Community and the voluntary sector in a pandemic: The significant role of a local football club

Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis highlighted the important ways that communities can support each other in and across neighbourhoods. Volunteers played a fundamental role assisting individuals with basic needs and with keeping people connected. In a number of different settings, volunteering is part of everyday life for many people, making a huge and often hidden contribution to the lives of individuals and communities. This paper looks at the specific case of a community football club in Scotland who played a significant role in engaging with its local populace and becoming a focal point for people during a very challenging period. The case study club looked at here were like many Third Sector agencies and community groups the ‘go to’ agencies for local council’s during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many social, community organisations adapted quickly to undertake a huge range of critical roles in neighbourhoods such as food distribution and prescription delivery services. This paper suggests that these types of locally owned and operated ‘hubs’ may offer the best opportunities for important co-designed and co-delivered services, accessible to all.

Introduction

The COVID-19 crisis highlighted the important ways that communities can support each other in and across neighbourhoods. Volunteers played a fundamental role assisting individuals with basic needs and with keeping people connected (see, e.g., Thiery et al., 2021; Wakefield et al., 2022). In several different settings, volunteering is part of everyday life for many people, making a huge and often hidden contribution to the lives of individuals and communities. The role of volunteers has long been recognised as integral to the provision of sport (see Cuskelly et al., 2006) and this was highlighted in many different places across the world during the height of the global pandemic.

Whilst much valuable scholarly research has focused on global sporting mega-events and the various legacy aspects of these, what became even more apparent during the pandemic was the important role of the local in sport. Football clubs are central parts of many communities. The sport has a wide popular appeal and an ability to contribute to areas beyond the sport itself (McTier, 2020; Parker et al., 2019; Scottish FA, 2018; Smith, 2022).

This paper looks at the case of a community football club in Scotland who played a significant role in engaging with its local populace and becoming a focal point for people during a very challenging period. It looks specifically at how the club responded to the pandemic and are helping a community build back better. Through an interpretive research framework, the study attempts to understand the ways in which the football club became a key community anchor during this period. Drawing upon the work of the cultural theorists Raymond Williams and Pierre Bourdieu, it explores the significance of community and the place of a community football club in the development of social capital.

Responding to the pandemic

The crisis created by COVID-19 changed all our lives and had an impact on society which is perhaps unprecedented in recent memory. The Scottish Government (2021a) noted that:

…we have seen countless acts of kindness and solidarity as communities, the Third Sector, and local authorities collectively stepped up to look after one another. Our collective approach to overcoming the virus continues with both the personal challenge of keeping each other safe and responding to the wider socio-economic challenges.

Organisations, often working with reduced staffing and volunteer numbers, had to adapt the approach of their services to ensure new safety practice was maintained (see Gardner et al., 2021). It should be noted that while some organisations ceased their operations or reduced their engagement during the first wave of the pandemic, others expanded their activities due to demand. Volunteering, crucially, played a fundamental role around assisting people with basic needs and with keeping people connected and well. Whilst there is no universal consensus on the meaning of the term volunteering, the volunteering context outlined in the Scottish Government (2019) framework provides a useful overview highlighting that deciding to volunteer is a choice ‘undertaken of one’s own free will and a choice not motivated for financial gain or a wage or salary’. In community settings, volunteering is part of everyday life for many people, making a huge and often hidden contribution across the varied local authority areas in Scotland (Scottish Government, 2019).

In Renfrewshire, Third Sector organisations and statutory services dealt with ‘lockdown’ (staff working from home, premises closed, embedding COVID-19 guidance in practice, etc.) swiftly, supporting their communities and creating a sense of ‘safety’ for those they support (Renfrewshire Council, 2020). Renfrewshire is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It is a local authority area in the West of Scotland with some parts of Renfrewshire recognised as being amongst the most deprived in the country. In describing the impact of the pandemic, Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership (2022) noted that ‘We have all had to adapt and respond to the greatest personal and collective challenge many of us have faced in our lifetimes’. Before looking at the case study and the specific challenges of building back better following on from the pandemic, the next section will briefly outline the theoretical framework, methodological underpinning and contextual background to the research study.

