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JACK LAWSON

Place of Birth; Buckie (Scotland)
Nationalities; Scottish/Italian
Playing; Semi-Pro Footballer



Jack Lawson (born 17 April 1987) is a Scottish football coach and former player. Jack is the son of former Scottish football referee Iain Lawson. Jack’s background also includes some Italian descent from his mother’s (Kiara) side of the family, hence his dual nationality status.

Growing up, Jack came from a relatively quiet personal life. Having been brought up in the Highlands of Scotland, specifically, the village of Buckie, Jack was used to the quiet life. Being taught in a class of 8, in a school of 17, his social skills were never pushed in primary school like they would had he been brought up in a big suburb area as most of mainland Britain.

After leaving primary school in Buckie, Jack, like all other kids in the area, were then sent to Inverness for their secondary schooling. Making this long travel back-and-forth to Inverness every day at such a young age helped mature Jack quicker than most, and allowed him to slowly develop his social skills and increase his social group of friends he could interact with.

Away from education, Jack loved football. It was in his blood. After all his father Iain would referee games each week in the local Highland League. Every game Jack would go and watch and study what he saw. His fascination with the game, from his dad’s performance, to the players and how they played and interacted with his father, it grew and grew until Jack realised this was what he wanted. Eventually, Jack was invited to trial at local club Buckie Thistle.

Over time, Jack came up through the youth system and eventually into the first team at Buckie as a teenage striker in the early-to-mid 2000s. Despite not having a great rapport with the other players, for his quietness, Jack thrived in this environment. His maturity gained him support from the coaches, and after some rave reviews, he sparked interest from local top-tier sides Ross County and Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Despite this, no move materialised.

Playing upfront, Jack made many appearances for Buckie, scoring some key goals along the way and even managed to gain himself a cult following on Championship Manager for his potential ability. However it wasn’t too long before persistent knee injuries prematurely ended his career at the age of just 22. With his playing days over, Jack left Buckie and took-up Business Management at Aberdeen University for 3 years, until transferring to Sports Science.

Despite leaving the university with degrees in Business and Sports Science, Jack found little opportunity to put his credentials to good use and eventually he accepted a regular day job at the local BT Call Centre. It was here he met his wife, Joanna (German), and settled down. It wasn’t until years later, despite having a secure job and income, Jack began to question what he was doing with his life. With his 30th birthday approaching Jack decided to do something and set about getting in contact with the Scottish Football Association’s offices at Hampden.

Jack completed his Scouting Certificate at the SFA, before moving into the Coaching Pathway and progressing through the qualifications, earning himself the Level-C Licence. After getting some experience in the Dundee and Angus areas as a local youth coach through the schools, Lawson applied for the head of SFA's Project Brave developmental system, but failed in his application. Undeterred, Lawson has his sights set on putting his skills to use in Management.

 
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Queen’s Park appoint Jack Lawson as new Head Coach

By Sky Sports News; 16/06/18 11:35am

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Queen’s Park have today appointed rookie coach Jack Lawson as the club’s new manager.

Lawson’s relatively-surprising appointment marks the end of a search, for a replacement for Gus McPherson, who left the Queen’s Park job, at the end of the previous 2017/18 season.

Lawson’s coaching career until now has been exclusively at a relatively unknown and untested level, starting with some basic experience in his semi-professional playing days at Buckie Thistle and then latterly coaching primarily in schools in the Dundee and Angus regions.

The 31-year-old was described in a club statement by Queen’s Park’s Club President, Gerry Crawley, as “a bright young face with a fresh approach in the game, having excelled in the interview and assessment process with his new-age philosophies for the modern game”.

“It’s fair to say that I am not the most experienced candidate who applied for this position, however, before reaching this stage I have turned down other offers from several clubs in the professional ranks with a view to scouting and coaching, because I have been looking for an entirely new challenge” Lawson told the gathered press at Hampden’s second-floor theatre.

“Queen’s Park is exactly the exciting challenge for which I have been waiting for. Let’s not kid ourselves, there’s a lot of work to be done, and for me especially, here in a totally new environment, it’s a step learning curve ahead, but we’re all going to work together, the staff at the club and the fans, to stabilise the team, and following that, improve it step by step, where necessary, with discipline, effort and commitment to take Queen’s Park forward and upwards.”

Lawson is now tasked with the unique scenario of putting together a competitive squad, given transition that lies ahead for the club moving from amateur to a (semi) professional status for the first time in its 151 year history, in the lead-up to the upcoming season in League Two.

Club President, Gerry Crawley further added; “I am thoroughly convinced that in time, the history of this great club will show that Jack was the right man to lead this club forward.”

Jack Lawson will officially take charge of this new era in Queen’s Park’s rich history on Monday morning, where he will be formally introduced to the current personnel at Hampden Park.

 
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QUEEN’S PARK

Ludere Causa Ludendi – "to play for the sake of playing".

Nickname; The Spiders
Founded; 9th July, 1867
Ground; Hampden Park


Queen's Park is the oldest association football club in Scotland, having been founded in 1867, and is the oldest outside England and Wales. Queen's Park is also the only Scottish football club to have ever played in the FA Cup Final, achieving this feat in both 1884 and 1885.

The club's home is a Category 4 stadium; the all-seated Hampden Park in South East Glasgow, which is also the home of the Scottish national team. With 10 major titles, Queen's Park has won the Scottish Cup (10) the third most times of any club, although their last win was in 1893.

