An Aberdeen-based football project aimed at improving men’s mental health have been granted charity status in the same week their players will take to the field for a fundraising match at Inverness’ Caledonian Stadium.
Three years after starting up, The Kickabout Aberdeen (TKA) – who work to improve the mental and physical wellbeing of dads, grandads and carers in the north-east through football – are now a Scottish registered charity.
Founded by David Sims and Paul Simpson, and initially spun out of the Team Kickabout initiative in England, TKA offer seven-a-side football at Nelson Street on Tuesday nights and five-a-sides at Goals in Garthdee on Wednesdays, while also arranging regular 11-a-side action for their members.
Participants range in age from young dads to over-60s, with 20 to 30 players – of varying fitness and footballing levels – regularly taking part.
As well as getting them active, TKA encourage the men who come along to talk about any off-field struggles they may be having.
Port of Aberdeen worker Barry Ross, 45, is one of the Granite City men whose life has been “changed for the better” by TKA.
Now serving as team captain and helping founders David and Paul organise sessions and games, Barry felt the benefits of the football project himself after being hit hard by redundancy during the Covid pandemic.
Explaining the reasoning behind TKA’s successful decision to pursue charity status, Northfield dad Barry, who has two children and three step-children, said: “We’ve just grown and grown and then we decided we wanted to go down the charity route to try to help people.
“We couldn’t get the funding for pitches and trying to get pitches was a no-no because schools had them and clubs had them.
“We applied for it, got a lot of help and, on Tuesday, got the email confirming that we’d done it.”
Barry revealed everyone at TKA has been “on a high” since their charity status was confirmed.
He thinks it will help them keep costs down going forward for the men they help, who are currently each asked for £5 towards pitch hire and other costs – although TKA have a fund to cover anyone who cannot afford this.
Funds raised from return friendly against Gellions AFC will benefit Mikeysline
On top of their successful charity status bid, it is a big week for TKA’s players for another reason.
They play once monthly inter-member 11-a-side matches, and generally take on outside opposition once every other month, previously squaring off against Aberdeen FC’s FFIT (Football Fans in Training) team and Raith Rovers FFIT team at Stark’s Park.
On Saturday, TKA will travel for a return fixture against Inverness amateur side Gellions AFC at Championship Caley Thistle’s home ground, having already played the north side at Cove Rangers’ Balmoral Stadium in September – raising thousands of pounds for mental health charities in the process.
Barry said: “One of my friends I used to work with, Mikey Logie, he’s the manager for Gellions. He saw what we were doing and said we should get a game.
“Last September we got them down here to play at Balmoral, and we did a charity race night and fundraising with raffles and things. We raised nearly £3,000 for Mikeysline, and a couple of thousand pounds for ourselves, which we gave to SAMH and We Too!, plus we bought some new bibs and footballs and kit and stuff for us.
“All the Gellions guys came down, we went for a night out after it and they loved it, so it was always like: ‘Right you need to come to us, we’ll get something organised’.
“Mikey said he would get Caley Thistle’s park – which for us is a really big thing, because they’ve been a Premiership team.
“We’ve managed to get it whittled down to a squad of 22 we’re going to take up, and there’s more people coming just to watch.
“We’re going to get the train up on Saturday. We’re all in a hotel and after the game we’ll go out for some food and some drinks.”
Despite TKA’s own new charity status, Highland mental health cause Mikeysline will again be beneficiaries of the match between Gellions and TKA, which kicks off at 2pm.
This Saturday, Gellions AFC will be hosting Kickabout Aberdeen at the Caledonian Stadium for a charity match in aid of @Mikeysline1 – 2pm KO.
Supporters welcome and donations on entry will be kindly accepted.
You can also donate on Gellions GoFundMe page:… pic.twitter.com/uE9FZ2FZFo
— Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC (@ICTFC) September 6, 2023
Barry added: “Everything will go to Mikeysline this year. They’ve got a GoFundMe set up and we’ve done scratchcards – the boy who won the scratchcard has put all of the money back in.
“It won’t be for us this year. With the charity (status) thing, we’ve been working hard on that, and we’ve not really done anything for ourselves.
“We’ve got a few things in the pipeline, and now we’ve got the charity status, we need to sit down and have a talk and see where we’re going to go with it.”
To make a donation to the Gellions v TKA Mikeysline fundraising pot, visit gofund.me/1490d6ca
Donations can also be made at the gate.
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