Research context, methodology and theoretical framework

Bonnyrigg Rose Football Club are the community club associated with Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic FC, a Scottish football club based in the Bonnyrigg area of Midlothian Scotland (Bonnyrigg Rose FC, 2021). They play in Scottish League Two, having recently been promoted, following their success in winning the Lowland Football League in 2021/22 season. Founded in 1881, the club traces their origins back to 1874 and are nicknamed ‘the Rose’. The team plays its games at New Dundas Park. New Dundas Park was originally purchased by the Trustees of Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic FC from Sir Hendry Dundas and his mother Dame Jean Hood Dundas for £500 on the 10th June 1953 (Bonnyrigg Rose FC, 2021). The agreement confirmed that the ground, in a manner similar to an ‘asset lock’ clause for a community interest company, would only be utilised for football (SENScot, 2022). The constitution also notes the club shall be affiliated with the Bonnyrigg Rose Football Club. The first executive committee meeting of Bonnyrigg Rose Football Club took place on the 30th September 2013 at New Dundas Park, bringing together several existing sports groups operating in the Bonnyrigg area including Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic ‘A’, Bonnyrigg Rose Youths, and Lasswade Thistle FC (Bonnyrigg Rose FC, 2020).

The community club Bonnyrigg Rose FC became a registered charity on 29th July 2016 and aimed to:

…provide a safe environment and to encourage and promote the development of football and health within the community of Bonnyrigg through the provision of youth teams for boys and girls that foster fair play, participation for all, irrespective of race, colour, religion, sex sexuality or disabilities’ (The Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), 2021).

In the Bonnyrigg Rose FC charitable constitution, the club confirms its affiliation to the Scottish Youth Football Association and notes its alignment and support of the Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic Football Club (OSCR, 2021).

To engage with the broader academic literature around community and social capital, we found the work of Williams (2003 [1977]) and Bourdieu (1986) particularly useful in helping to develop some of the key areas of analysis. Williams (2003 [1977]) outlined the importance of community and the ways in which direct and responsible relationships helped form a sense of place. Bourdieu (1986) emphasised that sport should not be analysed in isolation from other practices that confer status on social groups. The Scottish Government (2019) notes how most informal volunteering relies and builds on bonding social capital within groups but is less likely to lead to new connections.

A number of scholars have contributed to the development of our understanding of social capital in sport (see, e.g., Nicholson and Hoye, 2008; Tacon, 2022). Many studies of sport draw upon the work of Robert Putnam (2000) and critically assess how and where sports clubs play a key role in the development of social capital. Skinner et al. (2008) highlighted how community sport organisations have had to adjust to neoliberal processes. They also consider the nature of community and how community arises out of the fundamental need to create and maintain human bonds. Williams (1976, p.66) drew attention to the use of community as a ‘warmly persuasive word’. This remains evident in many of the key works on sport and social capital and is arguably best understood through qualitative in-depth studies which focus on the ways in which social capital is formed in community sport settings (see Tacon, 2022).

The first author of this paper had developed strong links with the Scottish FA (which oversees the governance of football in Scotland) and Bonnyrigg Rose in developing wider doctoral research looking at how football clubs can be supported to help deliver social outcomes. Representatives of both the Scottish FA and Bonnyrigg Rose had been interviewed on a number of occasions prior to March 2020 and were subsequently interviewed on six further occasions over the course of the 18 months after that. The second author supervised the doctoral study and has previously published work on various aspects of football. The study is shaped by an interpretive research framework which draws upon autoethnography and in-depth semi-structured interviews to look at the significance of community football (for an overview of the methodological underpinning of the study see McNiven, 2022; McNiven and Harris, 2021). A number of different people were interviewed for the broader research study, which began as a study of three different clubs. As the work developed, the focus shifted to one club that had played a very important role within the local community in Bonnyrigg (in the Midlothian area of Scotland), as Midlothian Council reacted to local issues around the COVID-19 crisis, with the Council recognising that the club could be part of delivering community resilience support. Bonnyrigg is located eight miles from Scotland’s capital city of Edinburgh and has a population of around 18,500 (2021 estimate).

This paper is based largely (but not exclusively) around interviews with two key informants, Danny Bisland of the Scottish FA and Trish Sime of Bonnyrigg Rose FC, who became valued and trusted gatekeepers during the research project.

It became apparent that some of the broader initiatives led by those governing football in Scotland, and the specific experiences of the case study club, offered fertile ground to further explore the important role of football in community development. Whilst we had long championed the role of football clubs (and sport more broadly) in contributing to developing communities, the seismic effects of the pandemic and the challenges of various lockdowns provided opportunities for many sports clubs to visibly show their importance in a variety of different ways. The focus of the research presented here looks at how one football club is helping a community ‘build back better’.

