Monday 6th July, 2020 at 5:29pm
It’s not just been professional football within Scotland that has been disrupted by the impact of Covid-19 and the restrictions felt by all across Scotland. Youth and grassroots football has also been impacted with the Thistle Weir Youth Academy currently unable to arrange organised football.
As we approach four months since the Academy last held a training session, we caught up with Academy Director Scott Allison to find out how the Academy has continued to work through these difficult times.
“When I locked the office at Firhill on 13th March, I thought we’d be back within a couple of weeks but it hasn’t turned out that way. We’ve embraced it quite positively and used the time of the last few months productively. We’re quite fortunate that we have an online learning system that we’ve used for the last few years within the academy. We usually use it for match analysis and player reports to encourage players to do more at home. We’ve continued to put sessions up for the players within the academy, animated drills and skill challenges. It’s been valuable to stay in touch with all of our players and their families every single day.”
Despite the challenging conditions affecting everyone around football at the current time, Scott is proud that the Thistle Weir Youth Academy is in a stable position, both on and off the pitch.
“There can sometimes be the misconception that the Academy is putting extra financial cost onto the club. That’s something that is not the case. We’re trying to become self-sufficient at the Academy. The main crux of our income arrives from grants, donors and sponsorship. We’ve been fortunate in that aspect with Colin Weir’s support over the years having been phenomenal for us.
“In terms of the short term, we are stable. There is no burden on the football club to support the Academy’s operation. Different clubs are set up in different ways but the way we are structured, we do operate based on restricted funds and it doesn’t put any pressure on the club at all. The club have actually benefited in recent times when Aidan Fitzpatrick broke through and got a move to Norwich City which got the club a nice fee for an academy trained player. I think the model that we have got, and I think it has shown through the pandemic, has us in a good place for when we return.”
Despite no currently planned return for youth and grassroots football, Scott and his team are already working hard to put plans into place for when Academy players can finally return to the pitch.
“We don’t know yet when we will get back to contact match play but it is looking like it could be as much as eight or nine months of development that is missed. We’ve tried as hard as we can to support the players through this difficult time. It’ll be a phased approach as we return to the Academy and we’ll be looking to support the players so they can hit the ground running.”
The full interview with Academy Director, Scott Allison, is currently available to view, free of charge, on JagZone.
To watch the full interview with Academy Director, Scott Allison, click here.
Following the Club’s public commitment to the club’s full family of fans, Partick Thistle FC will make all of its content on Jagzone free-to-view until Tuesday 11th August.
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