Free football just the ticket as Ally McCoist visits AFC Fylde

The former Rangers and Scotand star, now a familiar voice in the TV commentary box, was there to see for himself how the club had benefited from National Lottery funding when fans weren’t allowed to attend games during the pandemic and to promote special ticket offers which will be available at games involving AFC Fylde and across the country in the coming weeks to thank lottery players for their support.

Ally also visited AFC Fylde’s Community Foundation Preventing Loneliness project, which was set up with the support of separate National Lottery funding in response to the Covid crisis to support vulnerable over-65s suffering from social isolation.

"What a brilliant set-up,” he said, “It’s great that local fans are able to watch football in such surroundings and that such a wonderful facility is here for the local community.

"I really think the community aspect of clubs such as this is more important than the actual football and that is why it was so important to ensure they got the pandemic when there was no income available from fans and to now encourage as many fans as possible to come along and support them.”

In October 2020, at the height of the pandemic, with football back but fans not permitted to attend, the National Lottery stepped in with £12.5m of emergency funding to support clubs such as AFC Fylde – and now as a way of thanking to lottery players for their backing which made that possible, 100,000 free tickets are being made available for games on March 26 and April 2 on a buy-one-get-one free basis.

Ally is Ambassador for what are billed as the National Lottery Football Weekends and hopes as many people as possible make the most of the offer.

AFC Fylde face Farsley Celtic and Gloucester City respectively on those dates and the club’s chief operating officer David Bottomley said: “It was great to see Ally and we are delighted about the National Lottery Football Weekends.

"We really missed the fans being in the stadium during the pandemic and the support of the National Lottery funding was vital to us when there were no gate receipts.”

Details of the National Lottery free football tickets offer at www.thenationallotteryfootballweekends.co.uk