Noble Spartans are making a difference
Philanthropic Edinburgh club have far greater ambitions than merely climbing the leagues
THERE is a portal in Pilton that leads to the fruits of collective effort, the reality of lives changed and, whisper it, a liberal smattering of glamour.
Turn left into Ferry Road and there lies Ainslie Park, almost hidden behind a community sports centre, but whose charms are immediately obvious.
Outside, the welcome is warm. Inside, the history is intriguing and inspiring. This is a club and charity that has been touched by royal favour. It owes much, too, to the dedication and kindness of the common man and woman.
The star exhibit may be the Gordon Strachan Collection. The wee man’s maw lives up the road and the former footballer and manager once phoned the club and asked: ‘I have my medals and strips in my loft, could you do anything with them?’
The answer was immediate. The strip he wore in Gothenburg when Aberdeen cuffed Real Madrid in 1983, the medals he won both on foreign fields and at Hampden, the Leeds United colours in which he lifted an English title, a Scotland strip donned on his 50th appearance for the country... all lie behind glass in a corner of the hospitality suite.
The corridors offer more. A signed All Blacks jersey hangs on one wall. ‘They always train here before playing at Murrayfield,’ says Craig Graham, chair of both the football club and The Spartans Community Football Academy. ‘I could spend two hours talking about them. Inspiring people.’
But who are the smiling kids featured in so many other photographs? ‘These are all children who have taken part in our programmes,’ he says. He points to one picture: ‘For example, we have a thing where we take local kids away for the day.
‘Many of those children would never have been out of Edinburgh. This is a wee holiday for them.’
And the snap of a boy with a mouth wide open? ‘That’s educational. It’s about dental care. The rate of tooth decay here is concerning.’
And the photograph obviously taken in sunnier climes? ‘Oh. That is Tanzania. We took a group there. We know we have poverty here but it was powerful to see African poverty.’
This is The Spartans. This is North Edinburgh, where urban deprivation sits snugly alongside undoubted wealth. This is a football club that helps fund a charity that supports the community that surrounds it.
Graham, a retired management consultant, devotes three or four days a week to its endeavours. He has company. ‘More than 4,000 people a week come through here,’ he says, pointing out at the artificial pitches. ‘We have more than 25 full-time staff and run a variety of programmes.’
Most can be described as educational, though the club basically became a food hub during Covid. Graham played for Spartans in the eighties before leaving to work in Aberdeen and
London. On his return in 1994, he came straight back to the club.
‘It’s a natural progression,’ he says of becoming chairman. ‘You play until you can’t, then you coach but realise the young guys are better than you. So you end up on committees.’
He has accepted this fate with considerable good humour and an energy that would have a Duracell bunny looking on enviously.
‘The attraction? You are working with like-minded people. There are good boards here in the football and charity side. You are helping to make a difference.’
He points out the window towards a clutch of houses enveloped in mist. ‘More than 40,000 people live within two miles of here.’
He adds: ‘That side of Ferry Road can be a challenging place to live.’
Graham lives nearby on what might be designated the right side of the tracks. He has no separation, though, from what he sees as The Spartan community.
The football ambition is to take the men’s side up from the Lowland League and build on the promise of the women’s side. The charitable aims are limitless. ‘We just want to do more,’ he says.
A former youth goalkeeper at Aberdeen, Graham met Strachan in the glory years of the 1980s. It is a tale of sobering reality then happy fulfilment. ‘I wasn’t good enough,’ he says. ‘My rivals were Bryan Gunn and Nicky Walker, who both went on to play for Scotland.’
He renewed his acquaintanceship with Strachan when the flamehaired midfielder became a manager at Southampton. ‘We went down to see him and asked him if he would be patron of this club.’
His answer is illustrated in the contents of that glass case. ‘He is very helpful. He often pops in for a cup of tea. He comes here to see three or four matches a year. Remember, he grew up here, so he is meeting people he went to school with. He is one of the boys.’
MY boys. The expression from Jeanette Veitch has two distinct meanings, even if both are linked. She sweeps her arm across Spartan history reflected in colour photographs and says softly: ‘These are all my boys.’
She is talking of the 25 years she has spent as a volunteer of the club. It was her two boys — Craig and Graham — who brought her here. She remained to be a constant volunteer.
‘I first came when my boys were three or four,’ she says. They are now men, one a community coach at Hearts and the other still playing amateur football. ‘I come here every Saturday to help out with the hospitality.’
It is no chore. ‘My husband calls me the Mrs Doyle of the Spartans after the Father Ted character who always makes tea,’ she says. ‘But I just love being here. I have MS and it has kept me on my toes, kept me
going. At the end of the day, I am shattered but it’s a good tiredness. You feel you have done something.
‘I see everything the club and the charity do and I have seen the results. Amazing. I am a member and a shareholder here and I am proud of that.’
Her sense of satisfaction is felt, too, by Mark Brown, who came along for a match a decade ago and remained to take an everincreasing role in the club.
‘People here have made a difference and it is humbling to be part of such a football club,’ he says. Brown, who handles the social media and press side of the club, adds: ‘This a club that remembers its roots and tries to build on them. It is an organisation that cares about the local community.
‘That’s important. I find it emotional. I came from a housing scheme and had some challenges growing up. I feel my life has come full circle in terms of returning to my roots.’
This story has a resonance for Dougie Samuel. ‘My parents bought their first house in Pilton Place,’ he says, pointing over a crossbar in the wake of Spartans’ 1-0 victory.
Samuel is coach of the first XI and chief executive of the Spartans Foundation.
It is a burden he carries lightly. Both roles bring immense satisfaction. ‘My best day on the football side was when we beat Morton here in the Scottish Cup,’ he says of that historic victory in 2014.
‘We took some time leaving the field and it was packed in this corner.’ He is standing underneath a balcony. ‘My family were up there, the para football guys were stewarding, the youth club players were milling about ... that was special.’
His greatest satisfaction, though, is seeing kids come through the club and go on to fulfilling futures. ‘I am lucky, I am blessed to do the job here. Fitba’ is my hobby but it’s my passion, too,’ he says. ‘Trying to make a difference in the community has been an honour and a joy. It’s been the journey of a lifetime.’ A fan informs me with a knowing smile: ‘He deserves a medal.’ It is a lighthearted reference to Samuel being made an MBE. He will receive his award later this month. It is becoming something of a trend. Chairman Graham was made an MBE in 2018. Wee Gordon might have to get the boots back on. There is a rival medal collection in the making in an unlikely palace in Pilton.