Tullibody Community Football Club and Alva Swifts Football Club have been recognised for their valuable contribution to grassroots football.
Tullibody Community were awarded with the Scottish FA Quality Mark Community Award on Monday 14th November 2011 and Alva Swifts were awarded with the Scottish FA Quality Mark Development Award on the same night.
The Quality Mark Accreditation Scheme, run by the Scottish FA in partnership with McDonald’s and sportscotland, recognises proactive clubs and schools working to increase youth and community participation. There are three Quality Mark categories - Standard, Development, and Community.
Tullibody Community Football Club was formed in Sept 2007 by the joining of Tullibody United Football Club and Tullibody Amateurs. Tullibody United had two youth teams, under-14s and under-19s. The Amateurs wanted to seek players who could come through a youth system and United wanted to see their players continue to play after youth football.
The club's current team structure now comprises of 9 teams, 260 players, 48 coaches and 60 volunteers. The club have also established girls teams at under-11s, under-15s and under-17s, which contributed to the club gaining the award.
Club Chairman, David Reynolds added: "This is a great achievement for the club. While we are delighted with the progress the club has made over the years, we aim to build on this award by continuing to grow and provide opportunities for young players in the local area whilst trying to move our facility onto the next level".
Alva Swifts were formed in 1995 with one team. Since then the club has evolved and have teams playing at numerous age groups, from under-12 to under-16s, and have recently started a soccer school. The club is heavily involved in the local community and have a shared philosophy throughout all of their teams.
Coach Development Officer, Stewart MacFarlane commented: "This is a fantastic achievement for the club as we continue to look to develop further. Hopefully we can offer more opportunities for young people in our area to be involved within the game. Our next aim is to build on this award and aspire to become a Quality Mark Community Club."
Scottish FA Football Development Manager Alan Morgan said: "I am delighted both clubs have been awarded with their respective awards. This recognises the hard work they have put in over the years and it has taken a while due to the size of the membership to ensure the correct standards are in place. The Community Award which Tullibody Community received also recognises the fact a pathway is in place within the club for members to join at all levels with a provision now in place for girls as well."
Football Development Officer, Graeme Henderson added "I am extremely proud of both clubs and the effort they have put in too achieving their respective rewards. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Alan Morgan for the time he has put in to assist both clubs."
McDonald’s, Scottish FA’s community partner since 2002, are committed to helping young footballers shine by attracting 13,000 new volunteers and 10,000 new coaches by 2014, as well as supporting 600 clubs and 52,000 players through new and existing football networks.
Through Quality Mark, McDonald’s and the Scottish FA aim to provide support to grassroots clubs and schools across Scotland as they strive to broaden youth and community participation and to enhance player, coach and volunteer development.
The Quality Mark Accreditation Scheme is supported by sportscotland, the national agency for sport. sportscotland has one clear focus – to develop a world class sporting system for Scotland – and works with partners to build success for Scottish sport.