Ex-football manager’s plan to help teenagers

Former Scotland manager Gordon Strachan has revealed plans to bring a scheme, which uses the power of football to change the lives of teenage kids, north of the Border.

The Strachan Foundation has proved a huge success in the English midlands where, over the course of the past seven years, hundreds of youngsters have won scholarships in America, or gone to university and into full-time employment, some within football itself.

Strachan hopes to expand the venture throughout Scotland, starting in his home city of Edinburgh, revealing the Scottish Government are showing an interest.

While football may be the big draw for the youngsters, all aged between 16 and 19, education is at the forefront of the project, the simple rule being if they don’t attend to their class work they won’t get a game.

Strachan said: “If they don’t keep up with their education, their parents get to know, they can see exactly what they are doing, they can’t hide.

“Most of them have no qualifications whatsoever for all different reasons. Within three years they can gain enough to go to university.

“A lot of them have social problems but we try to explain to them you choose where you go in life.

“Just imagine it in Edinburgh, we could take 80 kids off the street, educate them to be good people, disciplined, share, fit and respectful.”