Our Story

Youth Football Scotland was founded in 2010. The founding team identified that there was an opportunity to bring together the vast national youth football community through a captivating digital platform. We opted for the social enterprise model – a not for profit organisation with a mission to generate revenue through commercial activities and reinvest it into its social aims. The social aims are as follows:

1. Provide a new, exciting energy towards youth football in Scotland – raising the profile, improving quality levels in all areas and breathing life into the game.

1.1. Raise the confidence of young players by providing media coverage through journalism, radio, video and photography, which is of a similar standard to that which their professional role models receive.

1.2. Use the YFS platform to provide local success stories with national recognition.

1.3. Highlight Scotland’s inspirational stories relating to young people and volunteers, to a global audience.

1.4. Highlight best practice by players, coaches, officials and volunteers, inspiring their equivalents at clubs and organisations throughout Scotland to follow suit.

1.5. Provide a Scotland wide digital community for exchange, sharing and discussion of ideas and information.

2. Promote healthy living by increasing the number of participants in grassroots sport.

2.1. Provide a purpose made online service which matches young players and volunteers with the best possible club for them.

2.2. Promote playing activities (club and non club) for all age groups and abilities, raising awareness of what opportunities young players have in every region.

2.3. Provide information about nutrition, injury prevention and fitness, in a bitesize format that appeals to young people.

2.4. Inspire young people to stay within the sport by providing exceptional media coverage to their activities, tackling the high drop off rate during the mid to late teenage years.

2.5. Inspire young people to take up the sport, by providing exceptional media coverage to their peers.

3. Use the nation’s passion for football as a vehicle for education and social development.

3.1. Provide volunteering opportunities for people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds, allowing them to gain skills and practical work experience in the fields of journalism, photography, radio and videography.

3.2. Improve the literacy skills of young people, by encouraging them to submit match reports from their game and presenting them with the opportunity to read news and reports relevant to them on a daily basis.

3.3. Improve the digital and IT literacy of young people, using their passion for youth football to encourage them to navigate the YFS website and utilise a selection of transferable skills in the process.

3.4. Provide the opportunity for young people to interact with their opponents and other members of the community on a regional and national level – turning on field respect, which previously went no further, into lasting friendships.

3.5. Give young people the chance to develop character, discipline, social skills, leadership and sportsmanship, which come as a result of participating in a team sport.