AN INCLUSIVE football club has struck a partnership deal with telecom giant Openreach.

Glasgow Saints FC based in Dennistoun is a club dedicated to being open to players from all backgrounds.

Broadband network Openreach has now backed the club in a year-long deal with funds for new training kits and match balls.

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Glasgow Saints, which has two teams playing in the Glasgow Community and Co-Operative Football League and a women’s team, was founded as a charity in 2020.

The club’s motto is ‘football for everyone’. Players and coaches are from various cultural, religious and financial backgrounds, with asylum seekers and refugees among those in the squad.

Laurie Keith, a project manager at Openreach, has been involved with Glasgow Saints since it was founded.

As well as being the manager for one of the squads, he also develops the club’s culture on and off the field.

He said: “We want to be competitive, but there’s more to it than that. We want to give our players a safe space to play football, regardless of where they’re from, their religion, their sexuality, their financial status.

“For someone else to recognise what we’re trying to do and how good it is – that kind of validates what we’re trying to achieve as a club."

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Scott Room, Openreach’s director of Brand, Marketing and Digital, said: “We’re proud to be partnering with Glasgow Saints FC. They’re a great example of the positive impact inclusive sports clubs can have on local communities and people, no matter their background or situation.” 

Openreach is also doing partnership deals with clubs in Wales, England and Northern Ireland which it feels fits with its agenda to promote inclusiveness.

Bournville-based Crusaders FC’s youth girls’ teams; Cardiff Dragons, Wales’s first LGBTI+ football club and Everett Rovers Football Club in Watford, which runs a team for players with disabilities are part of the programme.