Scottish Football Association president Mike Mulraney claims hundreds of thousands will benefit from the “critical” new Pitching In campaign which will raise £50million.
Working in conjunction with the Scottish Football Partnership Trust and using association profits and government funding, along with philanthropic donations and sponsor and partner investment, the SFA looks to produce the sum in five years.
The plan is to build and upgrade 90 3G pitches and renovate 75 changing rooms by 2030 and to get the ball rolling, the SFA has made the first donation of £5m following a record turnover of £65m, and that will help grassroots and member clubs make significant infrastructural improvements.
Speaking at the home of Pollok United – an SFA Quality Mark Legacy Club with 18 boys’ and girls’ teams, Mulraney said: “We’re into hundreds of thousands, not tens of thousands.
“We’re already impacting hundreds of thousands of lives and it’s not just about producing footballers, it’s about the whole welfare impact in making changes like this in Scotland.
“It’s critical. The Scottish FA realised some years ago that our built infrastructure was dying.
“It was disappearing and what we did have was deteriorating, was closed, and that no one was accepting responsibility for it.
“So we decided that we were going to do so, and we did it with enthusiasm that’s seen significant money invested in our community over the last two or three years.
“And this is phase two of that project that will see another £50million going into our communities.
“This is really about projects to ensure that we get future qualification (to tournaments), and also that facilities are in place to allow our young kids and everyone else in our communities to access sport, to ensure that the future generation get an opportunity to do what the older generation could do.”