The Scottish FA’s COVID response

The Scottish FA, like every other organisation, was not immune to the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis with perhaps the suspension of the game, below the elite level, at particular times the major impact. The Association produced many guides and route maps for their members in association with Sportscotland (the national agency for sport in Scotland) during the crisis and acted in concert with the Scottish Government developing a ‘COVID-19 eLearning’ package which aimed to support players to continue playing football, but also ensuring that the clubs met the requirements of a safe and secure environment, with precautions taken to limit the spread of the virus (Scottish FA, 2020). Danny Bisland, the National Club Grow Manager for the Scottish FA at the time of the COVID-19 crisis, suggested that the organisation:

…have had a focus on the pandemic…we’ve been in constant dialogue with the community organisations and community clubs that we had in tow…asking what was their main concern. Usually for a lot for sporting organisations, finance is a huge issue... (R1)

The Scottish FA on their website promoting the ‘COVID-19 eLearning’ (Scottish FA, 2020) package suggested that this approach would ‘empower the football community in Scotland to play its part in limiting the spread of coronavirus throughout the country’.

While acting to safeguard groups within their network, the Scottish FA continued to promote and undertake training aimed at enhancing the potential of community football clubs. This included support for individuals from the clubs to access an Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) qualification which would be delivered by the Social Enterprise Academy, an organisation that aims to ‘deliver innovative programmes that empower people in Scotland and around the world to step up and effect social change’ (Social Enterprise Academy, 2023). Corrie Campbell, a Scottish FA Club Development Manager, highlighted that:

… (the course) can lead to an ILM qualification but the main focus…is to give them (the clubs) key tools to be able to go and develop further as a social enterprise…we need to support them to do that…as you can imagine, a lot of them are volunteers - there’s some paid staff, but most of them are volunteers so we would need to give them that support to begin to grow (R2).

Campbell noted that the roll out of the training had been hampered by the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 and into 2021, and that the Scottish FA had looked at new ways of delivering the support which would be suitable for the clubs. She further explained that:

We're delivering the ILM, social enterprise course online via Zoom - this is the first time - we weren’t too sure how it was going to be because what we used to do is get everyone to come to a venue from all over - and the feedback for the two-hour workshops is that it’s been great online - but the full day one…they miss the interaction between the clubs. See, when you go and get a cup of tea, you're speaking to another club or just talking about a subject. I think everyone's missing that…that conversation between clubs (R2).

This point regards the missing element of peer-to-peer support may be important; would community delivery be expected to return to ‘face to face’ following the ending of social restrictions caused by the COVID-19 crisis or alternatively, would ‘digital’ prevail? Campbell suggested that:

…for a number of different aspects of the Scottish FA business, it will be both (virtual and physical), now that we’ve learned how to do things...we don’t need to travel and sit in traffic. We’re now aware of what we can do - before we were not too sure! But we’ve kind of been forced into it. Nothing is better than meeting people face to face. That value you gain from that (but) it’s important to get that mixture (R2).

With less travelling for participants, the new online format driven by the restrictions brought in following the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an increase in uptake around this training; a new approach forced on the Scottish FA, but perhaps a development of practice that should be retained.

The Football for All campaign and the case of Bonnyrigg Rose

In April 2021, the Scottish FA launched its Football for All campaign which pledged around £1.5 million of funding to ‘kick-start’ activity around the grassroots game as part of supporting the sport’s recovery from the pandemic (Scottish FA, 2021). As part of the campaign, the Scottish FA confirmed that because of the challenges created by ‘lockdown’, the number of registered players had dropped by 20% in the country. The campaign also recognised that clubs were identifying other areas within the delivery of their business models that were being impacted on which included income, access to facilities and the number of volunteers available. The investment package which was confirmed as being made available by the Scottish FA, the Scottish Government and the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), along with support from Sportscotland and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), was split in to two streams: the ‘Grassroots Club Recovery Fund’ and the ‘Girls’ and Women’s Recovery Fund’ (Scottish FA, 2021). The Grassroots Club Recovery Fund, with grants of between £250 and £1000, was to encourage the return of as many participants as possible to the game (Scottish FA, 2021).

