Thursday 19 October 2000
Following the British team’s success in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, sportscotland’s Chief Executive, Ian Robson, has made a plea for more businesses to come forward to support sport in Scotland’s communities, and help create the sporting role models of the future.
By the end of this financial year more than 1,000 awards and over £6 million pounds will have been given to community sports projects throughout Scotland as a result of the sponsorship incentive scheme sportsmatch and it’s partnership with business.
Businesses participating in the scheme ranged from large organisations such as the Bank of Scotland and IBM to local businesses such as AN Fraser Joinery in Glengarry, and today sportscotland launched a new SPORTSMATCH leaflet to encourage more Scottish businesses to strengthen their links with the community by sponsoring sport.
Ian Robson said: "Achieving Olympic success must be the most exhilarating sensation an elite athlete can ever hope to experience. For the nation watching, and for young people in particular, it can inspire them take up sport for the first time or to improve their performance in their chosen sport.
"For many participants, however, the opportunity to play in a safe environment, with appropriate equipment and proper coaching at community level, does not exist. Some of these individuals may be missing out on the start they need to become the Olympic medallists of the future."
Olympic athlete Pauline Stott, GB Ladies’ Hockey Team Captain at Sydney 2000, commented: "I applied to SPORTSMATCH successfully on behalf of Bonagrass Grove Ladies’ Hockey Club in Dundee. The combined Sponsorship from Bonar Fabrics Ltd and SPORTSMATCH means that we are in a position to develop the talent that exists among young people in this area, bringing top class coaching to young people who would never normally have access to such services. I would love to see more businesses getting involved with community sport and the SPORTSMATCH scheme offers them the opportunity to do so. This would ultimately bring benefits to both businesses and to communities all over Scotland.”
Ian Robson continued: “SPORTSMATCH is a brilliant enterprise, which has helped hundreds of sports groups develop and enabled countless community sport projects to get off the ground. Moreover sportsmatch offers the business sector an opportunity to play an important part in the development of sport and physical activity throughout Scotland.”
- Funded by the Scottish Executive and administered by sportscotland, SPORTSMATCH was launched in 1992 to encourage businesses to sponsor community sport projects. Today SPORTSMATCH partners a wide range of businesses of all sizes, matching their sport sponsorship pound for pound and publicly acknowledging their contribution to sport in the community.
- The SPORTSMATCH Awards Panel considers a wide range of applications covering all sports on a quarterly basis. Capital projects of a construction nature are not eligible but everything from sports equipment to coach education and from sports events to come and try sessions qualify for SPORTSMATCH funding.
- Sports clubs, schools, local authorities, charities and voluntary youth associations are all eligible to apply at the planning stage of their sponsorship.
- It is a competitive scheme and the Awards Panel assess each application not only upon the merit of the sponsorship but the impact the project will have on developing a particular sport within the defined locale.
- The next two SPORTSMATCH Awards Panel Meetings will be held on Friday 1 December 2000 and Friday 23 February 2001. The submission deadline for applications is Friday 10 November 2000 and Friday 2 February 2001 respectively. Applications which focus on youth sport, people with disabilities, recreationally deprived areas, coach education and ethnic minority participation would be particularly welcomed.