‘Amazing to have something like this’ – Shetland Sands footballers train for the first time
A NEW football team launched for men affected by baby loss has held its first training session in Lerwick.
Sands United FC Shetland met for the first time inside the Gilbertson Park games hall on Tuesday night, with four players enjoying a fun kickabout.
The team will now train weekly as it moves towards possibly joining Shetland’s football leagues in years to come.
Team manager Neil Tindall spoke to Shetland News at the session and said a lot of people had messaged to say it was “amazing to have something like this” in Shetland.
“There’s not really an outlet for men up here going through the trauma of losing a bairn,” he said.
Sands United FC Shetland is part of the national pregnancy and baby loss charity Sands, which has a local isles branch.
The main goal of the team is to give local dads, grandfathers, uncles, brothers, and family members affected by baby loss, stillbirth, or neonatal death somewhere to come together and meet regularly, while playing football.
Players can also choose to have the names of the babies they have lost commemorated on their match shirts.
Tindall said he had found out about another Sands team down in England through a Discord group, which led him to question whether Shetland could get its own Sands team.
“I did a quick Google search and found you could start your own team,” he said.
“I did a follow-up interview with the team lead, which went really well, and he was happy to take things to the next stage which was becoming the team manager of Sands.
“It started pretty quickly a couple of weeks ago and it’s grown quite quickly since then.”
Tindall, who along with partner Jolene have also been affected by the loss of a baby, said Sands teams elsewhere had been referred to as “the team nobody wants to play for” because of their connection to child loss.
Already eight players have signed up to play for the club, with the Sands FC Shetland Facebook page gaining more than 100 followers in a matter of days.
Tindall said they wanted to encourage more players to come forward.
“Grief around baby loss can be hugely isolating for men, and men often struggle to talk about it or know where to turn, especially in Shetland where men can be very much closed books,” he said.
“Sands United gives guys a network to get active, build community, and talk when they feel ready – or just be around folk who understand.”
Tindall said there were very few restrictions on who could join, and people did not even have to be footballers to get involved.
For now the focus is on having fun, but in the future Tindall would like to see the team compete against Shetland’s other sides.
“In the long run getting a good decent turnout of players and hopefully entering the leagues in Shetland and cups,” he said of their aims.
“Short term just to get guys together, get a kickabout, that have been through the same kind of thing as we have.
“Just having a laugh, bit of banter and hopefully scoring a few goals.”
People can get in touch about being involved by contacting shetland_sufc@sandsvolunteer.org.uk, or can follow their progress here.
Become a member of Shetland News
Shetland News is asking its readers to consider paying for membership to get additional perks:
- Removal of third-party ads;
- Bookmark posts to read later;
- Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;
- Hide membership messages;
- Comments open for discussion.
If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of Shetland News by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.
Already a member? Sign in to hide this message.
