Chamber and committees

That would be something for the English FA to decide. The point that I was making is that, in his position, the First Minister should not have been laughing at what was happening the other night.

I will move on, Presiding Officer, because that is my rant over. I promise to be more positive from now on. The issue demonstrates how important football is to our society and how emotive it can be.

Football has always been part of my life. It provides stories and memories. I remember, as an 11-year-old, queuing up all night to get a ticket to see Aberdeen beat Bayern Munich 3-2. I remember my first Scotland game—not such a happy memory—at Hampden in 1989, when we were narrowly beaten by England, as well as the long bus journey home. Closer to home, when my son and daughter came along, I helped out with their school teams, and, when they got older, I travelled the country to watch their games. I can remember those events from years ago, yet I cannot remember what I had for my dinner last night.

We had an event in Parliament this week to celebrate volunteers in Scottish sport, which was hosted by my colleague Liz Smith. I want to give a big shout out to all those volunteers who help to run sports clubs, including football clubs, right across Scotland. Without those volunteers, grass-roots football would not exist. As a councillor on Aberdeen City Council, I was also able to see at first hand the impact that football trusts make in our communities. I will talk about two of those trusts.

Since being set up in 2014, the Aberdeen Football Club Community Trust has shown the important role that football plays in our local communities. Over the years, the trust has partnered with 17 primary schools and seven academies across the north-east. The trust’s work has increased pupils’ attendance and has improved time keeping, attainment and behaviour. Amazingly, a total of 119 pupils achieved Scottish Qualifications Authority qualifications through the trust’s interventions. The trust’s youth ambassador programme gives young people the opportunity to gain real-world experience, skills and qualifications through volunteering opportunities and work experience. However, the work of the trust goes beyond just education. Its 12-week MINDSET programme, which breaks down the stigma around mental ill health, has been delivered to every secondary 1 pupil in three secondary schools and Aberdeen city academies.

The work of the trust is not limited to young people. The football memories programmes and the regular health walks offer a safe space to people who are suffering with dementia and their families, while improving participants’ mental and physical wellbeing and tackling loneliness, which Stephen Kerr has mentioned. Because of the programmes that the trust offers and the positive impact that it has on the local community, it is not surprising that the trust has been awarded both the UEFA best professional football club in the community award and the Queen’s award in 2019.

As a councillor, I often thought about how the AFC community trust could reach out to people that the local authority could not reach. That ties back to how clubs are woven through the fabric of our communities. In Aberdeen, we are lucky that great work is being done by the Denis Law Legacy Trust, which was instrumental in setting up Cruyff courts in Aberdeen. Those free-to-play courts have a huge impact in some areas of Aberdeen. They were approved in partnership with the then Conservative-led administration, which I was proud to lead. The Denis Law Legacy Trust also works in partnership with local police in tackling anti-social behaviour, providing its streetsport programme five nights a week, improving health and wellbeing and reaching out to youngsters right across the city.

It is not just Conservatives in local government who are helping grass-roots football. Let us not forget the recent announcement by the UK Government that it will invest £20 million in grass-roots multisports facilities in Scotland. That is a huge boost that has been warmly welcomed by the SFA, which will see a significant portion of that cash. The organisation said that it will help to reinforce the power of football locally and, in doing so, develop our national game.

Of course, football brings huge economic benefits. Travel operators and hospitality venues benefit hugely on the back of match days, and town centres benefit hugely by having our stadiums close by. I really hope that Aberdeen Football Club and the local council can work together to ensure that the UK’s first net zero stadium is built in the city.

The Scottish Football Association’s 150-year anniversary really is something to celebrate. The SFA can rightly be proud of its contribution to world football. If England claims to be the mother of football, Scotland must claim to be the father of football, which should make us all proud.

I think that it was Ben Macpherson who made a point about the lack of facilities. When I was trying to run football teams, it was not just the lack of facilities but their cost that was putting football out of reach for so many children.

Will the member take an intervention?

What are the timeframes for those funds? What are you looking at for the reduction in output?

By the end of the year, our farmers should have some sort of guidance about the direction of travel and what they need to be working on. Is that fair?

We agree, but I am confused. You had £80 million in your budget, so can you give us clarity on what that was for and why it was removed? We are in a better place now than we were when the money was initially put into the budget.

I do not want to flog this too much, but what do you think the £80 million will be spent on? Are we talking about a transmission network for carbon, or is it to help businesses? What is your initial thought on what the £80 million would be used for?

I have a final question. The programme for government sets out that the Scottish Government will work with industry

“to create energy transition opportunities at major industrial sites”

in Scotland. How will the Government support small and medium-sized enterprises in reducing their environmental impact?

For clarity, cabinet secretary, you mentioned that discussions with the MCA had been on-going for some time, so what did you mean? Did you mean six months or six weeks? What sort of timescale are we looking at?

You were therefore not aware of an issue before you gave that update to Parliament.