Fund Raising Becomes More Important

Fund Raising For Youth Development Becomes More Important

Swansea City Supporters Trust have been raising money for the Youth side of Swansea City for a couple of years and those fund raising schemes may have become more important following a government decision to axe millions of pounds of funding from youth development.

The following is an extract from Wales On Sunday February 26 2006.

A Government decision to axe millions of pounds of funding for youth development could have disastrous consequences for Welsh football. From the end of this season the Government will withdraw all its financial support for professional football's youth development programme. That will leave a £3.75million annual funding shortfall after the PFA last year also stopped paying into the scheme. The Football League has appealed for financial help to both the FA and the Premier League and negotiations are on-going. Currently there are 69 youth development programmes in operation, 22 clubs running Academies and 47 the downgraded version of Centres of Excellence. The current £10million funding package amounts to £138,000 per Club. FL operations director Andy Williamson is very worried for the future as without core funding more Clubs will scrap their programmes, which have provided a route for local talent to play for their home clubs. It would be a travesty if so much good work were to unravel for the want of what, in football terms, is a very small amount of money."

With a loss of income to Swansea City, every penny that the Trust can assist in raising can go someway to alleviating this loss although it will take some work to reach the levels of income being talked about because of this government U-Turn

The Trust currently has running it's 'Pledge A Wedge' scheme where fans can back the number of goals that the Swans score in the league this season against a cash amount with the chance of also winning themselves prizes which include season tickets for next season.

You can pledge anywhere from 10p per goal upwards with a 25p per goal pledge expected to cost around £20 at the end of the season. For every £1 you pay into the scheme you get one entry into a prize draw to win one of the prizes listed below

You can pledge online at www.swanstrust.com/pledge.htm

Every penny really does now count.

The prizes for the winning contributors are as follows

1^st - Guest of honour at the opening match of the 2006/2007 season and a season ticket for the rest of the season

2^nd - A season ticket for the 2006/2007 season

3^rd - A Signed Shirt

4^th - A Signed Ball

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