Using football to connect, inspire and grow Scottish Gaelic

As part of Seachdain na Gàidhlig (World Gaelic Week) 2026, we’re delighted to share this blog and a short film featuring Calum Ferguson, Development Manager at Alba FA - a charitable organisation using sport to create meaningful, everyday opportunities to use Gaelic.

Leugh sa Ghàidhlig

Calum says: 

My name is Calum Ferguson, and I’m the Development Manager at Alba FA. I live in the Highlands and I work with communities across Scotland and beyond using football to connect, inspire and grow Scottish Gaelic by bringing people together.

This year’s Seachdain na Gàidhlig theme, Use It or Lose It (Cleachd i no caill i), really resonates. Gaelic isn’t something we can protect by keeping it on the shelf - it has to be used, spoken and heard in everyday contemporary places and spaces.  

For years, there’s been a strong push to normalise Gaelic in community life, especially for young people. For me, football felt like a natural place to start. It’s Scotland’s biggest sport, and it brings people together in a way that feels easy and natural. When you combine football and Gaelic, you create opportunities to use the language outside the classroom in a social setting - and that’s vital.

Gaelic shouldn’t stop at the school gate or at our front doors. It should be used on the pitch, in changing rooms, in cafés, and in everyday conversations. When people use Gaelic in real situations, their confidence grows and so does the language.

Alba FA has grown naturally from our first initiative FC Sonas. It wasn’t really planned, it just happened. We went from delivering fun online sessions to keep young people fit in COVID, into Gaelic football sessions and camps. Over the years the opportunities kept growing and we travelled from community to community - from Inverness, Fort William, Skye and the Isle of Lewis, even crossing the Atlantic to Nova Scotia where there is still a Gaelic speaking community outside of Scotland.

It became clear that this was something bigger than FC Sonas. When the chance came at the Euros in Germany, we launched Alba FA to connect these communities at a national level.

Alba FA is about creating welcoming spaces where learners and fluent speakers can come together. Learning Gaelic to a fluent level can be challenging, and stepping into Gaelic-speaking environments can feel daunting. But when you’re part of a team, communicating naturally, hearing accents and expressions, the language starts to flow more easily. It’s a universal language and it removes the pressure.

As I say in our short film if Gaelic hadn’t been part of my own journey, I honestly don’t think I’d be doing what I do today. Our language is a core part of our culture, our identity and the places we call home. And I love that football helps with that. It’s practical, social and fun and it gives people a reason to use Gaelic without overthinking it.

If there’s one message I’d like to leave you with during World Gaelic Week, it’s a simple one: just go for it. Use your Gaelic. Whether you have a little or a lot, every contribution matters.

Gaelic belongs to us all, we all have unique skills, everyone can play a part.