Denis Law Legacy Trust – In the Name of the Lawman

There was an outpouring of love following the death of Denis Law in January 2025. It spoke to the impact the Scottish football legend had on the game. His achievements on the pitch ensured that the ‘Lawman’ will have a permanent place in the history of the game. In his home city of Aberdeen, there is a charity that the former Manchester United striker helped establish. It is going from strength to strength in his name. This is the story of the Denis Law Legacy Trust.

Stay with them forever

There is a quote on the Denis Law Legacy Trust website attributed to their patron Denis. “Sport played a very important part of my childhood and I firmly believe that the experiences and enjoyment that kids get from physical activity will stay with them forever.”

Denis wanted to provide free-to-access sporting activities to children and young people in the city’s most deprived areas. The Trust does this in part through the StreetSport programme. It was established in partnership with Robert Gordon University, Police and Fire Service.

Aimee Culley

I spoke with the Trust’s Operations Coordinator, and former footballer, Aimee Culley to learn more about the work going on in the Denis Law Legacy Trust.

“Last year we hit 25,000 participations, which is the highest that we have had since pre-Covid. I think even pre-Covid in 2019 it was around 21,000. We base all of our sessions in the city, we work from the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation levels to identify where we have all of our sessions. These are the areas where you see the most instances of anti-social behaviour and high poverty levels. That is how we determine where to deploy and we have got ten sessions, basically two every night of the week.”

Not just football

The Trust may be in the name of arguably the greatest footballer Scotland has ever seen, but it is not just football on offer to young people when the team hold their sessions as Aimee describes.

“All of our sessions are free to access. It is sport and creative activity so we turn up with our vans full of equipment, and they just get to choose whatever they want to do. It is mainly football because obviously it is associated with Denis Law. But we have got pickle ball, we have got tennis nets, we have also got creative activities. The types of creative activity that we have done in the past have included slime making, tie-dye t-shirts and anything else that we can really think of, we try and provide. Every week we will usually see about 550 participants over the course of the week.”

Cruyff Courts

To assist the hosting of these nightly sessions, a partnership was formed with the foundation of another legendary footballer. The Johan Cruyff Foundation has helped develop hi-tech playing areas, with an artificial surface ideal for football and other sports. These ‘Cruyff Courts’ have been built across the globe with Aberdeen hosting the UK’s first in partnership with the Denis Law Legacy Trust.

Aberdeen now boasts three Cruyff Courts with a fourth potentially on the way. As well as providing a venue for the Legacy Trusts sessions, the Cruyff Courts offer an unbookable, free to access sports hub. The city’s second court, named after late-Aberdeen footballer Neale Cooper, saw anti-social behaviour in the area it was situated, drop by 50%.

Safe haven

Aimee described how the Cruyff Courts are more than just a space to play football for the young people in the areas which they are situated.

“It is really cool as it creates such a positive environment. I think once they got the Cruyff Court down the young people just saw it as a safe-haven. They see it as their safe space and they are always down there whether it is a night that we are there or not. Depending on the area that they are in, the lights can be on until 10 p.m. so they can use it up until that point at night. I live quite near the first one that was built, so I see people in that all the time and it is really nice to see it getting utilised so much.”

The Trust goes beyond providing the StreetSport sessions with various programmes and campaigns being added to its repertoire since it was established. The Streetwise campaign promotes a healthier lifestyle and mental wellbeing. Granite City Speaks, or GCS, provides a forum for 14–18-year-olds to represent the area where their StreetSport sessions take place. The forum allows the young people to talk about wider issues that impact their local communities. It also allows them to identify and raise concerns on behalf of young people living in their areas.

Club 10

Aimee talked about one of the Trusts other programmes. It is aimed at helping inmates in prison and young offender institutes, and their families.

“Club 10 is our programme which is run by my colleague Kiana Coutts. She goes to HMP Grampian and works with families impacted by imprisonment. Kiana goes along for the prison visits and just makes it a little bit more child friendly. They do activities with the families visiting inmates at the prison. They also hold peer support sessions for the families once a month.”

Positive relationships

The Trust continues to have a positive impact on so many of the city’s children and young people. That is due, in no small part, to their team of staff and volunteers. Aimee retired from football last season, ending her career with Montrose in the top flight of Scottish Women’s Football. As she described her position in the Trust, the passion she has for her role really shone.

“The fact that you are building positive relationships with these young people. You are a consistent adult in their life. I do not think a lot of our coaches realise that they are even doing that. A lot of our coaches are young and they were past participants here themselves. They come up from being participants to volunteers and now they are a role model to these young people.

We have got such an inclusive and dynamic team. We probably have more males than we do females, but we have a lot of young female role models there too. I think sometimes people will think that this is another coaching academy or something like that. There is no structured coaching sessions and we do not do drills. We want them to feel that they have a sense of belonging. That they have responsibility when they are with us. We want our young people to feel safe with us and to feel like they have got a voice and they will be heard.”   

All images from The Denis Law Community Trust website. Learn more about the Trust here: https://www.denislawlegacytrust.org/