By Stefan Morkis

DUNDEE UNITED are to team up with their Scottish Premier League rivals to tackle anti-social behaviour.

First Minister Jack McConnell said yesterday that he will meet representatives from all 12 SPL clubs in the new year to look at new ways they can help to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).

Chairman Eddie Thomson has given his support to the plan but said clubs have the power to do even more—if they are given funding for community-orientated projects from the Executive.

Speaking yesterday, Mr McConnell said, “Over the past week I have spoken to senior figures at all 12 Scottish Premier League clubs.

“They were all very supportive of this initiative and many were keen to draw attention to projects already under way or ideas they have for taking this forward.

“Scotland has changed a great deal over the last 30 years—today there are more opportunities than ever before. But I know that there are still some young people—for whatever reason—who are left behind.”

Mr McConnell announced earlier this year that reducing the number of people who are not in education, employment or training was a national priority and he feels football may play a key part in helping achieve that aim.

United already run a host of different projects to help young people but Mr Thompson said he would be giving the First Minister his full support—although he believes clubs could do more if given access to funding to help disaffected young people.

“The First Minister phoned me on Monday and we spoke for about 15 minutes,” said Mr Thompson. “I am very supportive of what he is trying to do and in fact United have been working in the community for a number of years.

“But I told the First Minister that if football clubs had access to some specific funding, because of the financial problems affecting all clubs, then we could a put a greater amount into the community, using football to attract young people and then working to reduce anti-social behaviour.”

Among United’s programmes already under way is a scheme where the club matches money donated by fans to purchase hundreds of season tickets which are given to Dundee City Council’s social work department who distribute them to disadvantaged children.

“The feedback from both the children and the social work department on that has been tremendous,” said Mr Thomson.

“For a provincial club we do quite well. We also work with the local authority to run a drop-in centre for kids at DISC (Dundee International Sports Complex) and at weekends we also have the junior league for primary kids.

“We try to teach them about sportsmanship and not just about playing football and we also do community work in schools where we try to teach pupils about lifestyles and staying away from drugs and alcohol.”

The club also works with supporters group the Arab Trust’s street football tournaments for youngsters while they also provide training for people who are taking part JobCentre Plus courses.

Yesterday Mr McConnell visited Rangers and Celtic, both of which have already established learning support centres for school pupils throughout Glasgow.

Both Old Firm centres provide courses for youngsters and aim to raise awareness of issues like alcohol and drug misuse, anti-social behaviour and bigotry.

Since the first centre was opened at Ibrox in 2001, it has seen 50,000 visits by pupils, teachers and parents, while the Celtic Park centre, launched in 2002, has an 80% success rate with youngsters in areas causing concern.