As UEFA’s annual celebration of the wonder of grassroots football, UEFA Grassroots Week gets underway this week, Scottish Football again will use the opportunity to celebrate the success of its ‘Football for All’ mantra.

Scottish Para Football Chair Ashley Reid believes the Affiliated National Association’s (ANA) GOLD award in UEFA's Best Disability Initiative category is testament to its "pioneering approach" to ensuring football truly is for everyone.

Scottish Para Football was launched by the Scottish FA in 2019 following an investment of £100,000 and it has gone from strength to strength since.

The world’s first ever para-football Affiliated National Association, was honoured for its work done in ensuring that everyone, regardless of age, ability, gender or background, can play football in a safe environment – the key objective of UEFA’s grassroots programme.

Scottish Para-Football brought together nine different organisations governing various styles of para-football in Scotland - including Amputee Football, Cerebral Palsy Football, Deaf Football, Frame Football, Learning Disability Football, Autism Football, Football Memories, Mental Health Football and Powerchair Football.

On receiving the award on behalf of Scottish Para Football in Madrid last week, Reid, Founder of Amputee Football Scotland, Chair of Scottish FA Scottish Para Football and Board member of Scottish FA Non-Professional Game said: "Scottish Para Football has, since its inception, centred around the ethos of 'Football for All'.

"It's about starting conversations and breaking down barriers to accessibility, inclusivity, equality and diversity.

“It's about ensuring there's a format of the game for everyone, regardless of ability.

"The creation of Scottish Para Football brought all Para football disciplines under one national umbrella – an Affiliated National Association – the first of its kind in the world.

"This award is testament to the pioneering approach that has succeeded in creating opportunities for everyone to access the beautiful game."

Paul McNeill believes there is plenty to celebrate during this year's UEFA grassroots week which runs from 23 September alongside the European Week of Sport.

And the Scottish FA Head of Community Development stressed that football is no longer, "just about 22 males running about a football pitch, the game is much bigger than that for us."

"Last year Scottish Para-Football were awarded a gold award for the Best Disability Initiative," he said.

"Aaron Connolly co-founded the ‘Time to Tackle‘ initiative, which helps improve wellbeing through football, was given a silver award by UEFA for Best Social Initiative. So we did reasonably well.

"That was last year and UEFA’s conference in Madrid celebrated that.
"During UEFA Grassroots Week this year we will celebrate all that is good with the grassroots game.

"It is UEFA'S opportunity to tie in with the EU on their physical activity week. It is an opportunity to shine a light on all things grassroots during that week and we ask people to celebrate it.

"We will have a wee bit more focus on a couple of subject areas – for example, can we get more girls and women involved, which is has long been a key objective for the Scottish FA.

"In the last few years we have launched another wonderful initiative designed to increase opportunities for girls to play football, the UEFA Disney Playmakers project. UEFA Disney Playmakers is a sports activity that delivers a fun and safe introduction to learning football, for five to eight year-old girls, through movement, play and the magic of Disney storytelling.

"We have used Frozen before and The Incredibles and when the girls see that they migrate towards it and get involved in football."

There will also be another push towards getting more people from the PARA community involved in the sport, to show that regardless of background, ability or anything else, the game is accessible for everybody.

McNeill said: "Yes, we might have to tweak the game but that's what we do – we tweak the game to allow everybody to participate.

"If you are in a powerchair, you have powerchair football.

"If you are an amputee, you have amputee football and there are crossovers as well.

"There is so much to be proud of within Scottish grassroots football and UEFA Grassroots Week gives us an opportunity to shine a light on all the good work we do and perhaps try to not be so negative at times.

"Last month the Scotland powerchair team qualified for the European Nations Cup and reached the final of their first major European competition – they just missed out on winning the final against Belgium.

"Every single day of the week, thousands of volunteers go out and makes sure that football happens for communities, for boys and girls. You can't put a price on that.

“It is something pretty remarkable and it is something that so many people in Scotland do so well. This week, let’s take some time to celebrate just how good we are at enjoying this wonderful game."