Testimonials

“Club Development Scotland were instrumental in helping Aberdeen Amateur Athletic Club make the transition from Community Amateur Sports Club to Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO), and subsequently register with HMRC to claim Gift Aid as a SCIO. Their practical assistance and guidance were invaluable. They certainly accelerated and simplified these processes for the club. They continue to be a source of expertise and support: quickly, thoroughly, and patiently responding to our queries.”

– Brian Pahlmann, Club Manager

“The deal for ourselves and Gordon Scott to buy St Mirren was a year in the making, and the team at Club Development Scotland/Supporters Direct were with us from the start.

“The team were on hand with advice and support and we want to thank them for all they did.

Part of that work included a report into St Mirren’s financial position and the insight and advice we received from their football finance expert Nick Igoe was utterly invaluable at a crucial point in the negotiations.

Our bid came about because we believed there could be no better owners for our club than the local community – we would encourage any other fan groups who think the same to find out how the Club Development could help them too.”

– Dave Nicol, SMISA Board Member

“We’ve worked very closely with Club Development Scotland and we’ve looked at other clubs and the models available. The expertise from Club Development has been immense”.

– Phillip Jones, Chairman

“From the first contact between us as a Club and Club Development Scotland to the end, the advice, information, and service was superb. We can’t speak highly enough of Andrew and would have no concerns in recommending Club Development Scotland to other clubs and associations. If required, we will certainly be going back.”

– Calum Doctor, Chairman

“We first linked up with Club Development Scotland through our partnership with My Club Hub to assist and progress our application to gain charitable status as a SCIO and HMRC registration for Gift Aid. The application process is quite a daunting task for any club but straight from the start the guys were first class, getting a real understanding of our club first of all and from there on in, it was a very streamlined and simple process which resulted in a successful outcome. Their expertise and honesty was evident. Real genuine guys and we can’t speak highly enough of the work of Club Development Scotland. We would have no doubts in recommending the first class services provided.”

– Kevin Stewart, Chairman

When we formed Glasgow Saints Football Club in 2020, we knew very early on that we wanted to be a club that existed to support our community as much as our community would support us. This is what drove us to become a registered charity in Scotland. We understood what becoming a charity would mean in simple terms, but as individuals we had no real experience or understanding of the process involved; or understanding of the full scope of how we could use registration to further benefit those we were eager to help.

Club Development Scotland guided us seamlessly through every stage of the process, answered every question we had and introduced options that without them, we would never have known existed. Being able to rely on their expertise and trusting in their counsel, also afforded us the time to focus our efforts on other areas of club development, allowing for continual internal growth. Our sincerest thanks to Andrew and the team for their patience, and for turning a daunting task into an enjoyable one for all on the Board at GSFC.

– Emma Jones, Trustee

Being new to the role I sought the help of Club Development Scotland in the compilation of the Corporation Tax Return for Inverness Bowling Club and I’m very happy to say I got excellent assistance from Nick Igoe, Chief Financial Officer.

– Jim Dow, Secretary and Treasurer

Andrew’s knowledge and expertise in club development was instrumental in helping the cricket & football clubs come together and create a new community sports hub with charitable status.

He made the process of creating and writing the governing documents really simple, the application to OSCR was also seamless and down to his passion to help clubs develop and become more inclusive we gained our charitable status extremely quickly.

We can not recommend engaging with Andrew on club development highly enough.

– Barry McGeachy, Trustee

Club Development Scotland helped us change our 100 year old Swimming Club to a CIO Charity. Their support was just what we needed, and their approach was always professional and reliable. A process that took us over 12 months, the support we received in dealing with our governing body (Swim England) and the Charities Commission was consistent, personable, and always timely. Nothing was ever too much trouble, and we are now positioned to reap the benefits.

– Tom Beddoes, Chair