The Girls’ and Women’s Recovery Fund echoed the awards level of the Grassroots club recovery fund but removed the other fund’s priorities, including the Scottish FA’s Quality Mark status, opting instead to confirm that the fund was to support the delivery of activity that the football clubs themselves would suggest could benefit girls’ and women’s football in the community (Scottish FA, 2021). Andy Gould of the Scottish FA noted in the release information for the fund that:

I recognise the many challenges facing the grassroots game, and the ‘Football for All’ funding will be a huge boost to our concerted efforts to get people playing the national sport again. The funding presents a wonderful opportunity to kick-start the game, and it is crucial that we continue to work with key stakeholders to further ensure that grassroots football can flourish once more (Scottish FA, 2021).

Midlothian Council and other public sector partners relied on Bonnyrigg Rose FC to play an important role within the local community during the first few months of the pandemic. Midlothian Council reacted to local issues, the Council officers recognised that the club could be part of delivering community resilience support. As Trish Sime, Bonnyrigg Rose FC Community Club Development Manager, explained:

So, there's been very little football activity going on anywhere…the alternative for the club was looking at the community aspect…Our pavilion was empty, we went into steam clean it…it was ready for any project that needed to use it. It’s got Wi-Fi, it’s a useable space and it could be used as an office building or whatever. So, we’re in the midst of operating a foodbank at the minute...it was known we have the space and…a week a half (into lockdown) the Council pushed us to see if we were in a position where we could support a foodbank. So that’s exactly what happened (R3).

On querying whether it was a surprise to be approached, or if the Council was concerned regards the club’s ability to support the response, Sime replied that:

Well, no and do you know the big thing was it was £10,000, and once the agreement was made - obviously, you know, we had to tick all the boxes for insurance and risk assessment stuff – but the money was put in the club account ... So, it is a big thing in fact that we were trusted (R3).

Football clubs building trust with local partners, regards their ability to regularly deliver within community settings in the long term, could be significant for community clubs aiming for social impacts and helping to improve their own sustainability. Sime noted that there was an expectation that the club would operate the service efficiently and were bound by reporting obligations. The club’s flexibility, as well as willingness to take on the new role, was perhaps their key assets. Due to having to work within Scottish FA structures, the administration and governance of community football clubs may actually be better than other community organisations, which may be a plus for community football clubs asked to deliver services within the formal structures required of public sector funding. Sime noted the need for a commitment to the responsibilities regards pro-active reporting on funding received:

You know I give daily updates in terms of the daily spend. And you know how it’s going…I’m looking at what the average value cost is for a single person to a large family so we can estimate spend…we work closely with the Council and the community, of course, we do…we’re just open and genuinely want to help – if we can help them, we will (R3).

The COVID-19 crisis presented significant challenges to many local agencies and the sustainability of a fragile, operational budget for an organisation reliant on subscriptions from members was an obvious concern for Sime:

Keeping the club running…There was the initial ‘How we gonna manage it?’... ‘If fees stop getting paid?’ However, we’ve got a great bunch folk at the club. The first month (of the COVID-19 enforced ‘lockdown’), looked pretty much like over 90% had continued to pay full fees, which is fabulous because that will allow us to maintain things as they are…In terms of the sustainability of business aspect we are quite confident because we are still getting ‘subs’ (subscriptions) in (R3).

On the question of an ongoing commitment to meeting the costs of subscriptions, Sime suggested that:

…because people (were) on furlough - people are going to be paid. Potentially the economic impact - month to month – they’re still going to get the money from somewhere, whether it’s wages or the furlough process. So, I thought that the club would be fine (R3).

Bonnyrigg Rose FC were like many Third Sector agencies and community groups, the ‘go to’ agencies for local council’s during the first wave of the pandemic. Sime noted that some other local groups, while previously willing, found themselves unable to help which in turn may have thrust the club forward as a key agency:

Our Community Council, in Bonnyrigg, are pretty much all over 70. They were in a position where they really couldn't do very much, they needed to stay indoors and keep safe...and then at that point the Council, knew that the club had a space and were willing take on the projects (R3).

Many social, community organisations adapted quickly to undertake a huge range of critical roles in neighbourhoods such as food distribution and prescription delivery services (Scottish Government, 2020b). The Third Sector nationally has reflected on this position, a position of trust as described by Trish Sime. Community partnerships had perhaps strengthened during the crisis with strategic approaches also creating new mechanisms for partnership work. Sime noted that in Midlothian:

…there’s a response group called the emergency response team - so that’s the Council team, councillors, other community groups. It’s an overarching group just to make sure communications are consistent, so we know everybody’s section. We communicate and it’s run pretty well (R3).

