Rachel balances volunteering for Milton FC seven days a week with a part time job and her role as a youth ambassador for the Scottish FA. She has coached many groups within the club including Mini Kickers and also helps run the McDonald’s Fun Football sessions that give extra participation opportunities to numerous children every week.

She is very passionate and completely self-driven and dedicates her time to developing her skills as a coach and is an inspiration to all coaches and children she meets. Recently, she has been pushing to set up a children’s disability team with Milton and is an amazing local ambassador for football. Rachel is deserving of this award due to her being an Inspiration to the club and her dedication to coaching young children at a grassroots level.

Lee started coaching with Heston Rovers and saw an increase in the amount of girls joining, so started up girls-only football training/games which has grown to over 70 participants. The team is constantly growing and they are now competing in their regional league, all thanks to Lee. After suffering some issues off the pitch, Lee’s unwavering commitment to girls’ football shone through. From being at his daughter’s bedside for a week, Lee came back and co-ordinated and took all training while organising the team to play in the league. 

His ability to encourage and engage with the girls is shown in the great team spirit the girls have and the enjoyment they take from playing at Heston. Every coach has nothing but praise for Lee, his team and the way his coaching team and the team conduct themselves. Any training session you will find Lee there 20 minutes before everyone else, he and his two daughters carrying the equipment he has, setting up drills, all for his team’s arrival, and will ensure he watches every other Heston game he can, to show support to every girl.

Alan founded the club in 1980 along with the support of his brother Ian to allow players from Busby to play amateur football in their hometown instead of travelling to other local towns. Since then, the club has grown to over 250 registered players across a full pathway. Alan's dedication to grassroots football and the club is second to none. When the club needed support, Alan was there to step in and take huge personal and financial sacrifices to keep the club running. Along with this, Alan is the first face our nursery section sees when they begin in the gym hall and his presence throughout our club goes all the way to the amateurs and the over 35s. 

Not only does he support on the pitch but off the pitch, he also maintains the grounds which requires almost full-time hours, all on a voluntary basis. He is always striving for the best for the club whether that is the highest quality playing surface or just generally being around for coaches and parents to approach with any questions. It is hard to encapsulate a forty-two year voluntary career to a grassroots club, but this is just a snapshot of what Alan has done for the club.

Ayrshire Deaf FC owes a debt of gratitude to both Callum Holmes and Christopher Keen who both started the club during lockdown. They noticed that youth club members could not gather in the usual way, due to restrictions so provided them with a social opportunity by giving them access to football.

With a range of children from 5 to 18, both Callum’s and Christopher’s hard work ensures that children across the region get access to football on a weekly basis. Thanks to the inclusive nature of their sessions, the club has started to attract players from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Uddingston and Renfrewshire who are all willing to travel to be a part of this extraordinary club.

Breadalbane FC recently became a Platinum Scottish FA Quality Mark club and Mairi McAdam played a huge role in this. Her passion and commitment to local football has been instrumental in giving children opportunities to play regular football.

One of Mairi’s beliefs is that football should be a vehicle for good and has started partnerships with local schools allowing their pupils an easy pathway to the club. This partnership has developed further by working to identify pupils who have behavioural issues in class and allowing them to take part in lunchtime football classes.

Since Covid, and despite having a demanding job, Mairi has increased her role at the club and has become the Chair of the Community Club.

Every single person in Bo’ness knows the name Charlie Patrick. The local football club has been benefitting from his hard work for 60 years where he has turned his hand to all manner of jobs including kit man, which he still does today.

Each week starts the same for Charlie and he collects the kit from Newtown Park before getting the bus down to Grangemouth to get it laundered for the team.

Charlie is known for running a tight ship and is loved by everyone at the club who would simply be lost without him. Charlie is happy to help out in any capacity and can often be found in canteen serving food and tea.

He has now taken on a new role helping out the under 20’s side and is a true legend of the town.

The Ayr United Football Academy is a club whose impact upon their community cannot be understated. The club is an incredible football provider, offering access to the game for people of all ages, however their impact as a club is not limited to football provision.

Wanting to create real change Ayr United partnered with various different community groups to provide much-needed services to those in need in their community, whether they are helping to foster young entrepreneurs through their partnership with Cumnock Juniors Community Enterprise, fighting loneliness and supporting active lives of the elderly through their provision of walking football and even helping to fight unemployment in Ayr by helping those in the local community to re-skill through their Community Jobs Scotland programme.

Their incredible work on all fronts has made a real difference to the lives of the people in their community. From any age, their impact has been invaluable and as a result are deserving winners of the Best Professional Football Club In The Community Award.

Welcome Through Football is a football project that truly shows the transformative nature of football. The project was set up in order to increase the social inclusion of young asylum seekers and migrants living in Edinburgh. With many struggling with language barriers when they move to Edinburgh, social integration with their local community can prove challenging. As a result, Welcome Through Football focused on establishing a range of football activities to remove language barriers and learn skills for further education, helping to increase social integration with people new to the community.

Since it was launched a year ago, Welcome Through Football has engaged with over 75 participants aged 15 to 25 years old, with many moving on to start university or volunteer with the charity. Welcome Through Football truly shows the power of the beautiful game and its ability to transform lives. Making the team deserving winners of this award.

The winner of McDonald’s ‘Football Restaurant of the Year’ award in Scotland is # 1536 Leven, operated by franchisee Jimmy Patrick and his son, William Patrick. The award recognises the great work being done by the restaurant team in supporting local grassroots projects, most notably helping to establish and support the ‘Game on Girls’ initiative between the local council and police force, providing kit and equipment, and qualifying new football coaches to carry out a coaching project for local girls. As well as fully funding the girls’ activities, McDonald’s Leven gifted branded kit and sports bags to the boy’s ‘Game on Scotland’ team, alongside financial support from the McDonald’s UK match fund scheme. Jimmy and William go above and beyond to support the communities in which their restaurants operate and this is just one of a number of initiatives they’ve sponsored in recent years. Congratulations to Jimmy, William and the Leven team who are deserved winners of the 2022 Football Restaurant of the Year award.