The Scottish Government's initiative to use the proceeds of crime to make a positive difference to young people's lives is to take over sponsorship of the Scotland men's Under 21 football team.
Tennents have agreed to donate their sponsorship rights for the Under 21 team to the Scottish Government's CashBack for Communities scheme. The sponsorship arrangement will cost around £70,000 but is expected to result in media exposure worth over £165,000, and will be reviewed annually.
The purpose of the sponsorship deal is to drive awareness of the CashBack for Communities scheme amongst young people and encourage them to take part in the various sports, arts and culture activities that will be part of the scheme.
The deal will see the CashBack for Communities scheme promoted on the training kit of the Scotland men's Under 21 team as well as trackside advertising at all home games, editorial and advertising in match programmes and access to the players for CashBack-related media opportunities. The deal will also include 300 free tickets for each under 21 home game, to be used for competitions.
Speaking in advance of meeting Billy Stark, Manager of the Under 21 team and members of the Under 21 squad at Hampden, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: “We want to promote the CashBack for Communities scheme to our young people. We want to show them that there can be so much more to life than drink, drugs and offending.
“That's why I am delighted that Tennents, sponsors of the Scottish National Team, and the Scottish Government have reached agreement over sponsorship of the national Under 21 team.
“Scotland's young international footballers are the kind of positive role models that our young people can look up to. This sponsorship arrangement gives us the opportunity to promote our CashBack for Communities scheme to a wider and younger audience and to encourage our youngsters to be all they can be.”
He added: “To their credit, Tennents have shown a real responsibility to the wider community by promoting the sensible drinking message and giving up their sponsorship rights to the Scotland men's Under 21 team.”
Tennent's Lager's head of external affairs Rob Bruce added: “We are delighted to be able to offer this great opportunity to the Scottish Government, and we think it's a perfect example of how alcohol sponsorship can and does play an important and responsible role in society.
“Like the Government, we are committed to reducing alcohol harm and we believe initiatives like the CashBack for Communities scheme, which will offer alternative activities and messages to Scotland's youngsters in particular, have a vital role in achieving that aim. But as the scheme will focus on youth, as a responsible brewer, we will not be getting more involved than we are now.”
Billy Stark, Scotland’s national youth teams manager said: “This is a great initiative and one which we're proud to be associated with. The idea of taking cash back from criminals and using it to benefit the lives of Scotland's young people is fantastic.
“This is exactly what the Scottish game needs - more young people involved at grassroots level - developing their footballing skills, their social skills and their sense of community.”
One person has commented on this article. 1. Scottish government initiative to sponsor Scotland team
The Enforcer, Unregistered A laudable outcome I'm sure, but monies obtained under POCA are really intended to incentivise enforcement agencies to increase efforts to fight crime, by putting proceeds back into enforcement activities. Siphoning monies off into funding unrelated activities might look good in the short term but could be self defeating as it won't encourage Police and others to put more efforts into seizing criminal assets.
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