As no one was unaffected by the pandemic, it was a broad cross section of the local community that the club was supporting through their foodbank. This was perhaps different from the members of the community that were normally attracted to the club’s services. Sime suggested:

Historically foodbanks have supported poverty. This (the pandemic) is very different because the focus is very much on people that are having to self-isolate for a long period of time, (some of them) don’t know how to use the internet so they don't know how to do an online shop. They've maybe not got cash in the house, and all of a sudden, they’re kind of struggling you know, how to get access to go get shopping. They don’t know how to use online and so, you know, until support is put in place, for these people they could potentially access the club foodbank (R3).

This new target group included people who had not been part of the football club or associated activity before:

I would say the majority have never come into contact with the club…I’ve had the same family come now twice - both mum and dad are self-employed, and their finances disappeared overnight. And automatically they phoned up to register for government assistance…but it’s going to take time for money to come through and they’ve got 4 kids…all of a sudden ‘how do we cope?’, and I suspect I’ll see them once a week till the cash flow starts to come through for them. It’s very different types of people (R3).

The pace of the response to the COVID-19 crisis at a local level as described here suggests that creating workable partnerships can be done when all are willing. As noted by Weible et al. (2020, p.238), ‘the pandemic reinforces the need to foster understanding in both public policy co-creation and co-production’. A co-production and/or co-creation approach commits practitioners to involving the service user in the design as well as potentially the delivery and evaluation of the services (Osborne, et al., 2016). The co-production and in turn co-delivery of the Bonnyrigg Rose FC foodbank service is an example of crisis response; however, there is perhaps an argument that it could be illustrative of a shift in service delivery that local authorities could support as policy, rather than just in an emergency.

Danny Bisland reflected on the work of community football clubs during this period and suggested that:

…the ones who didn’t have any overheads could just shut up shop and could hibernate. The ones that have overheads made really smart business decisions and said ‘Right we'll furlough staff, and we will cut back on what we’re able to do’…some incredible organisations like Stenhousemuir (FC) and Spartans (FC)…pivoted and went and did the COVID work. It was free meals…touching base with people because they felt isolated (R1).

The position the Scottish FA holds as the trusted football network manager would appear to have been valued during the crisis. As Bisland explained:

A lot of the clubs felt like the well-being of their individual members had been adversely affected - that poses more challenges for (the Scottish FA). One, you know, we are not mental health experts and neither we should be but what we can do is…put people in touch with relevant organisations through our work with our equalities team internally (R1).

As early as July 2020, the Scottish Government (2020a) had produced a ‘think piece’ regards the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on mental health issues suggesting that:

There will be variable impact on the mental health of communities and individuals, determined mainly by existing inequalities. Some will be more impacted than others, especially those living in deprivation, those who will lose their job and those with social adversity.

There were also indications in the ‘think piece’ that mental health awareness would be on the rise, with an increase at the population level regards how good mental health affects all our lives and how we should be acting to promote this individually and collectively (Scottish Government, 2020a). Bisland agreed that community football clubs could be important agents for supporting these areas of mental health awareness but also recognised it would take partnerships to make the impact required:

It's probably a good thing that we've moved into this space as quickly as we possibly did, because the ongoing feedback that we have from the clubs is existing mental health wellbeing issues are increasing. It’s going to be, I think, a permanent area of concern for a lot of people…and the clubs’ role for me...they can do a couple of things. They can wrap (services) around the club, and they can help support individuals and involve them, but they can also signpost. So, if they can recognise signs of somebody who's struggling and then they'll be able to have a network of professional people on the ground - Third Sector groups, public groups that they can signpost them to (R1).

He went on to suggest that this type of work may not be a short-term focus for the clubs and its members:

So, it’s going to be really tricky, I think, the next few years. I think the next two, three years with people working in a space is going to become more and more difficult for them. And ‘lockdown’ again, how is that going to affect somebody? I just think that that...we’re rushing to get back on to the pitch and people are really, really uncomfortable getting back into public situations. But otherwise, other people have just missed game...they’ve missed, the network, missed their mates, everything else…it’s so incredibly important, I think, that topic (mental health) for a lot of clubs at the moment is central and (the Scottish FA) are trying our best to catch up to be able to signpost people to the organisations (R1).

