Enter our 2021 Young Football Writers’ Competition

In 2020 we launched our inaugural competition for school students in Scotland to find the best young football writers and we were delighted with the response.

A wide range of subjects were covered in both age categories and you can read the winning entries here and here.

We’re now pleased to announce this year’s competition which will have a £50 prize on offer in both P7 to S3 and S4 to S6 categories. We will also publish the winning entries in Nutmeg magazine. This could be the start of your career as a published writer.

Your competition entry could be written in a number of styles and be about any Scottish football topic of your choosing. It should reach us in a Word document, emailed to info@nutmegmagazine.co.uk by a parent or guardian by 30 September 2021.

There are more details below, but do get in touch with any queries you may have.

Some top tips for creative writing

Further details

Competition entries will be judged by our panel.

Daniel Gray
The Editor of Nutmeg and the author of ten books, the latest of which is Extra Time: 50 Further Delights of Modern Football (Bloomsbury). He hosts our podcast and that of WSC magazine. 

Dani Garavelli
A freelance journalist, working for titles including the Herald, the Times, the Guardian, the Big Issue and Scotland on Sunday.

Alan Pattullo
A sports writer at The Scotsman since 1998, reporting on World Cup finals, Wimbledon and Claudio Caniggia’s debut for Dundee. He is the author of In Search of Duncan Ferguson and once edited a Dundee fanzine, It’s Half Past Four And We’re 2-0 Down

Alan Gillespie
Principal Teacher of English at Fernhill School in Glasgow, and an experienced marker for the SQA. He writes for the Times Educational Supplement and had a novel published in May 2021.

» Two winners, one in P7 to S3 category and one in S4 to S6 category, will be awarded £50 each, and their articles will appear in Nutmeg, a quarterly Scottish football magazine.

» Entries could take the form of articles, analysis, reporting, fiction/short stories, poetry…any form of writing that you are comfortable with.

Please state in your covering email:

» Your name

» The school you attend

» Your age and school year group at present, and the category you are entering. Those categories are:

Junior Students (P7 – S3)

Senior Students (S4 – S6)

Here are some suggested topic areas, but you are not restricted to these and can write about anything of your choice:

» Create a new football chant that you could imagine being sung by the crowd on matchday

» Pen a poem about your favourite football stadium and why you love it

» Design a profile of your favourite player’s career and what they mean to you

» Write a short story imagining what goes on in the dressing room at your favourite club

» Research a controversial topic within football and write an article outlining your opinion

» Reflect on what going to the football means to you, your friends and your family

» Imagine you get to commentate and report on your favourite football moments

» Share memories of your team’s best players, biggest defeats, and most embarrassing moments

» Use your persuasive powers to attack or defend the amount of money in football

» Uncover and tell a story about a forgotten player, or an old game, or a derelict stadium

Good luck, and we can’t wait to read your entry!

Some top tips for creative writing