Saluting James Anderson’s Wonderful Gesture

Date: 10th June 2020

Today has been a good day for Scottish Football. 

This morning, The SPFL Trust announced a donation of over £3m from Edinburgh based philanthropist James Anderson. This magnificent gesture will go along way to help so many Scottish football clubs during this unprecedented global pandemic, with so many currently worried about their finances and even their longterm future.

If we are going to see a return of Scottish football in August (Even if it’s just the Scottish Premiership) then many of our teams will need help when it comes to procuring Covid-19 tests. Hopefully with this kind donation, we will see some professional football return to Scotland in a few months time.

Here’s hoping SPFL Chief Executive Neil Doncaster can also secure a sponsor for the league set up and that too can aid the clubs financially. 

While it is fantastic that our clubs can access grants without out any preconditions, I am also delighted to see that the rest of the money will go towards charity work and to local communities. 

The SPFL Trust has helped with various worthwhile projects over the years. They use football to help those that need to become more physically active, they support charities that use our game to help people’s mental health and build support with local libraries to promote reading in kids between the ages of five and twelve years old. It is wonderful that the SPFL Trust will be able to use some of this fund to continue running these much needed projects.

As many of you already know, we always like to promote the good that Scottish football can do within the local community. Our national game can help enrich the lives of toddlers and all the way up to the elderly. Football can truly be open to all. They can support the LGBT community, all races, all genders and people with disabilities. 

I’ve have been to projects up and down Scotland and I have personally taken so much from all of them.

It’s great that a sizeable portion of this cash will go towards some of the great work Scottish football does within our communities. It really can enrich the lives of the vulnerable and the often ignored.

I applaud Mr James Anderson for this magnificent gesture. He has said he may add more funds in the future and I applaud that too. I also thank him for not forgetting about the charities and the communities as they are the constant shining lights that surround our game and show us that it is more than just a business! 

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