There is a question regards what community football clubs had to offer in regards a sensitive area like mental health support. Bisland suggested the club’s role could be advantageous in breaking down barriers around mental health:

…if it’s a fans’ group, if it’s a players’ group, its peer led, it’s just seen as more acceptable, I think because you’re in the club and you get a badge wrapped around you. I think people are able to open up a little bit more...we’re seeing some incredible stuff with Morton (Greenock Morton FC) and they do stuff in the changing room environment. There is some phenomenal work. It’s just about people feeling at the moment that they’re not alone and I think football is pretty good at doing that (R1).

This perception of community football clubs as interfaces for acting to develop improved access to national and local help for mental health may not be widely accepted as yet, but Bisland suggested that football could certainly help with the reach of a local service of this sort:

...in the past, I almost convinced myself that football could change the world. I don’t necessarily think that now...football can’t change the world, but its reach is beyond anything else in society for us. If we can harness that reach from the clubs - so they can go and speak to the mum of an under 9’s player, who they may feel is struggling…because of all the touch points that they’ve got with that club...that’s amazing because they can at least then go and signpost and support from that point of view and football clubs offer that reach I think. That’s the impact that they have (R1).

Trish Sime noted that she felt this new approach promoted by the Scottish FA was positive and confirmed her understanding of the developments:

The club and I were asked if we would like to be involved in it, just given the fact we’ve had success with a mental health program in our area and community. It’s an advisory panel that the Scottish FA have set up with a view of identifying what the strategy is going to look like and potentially engaging other in organisations to advise and support…to lay out a plan and to look to support mental health through the football communities. So, there’s probably two kinds of strands - looking at how clubs can embrace and support mental health within their own club environment and then potentially outside their club, within the community health environment. So, it’s going to be a two-pronged approach…(R3)

We see in these comments the belief that the club can act efficiently as a gateway for local services and for those community members who were seeking help from the club. Sime explained that:

The big thing is, the contact is made by us initially so I can ‘vet’ the people that come looking for help because I know the professionals involved, I can place them with the best person to support whatever their needs are and then they have an initial contact. And that’s usually the same day or next day. For somebody that is desperate, that’s really, really important. They’ve reached out for help and they’re getting that help almost instant…there’s no point in us offering a service then people waiting another six months to see somebody…I mean its high numbers, but manageable numbers (R3).

Sime went on to describe the ‘vetting’ system that she put in place to help encourage and sustain the partnership as well as manage the flow of people who are looking for help. In terms of overall demand and the need being supported by the club she explained that:

26 folk have come to us…loads of different issues and different concerns and different problems that folk are having to face. People that have had to put their hand up because by the time they get to that stage they’re desperate - by the time people are asking for help they are desperate…I mean, it's just worked really well, and the key thing now is trying to sustain, and trying to get some funding from somewhere, so, this is something that we can continue to offer as an organisation (R3).

Emerging considerations and possible opportunities

Restrictions to control COVID-19 meant that many organisations required to make significant changes to their operational practices (Kinman et al., 2020). The rapid changes required by organisations may have been challenging but perhaps also provided a focus regards meeting the needs of those that are ‘desperate’. The Social Renewal Advisory Board, created on the 9th June 2020 by the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government, recognised this focus recording that the response to the crisis resulted in a significant amount of work being undertaken to support people and communities which was delivered at pace and challenged traditional ways of working. A key aim of the Board was to try to build on the shifts in policy and practice that took place; shifts that involved frontline service deliverers in local government, the Third Sector and communities. Board members included experts in housing, disability, poverty, homelessness and the Third Sector. In recognition of the role that local government plays in delivering services crucial to communities, both the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and the Scottish Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers (SOLACE) had representatives on the Board. The final report, titled ‘If Not Now, When?’ (Scottish Government, 2021b) was published on 21st January 2021 and contained 20 ‘calls to action’, structured around three themes:

• Money and Work – everyone should have a basic level of income from employment and social security.

• People, Rights and Advancing Equality – everyone should see their rights realised and have access to a range of basic rights, goods and services.

• Communities and Collective Endeavour – we believe that we need to work together to deliver a fairer society and we need to give more power to people and communities and empower frontline teams.

