnstone, Inverness and Morton to working behind the scenes of the game and ask him for some top tips for funding applications. You can find out more about the support offered by both the Trust and Partnership by visiting https://thescottishfootballpartnership.com/ If you find the Club Development Scotland podcast useful, please consider becoming a patron of Supporters Direct Scotland. By making a small contribution towards SD Scotland, you can support our work helping community groups and sports clubs across the country. Sign up at https://www.patreon.com/supportersdirectscotland

In this episode of the Club Development Scotland we speak to Kevin Stewart, chairman of Deveronvale Community Club, winners of the Scottish FA’s 2020 Community Club of the Year. We discuss the club’s response to the COVID19 crisis and the setup of ‘The Hub’, created to support vulnerable members of the local community. If you find the Club Development Scotland podcast useful, please consider becoming a patron of Supporters Direct Scotland. By making a small contribution towards SD Scotland, you can support our work helping community groups and sports clubs across the country. Sign up at https://www.patreon.com/supportersdirectscotland

In this episode, we speak to Barry Munro, co-founder and Operations Director of Fantastic Fanatics, a platform designed to help clubs raise vital income to support their work. Fantastic Fanatics, which was developed in Scotland, enables sports clubs to generate funds when their own members shop, eat out, book hotels and lots more. Clubs simply just sign up to Fantastic Fanatics online, upload a few verifications documents, then get all their club members involved to sign up as fans, and choose their club to support. Members securely register their everyday debit and credit cards, and any purchases they make online at many major retailers including Boots, Foot Locker, BT, John Lewis, Currys PC World, Sky, Tui, Dunelm, JD Sports and hundreds of others will raise funds for their chosen club. What's more, through our partnership with Fantastic Fanatics, clubs can get an extra 10% income for their first 6 months on the platform when they select 'Club Development Scotland' as their governing body when signing up

In this podcast, we spoke to Mia Salvemini of Responsiball about their rankings and how SPFL clubs fared in the 2020 edition of it. We discussed how clubs in the SPFL Premiership ranked in terms of governance, environment and community compared to other major leagues around Europe and beyond. Mia highlighted examples of good practice in the fields of environmental work, governance and community outreach from Scotland including nice mentions for Hibs, St Mirren and Motherwell FC. You can check out the Responsiball 2020 rankings at http://responsiball.org/ and you can follow them on Twitter at https://twitter.com/responsiball If you find the Club Development Scotland podcast useful, please consider becoming a patron of Supporters Direct Scotland. By making a small contribution towards SD Scotland, you can support our work helping community groups and sports clubs across the country. Sign up at https://www.patreon.com/supportersdirectscotland

We began this episode by talking about this season’s Scottish Football Supporters Survey results, which you can read at http://www.scottishsupporters.net/survey/2019-20/ - and the results of Alan’s geekery can be found at http://www.scottishsupporters.net/survey/explore-the-results/ We then introduced our interviewee Warren Hawke – former footballer, former club chief executive, and now a club development specialist, working currently to develop the Raith Rovers Community Foundation after doing a similar job previously at Greenock Morton Community Trust. Warren spoke really passionately about his belief in the potential for football to drive positive change in our communities, and how both clubs and their communities can benefit from this work. We also shared some of the favourite books we’ve recently been reading: • David Goldblatt: “The Age of Football” https://www.amazon.co.uk/Age-Football-Global-Twenty-first-Century/dp/150985424X • Mat Guy: “Barcelona to Buckie Thistle” https://www.amazon.co.uk/Barcelon

After a LONG break, it’s the return of Behind The Goals! This episode is a topical one – looking forward to next week’s General Election and what the main political parties are promising to do if election. To see their football and sport-related promises in context you can read their full manifestos online: • Green Party: https://campaigns.greenparty.org.uk/manifesto/ • Conservatives: https://vote.conservatives.com/our-plan • Labour: https://labour.org.uk/manifesto/ • Liberal Democrats: https://www.libdems.org.uk/plan • SNP: https://www.snp.org/general-election-2019/ • Brexit Party: https://www.thebrexitparty.org/contract/ During the show we mentioned a couple of newspaper articles, a podcast, and an app which simulates colour vision deficiencies: • Daily Express article about the radical communist conspiracy at the heart of British politics: https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1192676/jeremy-corbyn-news-labour-party-general-election-nationalisation-football-clubs-liverpool • Jeremy Corbyn interview on t

We welcome former international manager Justin Walley onto this week’s podcast. Justin was the manager of Matabeleland who participated in last year’s CONIFA World Cup, a tournament for nations not recognised by FIFA. We talk about Justin’s time in Zimbabwe, the fall of Robert Mugabe, Bruce Grobbelaar joining Justin’s coaching team and what it’s like managing in Africa. You can buy Justin’s book about his experiences ‘One Football, No Nets’ here: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/One-Football-Nets-Justin-Walley/dp/1910515647/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1551637506&sr=8-1&keywords=one+football+no+nets You can enter Africa on the Ball’s competition to win a copy of Justin’s book by checking out their Twitter (@AfricaOnTheBall). Also in the podcast we mention the upcoming Everything to Play For Conference about Women’s Football in Scotland, which is co-sponsored by our consultancy arm Club Development Scotland. Tickets are still available for the event here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/everything-to-play-for-womens-foo

Kenny Jamieson (@kennyjamieson) joined us to talk about Falkirk FC's 'Back The Bairns' fan ownership campaign. So far, they have gathered pledges of more than £600,000 towards their fundraising target, which will be used to acquire a majority stake in the football club. Kenny was a great guest, and the podcast finished with one of the most in-depth answers to the question "what one thing would you change in Scottish football" we've heard yet! Read more about Back The Bairns at https://www.falkirkfc.co.uk/2019/01/08/back-the-bairns-fan-ownership-proposal/, and pledge at https://www.backthebairns.com/