MFSM Ireland (July)

 

In July 2017, Scotland's Women National Team played a warm-up friendly against the Republic of Ireland in Kirkcaldy ahead of their Euro 2017 campaign in the Netherlands.  TACC invited some disadvantaged young people along to the game as part of the "My First Scotland Match" (MFSM) programme, they were a group from Burntisland Primary School and also a group from Active & Aware Youth Club, Kirkcaldy.  Each child received a match ticket, a Scotland shirt, a Saltire flag and pocket money.

 

The feedback TACC received - "Just to say thank you so much for allowing us the opportunity to come along the other night.  The children who were there have had a number of issues at home ranging from severe health issues, ADHD, family bereavement, drug and alcohol exposure and child protection issues.  Obviously for data protection reasons I cannot go into details of the children's explicit backgrounds suffice to say that their wee lives have not been easy.  They were totally blown away by the whole experience, they had never been to a football match before and for one, he was completely blown away by getting the money to spend - it was like all his Christmas' had come at once - he'd never held that amount of money before.  The children were totally overwhelmed, one kept asking me if ''it was really real''.  The parents were super excited too, for some it gave them a much needed bit of respite from their challenging children - one is a single dad with an ADHD son who finds life very difficult so for him even to get 'a night off' he was totally delighted!  The other parents spoke incredibly positively afterwards too saying that their children came back absolutely bouncing and desperate to go back!  I am sure the whole experience will have had a massive impact where these children will feel more motivated to connect to school, sport and football.  To see the world differently.  It was a night to remember for them, a one off, a highlight of their summer, their year! Thank you so so very much!"