Castlemilk footballer says kids are being priced out of the game

A talented footballer who grew up in Castlemilk believes kids are being priced out of the game in Scotland because of the cost to play.

Andy McLaren played for Dundee United and Kilmarnock during a career that also took him to England.

He now works for a charitable trust providing coaching to kids in deprived areas.

In an interview with BBC Sportsound on Monday night, he spoke candidly about his own battle with drug addiction and what he sees as a failing on the part of the footballing authorities in Scotland.

He said: “Football, in my opinion, has become middle class.

“It’s an absolute disgrace that kids are being priced out of football in this country. It’s meant to be our national sport. It’s meant to be allinclusive. At the moment it’s not.

“People are struggling out there. We started eight years ago and very quickly we’d see young people with holes in their shoes and things like that.

“Some would turn up for camps with no packed lunch. Very quickly we learned we had to feed them because the coaches were having to give them their lunches.

“People will go to me, ‘it’s the parents’ fault’ but people out there are struggling with mental health issues or addiction issues.

“I think we’re easy in this country to blame people. If you see someone struggling it’s our job to help the less fortunate.”

Of his own experiences in Castlemilk, Andy said: “I would have been priced out of football just now. I grew up in Castlemilk, a housing estate on the south side of Glasgow. Up until I was 15, I thought that was the way everybody grew up.

“Crime, heroin, drink - football was my escape route from all of that. Football was important, took me away from an area that was hard growing up in. It gave me something to focus on.”

Andy also revealed he had been abused at a young age and used drugs and alcohol to cope.

“I wasn’t taking them (drugs and alcohol) socially. I was taking them for effect. It wasn’t as if anyone forced me to do anything. I was a willing participant. I enjoyed it.”