Nil by Mouth has teamed up with Livingston FC to help support the next generation of SPFL footballers.
The charity visited the Set Fare Arena to work with players from across the club’s Youth Academy to raise awareness of the impact of bigotry on the game and to look at how they can best use social media with levels of online discrimination rising.
Players from all the Academy’s year groups took part in sessions helping them better understand their rights and responsibilities and how to deal with attitudes they might encounter around the sport. Now the charity is set to ramp up its work across West Lothian through its ‘United Against Division’ programme which is available to all of the authority’s primary and secondary schools and lets pupils better understand faiths, traditions and cultures different to their own.
The project is part of the Scottish Government’s ‘Tackling Sectarianism’ Programme which sees grassroots work being carried out in communities right across Scotland to tackle religious prejudice and support individuals and groups to challenge it where it arises.
Nil by Mouth Director Dave Scott said:
'We are delighted to have been so warmly welcomed into the club to work with its Academy. It’s heartening to see that Livingston want the young people in their care to develop as human beings every bit as much as they wish them to develop as players. During the presentations we explored some of the very real risks sectarian attitudes can pose to them in terms of both their career and personal wellbeing and looked at some real-life case studies on how figures in football have become involved in controversy surrounding the issue. It was also a reminder of how many people involved in Scottish football shrug their shoulders when sectarian chanting and behaviours occur and seem to just accept it as part and parcel of the game. You can no more be a ninety-minute bigot than you can be a ninety-minute racist and it’s important that young players know that these attitudes need challenged on the pitch and off it. We are grateful to the club for its continued interest in our work and the support they have offered during 2024 in terms of providing complimentary tickets for schools working with us in the West Lothian area.’
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