The youth football tournament that was staged during the Culture Connect Festival at Saughton Park in Edinburgh at the end of June was by no means the biggest, best supported or most important event that Scottish players have taken part in this summer.
The World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States - which the national team, roared on by tens of thousands of Tartan Army footsoldiers, competed in for the first time in 28 long years - probably just shaded it.
Yet, as Scott Ritchie, a project leader with the Big Hearts Community Trust, watched kids and their families enjoying themselves during the course of the day, he was struck by something which he believes could be hugely significant for the game in this country in the years ahead.
Ritchie and his Big Hearts colleagues run a number of initiatives, many of which are made possible by Scottish government and SFA funding, that bring them into contact with local kids from refugee, asylum seeker, displaced and ethnic minority backgrounds on a daily basis.
Their objectives are to improve both the mental and physical wellbeing of participants and to help them integrate into and ultimately contribute to Scottish society.
But Ritchie has always been impressed by how talented and driven the youngsters he works with are and puzzled that more of them have not – as is very much the case with most other major football nations across the globe - managed to force their way into the first teams at professional clubs as well as the Scotland team.
He is, though, convinced that is set to change in the very near future.
“When I was at the Culture Connect Festival I thought to myself that many of the kids taking part who had come and settled here with their families a number of years ago are now what you would regard as Scottish kids,” he said.
“It was not long after Steve Clarke had resigned. I thought to myself, ‘The next generation of Scotland player is going to be completely different and we are going to play in a different way in the next 20 years as a result’.
“We have seen all of these national teams competing and doing well at the World Cup with players from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds. I think we’ll not be far off that in the years to come.”
Ritchie continued, “I watched the Swiss national team play a World Cup game one night and was struck by how many different ethnicities they had and how beneficial that was for their side. I am certain that it will be exactly the same in Scotland in the future.
“To be honest, I've expected it for some time now. I am 33 and am probably a member of one of the first generations which grew up with different nationalities. It started when I was younger. A lot of Polish people came into the country and many of them joined my school. Since then, nation after nation after nation has come for reason after reason after reason.
“I have always expected us to go the same way that other countries have. That hasn’t happened to date. But I am more convinced than ever that at some point in time there will be a name on the back of a Scotland jersey that isn't McLean or McDonald. I'm hoping those days do come because I know there are a lot of extremely good players out there who would help us to win.”
Ritchie has witnessed first hand how football has the power to completely transform lives during the four years he has been working with Big Hearts.
The projects that he is directly involved in are TEAM – which stands for Together Equality Achieves More – and Welcome to Football.
He feels that many of the kids who have moved to this country and received assistance have the ability play at a high level and possibly even improve the fortunes of the national team, who were unable to qualify for the knockout rounds of the World Cup, in future.
“TEAM receives SFA funding through the Extra Time Programme and is essentially about helping parents who need child care after school,” he said.
“Because of where we are situated, because of the demographic of the area, we predominantly deal with families from ethnic minority backgrounds. That is due to Edinburgh being a capital city. We have been very multicultural for a very long time. We don't single anybody out. It is whoever is on our doorstep, whoever is in need.
“Welcome to Football was primarily for refugees and asylum seekers when we first started. However, the world moves in fast and in mysterious ways. If there’s an outbreak of war somewhere or a financial meltdown in a country, that means that people from there move here.
“We will sometimes ask people to send us their country's flag in the Welcome to Football group chat on WhatsApp. The last time we did that there were about 17 different flags. There's a really wide range of people who have come for a host of different reasons and who are looking for a host of different outcomes.”
Ritchie added, “Because we're a football-based charity, we always to try and use the power of the game as well as the power of the badge within the community. The first activity we offer is free football sessions. We offer the opportunity to play, to fraternise, to use a football ground, which is something that they are maybe not able to do financially.
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“So we introduce the sport of football back into their lives. That leads to an affinity with other people. If someone has been isolated in their community that can make a real difference. They’re exercising and getting the mental and physical benefits of the activity.
“But that is only stage one. The next step for us is figuring out how to get people into work or into higher education. It is not just about playing football, being outside, having a laugh with other people and being made to feel welcome. The other side is supporting them through their journey in life.”
Ritchie and his associates were heartened to see the tangible impact their work has had when they took the Welcome to Football group down to England to play in a refugee football tournament at the Liverpool training ground last month.
“Before the event we made an effort to say, ‘Remember who you're representing. You're representing the charity, the football club and yourself’,” he said. “There was a bit of a school trip mantra to it.
“There were a couple of rammies on the pitch during matches. But because we'd stressed to these guys not to get involved, because we've been working with them for so long, because there has been a bit of cultural learning about how to conduct yourself on a football pitch and in life so they can integrate into society and get a job, they stepped away.
“To see them taking what we were saying on board first hand was very gratifying for us and them. I think it made them understand that the lessons they are handed out on the football pitch in training and in games can be transferred into their lives.”
So why does Ritchie think that so few footballers from refugee, asylum seeker and displaced communities play professionally in Scotland in comparison with other leading nations? He thinks there are a number of issues that prevent them from making the breakthrough.
“It's not necessarily a failure on anyone's part,” he said. “I’m finding as I get older that I don’t have the knowledge of local football clubs that I used to. If it's not obvious to me how to get involved after being off the circuit for a wee bit what chance do parents who have just arrived on these shores and moved in to a new neighbourhood have?
“The way that people are made aware of their local football club could maybe be a bit better. It should be clearer and cleaner than it is. I would like to think SFA and others could think about how accessible football is going forward. There should be much more of a pathway for everybody.
“Not everyone is going to be a professional player. The percentage of kids who make it through is very small. But if we could get more players in to football clubs I think everybody would be a winner. We could be the mediators almost and say, ‘We've got a brilliant bunch of players here, let's try and delegate them into football clubs’.”
He added, “Another factor that stumps kids sometimes is them transitioning from place to place to place. When I came through the system in Scotland when I was younger there was a consistent message and a consistent way of doing things and that was communicated to me clearly.
“I have one African migrant at who came to Scotland after staying in Spain. He had a good football education in Spain and is a very good player. But he has been in different organisations and it has been a bit stop-start for him. I think that can be a bit confusing for a youngster.
“But there are a good few who have both the ability and the drive. There is a definite difference with the young Scottish player. Hopefully, having different learnings in different places will benefit them and make them a better all-round player at the end of it.”
The education that those who work with the Big Hearts Community Trust receive helps them as much off the football field as on it – but Scott Ritchie is convinced that kids from refugee, asylum seeker, ethnic minority and displaced communities will begin to contribute far more to the Scottish game at the highest level in the years to come than they have to date.
“There's an outcome in most of the work that we try to do,” he said. “For us, it’s about trying to change people's individual lives through football. If we can contribute to any individual, from any background, from any country, thinking they can achieve something in life then we have got that outcome. But it would be good if they could stay involved in football and develop and improve.
“Big Hearts are based at Tynecastle and when I am heading into my work I come along Gorgie Road. There are countless different businesses owned by people from every nationality under the sun.
“Maybe that’s just the local community where we are, perhaps we are in a wee bit of a bubble. But I do think that is the case in wider Scottish society as well. For me, the national teams which play at the World Cup should be representative of their actual population. Many of them are. It's just a matter of time before we see that in Scotland.”