Queen's Park formed the Scottish Football Association on 13 March 1873, with eight other clubs. The match against Dumbreck on 25 October was the first match to be played at Hampden Park. It was also the first match which saw Queen's Park players wear their custom black and white hooped jerseys, which lent the club the nickname of 'The Spiders'.

In the early days of England's FA Cup, Scottish clubs were invited to compete. As a result, Queen's Park twice finished runners-up in this competition, in 1884, when they lost 2–1 and in 1885, when they lost 2–0. 1887 was the last time that they entered the FA Cup competition.

Afterwards, the domination in the Scottish Cup that the club had enjoyed began to lessen as more teams strengthened. The trophy was reclaimed in 1890 and the club's 10th and final success came in 1893 with a 2–1 win over Celtic. In the same year, professional football was acknowledged by the SFA. Three years previously, the Scottish Football League had been formed but Queen's declined to join, stressing their strict amateur principles.

The Spiders' support is known for being vociferous, especially during away games, where the loyal support gets behind their team, win, lose or draw. For a relatively 'small' club, the fans take impressively numbers on their travels. Some of the Spiders' support call themselves the "Irn Bru Firm" and share an enjoyable relationship with German club SG Wattenscheid 09.

Despite being located midway between Celtic and Rangers, Queen's Park's long resistance to professionalism has resulted in not having competed in the same division as them for long periods of time, and thus turning to rivals in lower divisions, such as Partick Thistle, Clyde and Albion Rovers. However, the admittance of Rangers to the Scottish Third Division for the 2012–13 season prompted the renewal of what is known as the 'Original Glasgow Derby'.
 
Side note...

Hi, just want to say thanks for anyone that reads/comments on this. Although I have been playing FM nearly every year since CM 97/98 days, this is my first attempt at a story. I'm not quite sure what kind of updates I'm going to do after the initial - here's the background - but I'll take it as it comes.

I'm not a Queens Park fan myself but this is something I've never done before and wanted to do this. I've decided to pick Queen's Park because;

  • It's at the bottom of the Scottish pyramid (as far as playing FM goes) and if this were real my manager would have to start at the bottom.
  • Queen's Park are the only amateur club in the professional leagues - that's changed (edited so Queen's start as Amateur but can progress to Professional if eventually available.)
  • Queen's Park have the unique situation of using the Hampden Park stadium and facilities meaning in the long term there is so much potential with this club if they were to go Pro.
  • I love long term saves so the chance to take Queen's from low league amateur to kings of Scotland again (first time in over a century) intrigues me. - Longest save I've ever had is about 37 seasons?
  • The other objective of this game is to make the game in Scotland as big and great as it can be. So up the ranks, winning European trophies etc. Will that happen? In time maybe?
Anyway thanks for reading and I'll get back to posting about the story..
 
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Queen’s Park agree to sell Hampden to SFA

By BBC SPORT;

On this historic day, Queen's Park have agreed to sell Hampden in a bid to avert financial ruin.

“We have been the owners of Scotland's National Stadium for the past 115 years. No-one can take that heritage away from us. But perhaps the time has now come for us to accept that Scottish Football in the 21st century has changed, and that in order to survive we too have to change. We now have an opportunity to ensure the future survival of Queen's Park F.C.”

As BBC Scotland first revealed, the club's subsidiary, The National Stadium Company face a £4.5m bill for the repayment of debenture seats sold in 1999. They would also be required to return half of a £24m Millennium Commission grant handed over as part of a £60m upgrade 18 years ago if Hampden's status as 'The Scottish National Stadium' ends before 2040.

The Queen’s Park board held a meeting with their members on Wednesday night, with club vice-president Alan Hutchison talking through the background of the approach and canvassing members for their views. Supporters’ association secretary Keith McAllister said: “Selling Hampden is not something that we had been expecting to hear as an option and the meeting was an opportunity to tell those with Queen’s Park at heart what could happen.”

“As members and fans we would love to keep Hampden as our home and any deal should accommodate Scotland’s oldest club still continuing to play their games there. It is a magic piece of Scottish football that a small amateur side plays their games at such a big arena.”

“I have met hundreds of football fans from across the world who have come to take in the unique atmosphere of a Queen’s Park game.” From a supporters’ point of view, the sale of the ground should only be countenanced if the future of the 150-year-old club was at risk, as McAllister explained: “The over-riding factor here is that this historic football club survives.”

Key points that have been identified from the agreement between the two sides includes;

· The SFA will pay Queen’s Park the sum of £3m, for full ownership of Hampden Park.
· Hampden will remain the National Stadium, home to Scotland international games.
· Queen’s Park will be liable to pay running costs to the SFA, for their use of Hampden.
· Therefore, Queen’s Park will continue to play at Hampden, for the foreseeable future.
· Queen’s Park will, however, receive 3-years grace period, free of any financial costs.
· The 3-years allows Queen’s Park to transition, from amateur to professionally run.
The SFA then expects Queen’s Park to be self-sustaining, after the 3-year transition.




***So hopefully this explains what has been changed. I've used the Editor to change; the stadium to council owned. The £3m (roughly real life figure of the offer) has been added to the club balance. The 3 year grace period is basically because Queens Park have sponsorship agreement for the next 3 years already in place which will ultimately (in FM) offset the costs they pay for using Hampden.
 
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