UEFA Club Licence Awarded
Friday 11th June 2010
Berwick Rangers will enter the new season as one of only four Third Division clubs to have been awarded the UEFA Club Licence from the SFA. They join recently relegated Arbroath and Clyde, and Queens Park, as Licence holders. This is the result of several years of hard work by everyone concerned with the Club to achieve UEFA standards which touch on every aspect of the day-to-day administration and facilities, including floodlighting, coaching qualifications, and health and safety considerations.
Club Chairman Brian Porteous is delighted with the news – We’re absolutely thrilled to be awarded the Licence. There has been a massive amount of work done to achieve the standards required, and we will continue to strive to make Berwick Rangers one of the most successful small clubs in Scotland, on and off the pitch. Lots of people have played a part in this, not only Club staff and Directors, but members of the Supporters Trust and Supporters Club, and individual volunteers, have contributed time and expertise along the way.
The Club aren’t resting on their laurels just yet though, with a major redevelopment of changing facilities for players, a new drainage system for the pitch, and work on a new disabled toilet facility all set to be completed for the start of the new season. Manager Jimmy Crease and Assistant Ian Little have also been working towards their UEFA B Coaching Award at the SFA training centre at Largs during the close season.
Whilst we were disappointed to miss out on the play-offs, especially after such a fantastic start to the season overall we’re delighted with the way things have gone this year. We’ve taken on some big projects, have the core of a good squad already signed up for the new season, and there’s a lot of optimism around Shielfield just now. And we had the very enviable position last season of bringing in slightly more income than we had outgoings, which I’m sure most Clubs in the UK would gladly accept.
What we really need now is for that optimism to carry through onto the terraces – if we can get our average gate up a little it would make such a difference. Our adult admission of £10 has remained the same for the last 10 seasons, and we’ll be continuing to admit under-13’s for free, so it would be great to see a few new faces to cheer on the side. said Brian.
Two of the Clubs principal shareholders, the Supporters Trust and the Supporters Club are represented on the Board of Directors. John Bell, of the Supporters Trust, is the Director responsible for Youth Development. “After much discussion with the SFL we’ve reached a stage where we can enter a representative under-17 team into the SFL competition. Previously the high cost of transportation was prohibitive, but the new competition will see games being played home or away, not both, leading to a much more manageable situation. We’re very much hoping that this will lead on to regular youth participation at a national level for under-17 and under-19 in future years”.
The Berwick squad will begin their pre-season training on 17th June, and with home pre-season friendlies now confirmed as Raith Rovers (17th July), Sunderland Reserves (19th July) and St. Johnston (23rd July), Rangers will be looking to get off to a flying start when the League and Cup programme begins.
LINK : UEFA Official Website
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