ABOUT US

Blackburn is a small town in West Lothian with a population of around 4,900. The settlement grew as an industrial town with a tradition in cotton manufacturing, coal mining and manufacturing. Considerable population growth in the 1960s as part of the Glasgow Overspill Plan was followed by depopulation as many industrial factories closed including the British Leyland plant in nearby Bathgate in 1986.

Like many former mining and industrial small towns, football has always been a focus for leisure time. Over the years many players have gone on from the local community to play at professional level in Scotland, England and at full international level.

In 1978 the Blackburn United Junior Football Club was formed. The team competes in the East Region South Division of the Scottish Junior Football League. The Juniors have a squad mix of amateur and semi-professional players, many of whom come from the local West Lothian area and some of whom are from the Lanarkshire and Stirlingshire areas. The adult side has an SFA qualified management team and a qualified physiotherapist.

Football has been an important form of personal and community expression in Blackburn. The area is high on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) and the Club recognised the role that football and sport can make to improving lives and life chances for young people. This led to the growth of football teams of all ages within the Club and there are now 17 teams with an overall membership number approaching 400. The Club also became a Community Club in 2004, reflecting the direction of development to engage more young people and work more closely with the community. This move brought together all the under-age teams in the town with Blackburn United Juniors, the town's adult side.

The youth section is made up of teams that range in age from Under 9's through to Under 21's and, along with a growing girls section and special needs provision, the Club provides coaching for upwards of 260 children. There is also a soccer school that provides targeted coaching for children from ages 5 to 7 to equip them with the skills and the confidence necessary to progress to one of the age group teams. All the youth players in the Club enjoy the guidance and direction of SFA qualified coaches. Within the Club there are 58 coaches all of whom are SFA qualified. All coaches have disclosure certificates from Disclosure Scotland (PVG). In addition there are 7 non-coaching secretaries and 14 First Aiders, many of whom have completed additional player protection courses. The Club has a child protection officer, an SYFA disclosure signatory and has a code of behaviour for parents, players and officials alike.

In November 2009 Blackburn United Community Sports Club became the fourth Club in West Lothian and only the nineteenth in the whole of South East Scotland to be awarded the SFA Quality Mark and full Community Award. The Club recently received the SFA Legacy Award for their work in the community; this is a prestige award and Blackburn became one of only two Clubs in West Lothian to receive it.

In March 2018 Blackburn United Community Sports Club became Scottish Charity SC048124 regulated by the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR).