Youth and Community Development

Once again I`m disappointed to see some messages on the Open messageboard relating to personal attacks of members of DAFC. We publish a press release from John Yorkston.

I wholeheartedly agree with Mr Yorkstons` comments and can`t understand why people have to attack the club - considering the amount of personal effort and commitment put in my all members of DAFC.

With my other commitments recently I have been unable to monitor the messageboard as often I`d like. My main concern is the anonimity of posters on the messageboard. I would draw attention to the terms and conditions of this messageboard and I will do all I can to help trace any person who abuses that trust. I have repeatedly mentioned this fact over the last 6 months and do so again that any person found to overstep the mark will find that all details of that message and all trace information will be handed over to allow any legal action to be taken.

I enclose the press release below.

DAFC were very concerned to read the false ‘stories’ on the unofficial website recently concerning their youth and community policies and the funding of these. DAFC are keen to point out that these comments appeared within the open forum chat room and not on dafc.net’s news pages. DAFC have a very good working relationship with the unofficial site editors.

Where these stories came from the Club is unaware, all the Club knows is that they bear absolutely no resemblance to the truth and are baffled and dismayed as to why a very small number of so called supporters of the Club should choose to misrepresent them and their expanding youth policy in this way.


To clarify a few of the points discussed on the open forum, DAFC would like to clarify several of the points

DAFC`s Youth Development programme currently costs the Club around £240,000 every season; the contribution from SFA and SPL sources equates to around only one third of those operational running costs. This has never been self-funding, the Club has always had to pick up the remaining costs and indeed have always considered these costs as an investment

There are always many changes in signings at youth level on an ongoing basis and the Club will always strive to retain and attract the very best quality players to its youth sides; changes will always be inevitable

DAFC are placing a higher than ever focus on young talent identification, with the recent appointment of Bobby Jenks, Talent Identification and Funding Manager, in place to attract talent, both locally and further afield.

DAFC’s Community Programme is not and never has been funded by Fife Regional Council. It has in fact been heavily loss making in recent years and efforts are being made to stop that haemorrhaging and reach a break-even, not for profit, basis for all our Community Programmes. We were however grateful to receive a grant of £3,000 this year to allow us to progress evening footballing sessions for young teens later on this year.

The majority of the Community Programmes are now run from Vida, swapped from school halls earlier this year to give the kids a better chance to run around and play a decent game. Many school halls are to small to allow this and the decision was reached after canvassing opinion from kids and parents alike.

Our Community Programme is just that, giving all kids under twelve a chance to run around and play football with an element of coaching; these are specifically designed for kids of all skills level to be open to all, without the need for a minimum skill level restricting access for the majority of kids. There are a few small development squads for young kids with potential where they receive a much higher degree of coaching.

DAFC wishes to assure all fans that it takes Youth Development and its place in the community very seriously indeed and if any of the contributors to the net discussion would like further comment they only need write to us.

For further information please contact Michael Pinkerton on 01383 724295

DAFC.net regret that our facilities have been abused yet again and once again I will stress that we have to find a solution to this problem. Some people may not like it and see it as an infringement of their liberties, but I see it as protecting the innocent from anonymous people.

Mr Yorkston and the board have put a tremendous amount of effort to get the club where it is today and a very small minority do untold damage which takes a long time to recover from.

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