It follows, therefore, that Third Sector organisations (including community football clubs) should consider the aims of the report and the key targets therein. Whilst it could be suggested that a club like Bonnyrigg Rose FC could contribute across the three themes identified in the report, in the theme ‘Communities and Collective Endeavour’ it is possible to see many existing or emerging opportunities. Call to action 18 for example, ‘Build on new ways of working, based on what has worked well during the pandemic, and develop new arrangements for local governance arrangements’, offers the opportunity for a community football club to highlight their partnership offer, showing their commitment to reflecting and acting on any positive practice achieved during the crisis so far (Scottish Government, 2021b).

As an example of that service development during the crisis, expanding on the previously noted work carried out by Bonnyrigg Rose FC and how important it will be going forward in terms of community recovery, Trish Sime noted that:

The High School got in touch probably six months ago and they identified particularly their 5th and 6th year students were really struggling (with mental health issues). So, as a result of having a few conversations with the teachers…we’ve now got sessions running for 5th and 6th year students about managing stress…The club has now become locally…if there’s any mental health things, if we can’t help them generally, we can maybe put them in the right direction for somebody that can (R3).

This contact from the school shows that people in the Bonnyrigg community recognised that the club was a place where they could access mental health support. Sime agreed:

…(for example) we do a social inclusion ‘one to one’ programme…quite a lot of the women are suffering from post-traumatic stress…a result of either domestic abuse or domestic violence. So, when the ‘one to one’ stuff is finished, rather than just them dropping off and being left, they can be sign-posted (to other services)…we are the vehicle that allows all this stuff to grow and develop in the community (R3).

Third Sector conversations at a national and local level regards the impact of the COVID-19 crisis suggest embracing and building on the partnerships developed through the crisis. The pandemic has even offered an opportunity to accelerate the development of the relationship between local government, public services and communities (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, 2020). Returning to the example of the local authority area of Renfrewshire, the existing relationship between local authority and third sector organisations meant that as the local authority began to deal with local challenges, they were able to reach into the voluntary sector to support the emerging community response required (Carnegie Trust, 2020). This response included a ‘Community Hub’ approach. The ‘Community Hubs’ that were developed in response to the crisis were generally organised at a sub-local authority level and gave frontline staff autonomy to make decisions about how to respond to individuals’ needs. The Renfrewshire approach to the ‘Hub’ work featured in the Carnegie Trust’s report ‘Pooling Together: How Community Hubs have responded to the COVID-19 Emergency’. The report suggests that:

By working across sectors, community hubs can be the vehicle through which resilient communities are supported and a preventative approach can be taken to poverty, mental health, and financial hardship. As we move through the pandemic, public services will need to consider which elements of their emergency response they wish to retain, and how to build this into their normal practice in a sustainable way (Carnegie Trust, 2020: p.21).

Sime, reflecting on Bonnyrigg Rose FC’s work during the COVID-19 crisis, suggested that the restrictions imposed regards free movement to contain the virus, while creating barriers, also offered opportunity:

There (was) so many restrictions about, you know - it’s not as though you can just go to meetings and get involved in other things! But now there might be a real focus on local stuff because that’s where people can make the difference (R3).

While there are perhaps new opportunities emerging for community football it is important to continually reflect on the ‘football first’ perception of those closest to the clubs. While there are examples of community football clubs becoming charitable bodies, Danny Bisland suggested that:

I don’t think the clubs necessarily see themselves as charitable organisations full stop…there’s no club in the country whose ambition is to become a charity. It’s a mechanism…to be recognised as a charitable organisation...The motivation for them to go down that route, isn’t because they want to become a charity…Let’s never get away from the fact that a football club’s primary aim is getting people on the pitch…The motivation is just doing the right thing for the whole community and getting people on the pitch (R4).

Bonnyrigg Rose FC of course continue to provide football activity and they do get people on the pitch. They have not lost sight of their primary purpose which Sime suggested was developing very well in tandem with the community impacts of the club:

Well, I’m quite positive about a future...We’ve been busy doing communities’ stuff (but) the football is back up and running (following the pandemic) - kids are having the time of their life. Playing matches and things will be very different, very controlled. We’ve seen the membership grow and we’ve now got our girls section - we’ve got a waiting list for the girls. I think the club will continue to grow in terms of football (R3).

Sime noted that activity on both the community side and in their asset management approach had not been stopped because of the pandemic:

We’ve had a load of work done on the pavilion…We will be starting up a partnership with the Red Cross and our local faith groups. I'm discussing with the NHS how to bring our older citizens back in and how we do it safely…and we’ve just been successful going through our SCIO (Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation) application. So, we will now be, formally, a community organisation and will be working closely in terms of where the club goes now with the community partners…which is a great thing (R3).

