SPECSAVERS is sponsoring the new GFA (Guernsey Football Association) Fair Play Award. The Award encourages Guernsey’s youth teams to play football in a respectful and inclusive way.  After every youth match this season, both clubs score the opposing club on how they conducted themselves during the game. This includes the club’s youth players, its coaches, and even the parents watching from the side-lines. These scores earn clubs points which count towards two in-season awards, and a final end-of-season award. This end-of-season award will earn the winning club £500 pounds worth of football equipment. The first in-season award is going to be announced early November.

The Fair Play Award links the FA’s (Football Association) national ‘Respect’ program. This program was launched in 2008 as an initiative aimed at improving behaviour around the grassroots football game. The Respect program was developed after extensive research in to youth football identified that 9 in 10 children play better with positive encouragement. It also highlighted the negative connotations that can arise for children when faced with negative experiences in football. Ultimately, the Respect program focusses on creating and maintaining the right environments for young players which support fun, safe and inclusive experiences. The Specsavers Fair Play Award is aimed at recognising those clubs that best reflect the Respect program, which we hope will raise the profile of the program, whilst also rewarding positive behaviours.

GFA Chief Executive Officer & Director Gary Roberts says, ‘We have a reputation of great sportsmanship in the island and this award is a way of recognising exemplary behaviours. This will encourage clubs to play the game the way it’s meant to be played, and to reward the ones that already do that.’

Specsavers Managing Director UK/ROI Paul Marshall says ‘This is a great opportunity for Specsavers to get involved in the local community and help to contribute to our positive culture in football’.