WATCH: Funding support for north-east football clubs outlined
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The Scottish Amateur Football Association has revealed how a £100,000 Holyrood grant will support clubs across the north-east.
The Scottish Government released the funding to the Scottish Football Association with the primary aim to protect the game at all levels and to assist all clubs survive through the coronavirus pandemic.
A Scottish Amateur Football Association spokesman said: "The Scottish Amateur FA and the Scottish FA appreciate that our membership has been negatively impacted by the pandemic both in terms of finance and the restrictions on recreational football, and have agreed that our association should benefit from the funding being made available.
"The Scottish Amateur FA is delighted to inform our membership that a grant of £100,000 has been allocated by the Scottish FA from the Scottish Government funding and the executive and finance committee has agreed that the entire amount of this grant will be passed on to member clubs in the year ahead.
"As we all are now aware the 2020/21 season is going to be impacted upon more than we had hoped and although we remain confident that football will return during the current 2020/21 season and the 2021 summer season, like everyone else we have no idea when exactly that will be given the ever changing situation.
"However, we hope that these funding decisions will ensure that 2021 will be a better year for amateur football as we all try to recover from Covid-19.
"The Scottish Amateur FA would like to thank the Scottish FA and the Scottish Government for this funding allocation."
The Scottish Amateur FA has released a video featuring is president Stuart Urquhart, who explains how the funding will help amateur clubs.
It can be viewed below:
Urquhart said: "Of those teams that paid the SAFA affiliation fee in the current season, we will offer free SAFA affiliation for 2021/22 season, which including some second team affiliations amount to some £74,000.
"We also intend to offer free affiliation fees to all Highland and Islands members for the 2021 summer season at a cost of £11,000.
"In addition to this, all member clubs that have paid their public liability for season 2020/21 will have a discount fee for season 2021/22, at a cost of £34,000.
"These figures will mean a direct saving by our members to the sum of £119,000.
"The executive and finance committee also agreed in principle that we will look to make some more monies available to our member clubs, in addition to the funding being made available that I have just detailed, once the financial year ends and the full impacts of the pandemic are known."