Bonnyrigg Rose FC were alert to the opportunities created by the needs of ‘lockdown’ and rather than hibernating during the period, they developed new services in response to the impact of the crisis. There are perhaps openings for further growth as operational approaches enforced by the pandemic appeared to have cemented local partner relationships. Just as important as the resources made available by the Scottish FA has been the club’s efforts to work in partnership with the Local Authority and other established community groups in the Midlothian area. The work to improve the relationship with Midlothian Council appears to have been particularly productive.

The successful application relating to the change of constitution of Bonnyrigg Rose FC is significant in the terms of the future growth of the club. It is this change to become a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) that the club requires to move on from the long-term lease arrangements of the sports facility (Poltonhall) which are presently in place. The change to become a SCIO will allow the club to move forward with the transfer of the community asset of Poltonhall and the surrounding playing fields from Midlothian Council. In terms of the long-term ambitions of the club securing the site and operating as a ‘Hub’ for community activity remains central to their identity and planning. Getting the club ‘over the line’ with this matter of constitutional change should be considered a noteworthy success for the club and for the Scottish FA’s community team which supported the development at a crucial time as the club took their steps towards the proposed asset transfer.

Conclusions

It is widely accepted that volunteering can help improve sporting communities (see Cuskelly et al., 2006). Social capital is often identified as one of the most important outcomes of volunteering and the voluntary sector. As many authors have noted, sport is widely recognised as a positive way to build social capital (see Nicholson and Hoye, 2008; Skinner et al., 2008; Tacon, 2022). Like many community organisations who may be wholly reliant on volunteers, community football clubs are often supported by a volunteer base who may be struggling to do all that needs to be done (Wegner et al. 2019). Undertaking a constitutional review may be difficult for volunteers without the appropriate support therefore supporting the development of community football clubs to the point to where they can operate effectively, free from a ‘misfiring’ constitution, should be a priority for any new Scottish FA community football club development strategy (see McNiven and Harris, 2021).

This study has highlighted how the position the Scottish FA holds as the trusted network manager was valued during the pandemic and led to potential health support developments beyond that traditionally seen before. It was clear that the football club can act efficiently as a gateway for many different local services and that the unique role of a football club meant it was able to reach areas often viewed as hard to reach. These findings support Skinner et al.’s (2008, p.272) observation that ‘a broad array of positive community networks and relationships can be developed through engagement with sport’.

Any ‘Hub’ approach requires people to work together, exploiting existing partnerships and accelerating new ones. Community football clubs operate in partnership and often run facilities that are then utilised by local groups. They are acting as community anchors (McNiven and Harris, 2021). There is now a greater awareness of the potential of community hubs, as well as football clubs as community anchors. Opportunities to consider how the football ‘Hub’ model can be embedded into a statutory approach provide an avenue of future research.

Reflecting on Scotland’s voluntary sector in supporting with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) have backed the UK-wide ‘#NeverMoreNeeded’ campaign to in a bid to ‘remind government, funders, donors and the general public of how essential the voluntary sector is now and, in the future’, (SCVO, 2020). As Scotland’s local communities look to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps the work of Bonnyrigg Rose FC, the club, falls into that category of ‘never more needed’. As communities and community organisations react to the present cost of living crisis and concerns around the rising cost of fuel and energy, it would be reasonable to expect that there may be further demands for services delivered by the Third Sector. Services provided by community football clubs such as Bonnyrigg Rose FC are likely to become ever more important. As demand on services grow, Third Sector organisations will often be operating with grants that have not risen in line with inflation, with the result that core budgets have taken a cut in real terms. This may result in a sense that the recovery of communities and community activity aimed for by all is fragile. However, if a ‘local’ approach is promoted as a priority, these types of locally owned and operated ‘Hubs’ described here may offer the best opportunities for affordable and sustainable co-designed and co-delivered services that are accessible to all.

Interviews

Recording 1 (R1) Danny Bisland, National Club Grow Manager, Scottish FA, February 2021

Recording 2 (R2) Corrie Campbell, Scottish FA Club Development Manager, January 2021

Recording 3 (R3) Trish Sime, Bonnyrigg Rose FC Community Club, February 2021

Recording 4 (R4) Danny Bisland, National Club Grow Manager, Scottish FA, May 2019