Free Spurs tickets – and a challenge – for younger fans

Andy Gray can wait. First the good news: Salut! Sunderland has two free tickets for SAFC v Tottenham Hotspur on Feb 12 up for grabs. Who knows? It could be a game that enables us to rise above Spurs in the top six.

Now the better news: all you need to do to have a chance of winning them is to post a comment to Salut! Sunderland. Since I am about to remind readers of a fine initiative in which 16-25 year olds are encouraged to give up a small amount of their time in a good cause, I would prefer the tickets to go to younger readers. But that is not a condition of entry: I will award them to the writer of what I judge to be the best comment posted ON ANY SUBJECT, here or at the foot on another Salut! Sunderland article, between now and 9am GMT on Saturday Feb 5.

Just when everyone has knives out for Andy Gray, it is worth reminding ourselves that beyond this essentially pathetic little row, arguably less important a broadcasting issue than the lamentable BBC cuts, Gray is not an irredeemable monster.

This is his (pre-row) endorsement of “Make the Team”, a noble scheme run by the annoyingly named but heart-in-exactly-the-right-place v (also vinspired which is a little better and more formally the National Young Volunteers Service):

“Sign up with v and be part of something big. If you’re football mad like me there’s hundreds of ways you can get involved. You don’t have to be good at playing football – you could help coach, steward, or organise tournaments. You might even get to see your favourite Premier League Club.”

When Salut! Sunderland first mentioned v’s “Make the Team” campaign, organised by v – click here to see – this is what we said:

The idea is to help 16-25 year olds volunteer and gain recognition for what they do through the vinspired awards scheme.

Vinspired? What’s that, you may be asking … vinspired.com is a NYVS project whose site attracts 90,000+ visits per month and which has provided more than 900,000 new youth volunteering opportunities in England. I wish they wouldn’t call themselves v, which looks awful when written down as the name of an organisation, but that is no reason to fall out with them.

But if the scheme interests you or your young ‘uns, you need to act smartly – you//they MUST register by Jan 31.

Let Monika Orolinova, who contacted us on behalf of v, take up the story:

Passionate about football? Want to get more involved with the beautiful game? Fancy doing something worthwhile with your time? Volunteer with vinspired.com and you could be in with the chance of netting yourself a pair of match day tickets.

You might not have the potential to become the next Messi, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up on your football obsession. To help you use your passion for football to make a difference and learn new skills, v, The National Young Volunteers’ Service, is launching Make the Team; an initiative encouraging young people to volunteer their time for the chance to win tickets to see Premier League Clubs.

Anyone between the ages of 16-25 can get involved. All you need to do is visit: vinspired.com/football and register (free of charge).Then select your favourite Premier League team and you will then automatically be entered into a prize draw, to win one of numerous pairs of match day tickets.

There are hundreds of football- and sport-related volunteering opportunities on vinspired.com, including the chance to coach, referee or organise tournaments as well as thousands of other more general volunteer roles. Whether you’ve got one minute, one day or one week to spare v has the volunteer opportunity to match.

In addition to winning Premier League Tickets, volunteering can provide you with the following:

* Valuable work experience in a field that’s of interest to you eg football
* The chance to give something back to your local community
* Development of a range of new skills
* The opportunity to meet and interact with new people and broaden your horizons
* The chance to show initiative to future employers
* Additional experience to put on your CV

The biggest incentive for young people to get involved is that they get a chance to win a pair of Premier League tickets to watch a team of their choice. All they have to do is go to www.vinspired.com/football and register for free (anyone between 16-25). Then they choose a team of their choice and they are automatically entered into a random prize draw to win these tickets.

Whether you want to get involved in football or any other volunteering activity, please go to www.vinspired.com and check out all the opportunities there are! Make the Team campaign will finish on January 31 so be sure to do this quick!

Monsieur Salut, whose decision on those tickets will be final

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