Facing the boot for telling them of abuse
Coaches lose membership over claims
A youth football club claim t hey f ac e extinction because their coach spoke out against abuse.
Glentyan Thistle chiefs say the club have been banned from league matches.
Hundreds of young footballers have been affected by the row with the Scottish Youth Football Association (SYFA).
Coach Ali McMaster claims problems arose when he joined forces with a whistleblower to raise concerns over abuse.
We told in December how Ian McCallum reported incidents and information to authorities over the past five years.
McCal lum, 50, said his registration as a coach has been suspended amid accusations his claims were malicious.
Now McMaster claims he is also being forced from the game after backing McCallum’s stance. McMaster said: “Our team had every age level from Under- 6s to Under-17s but began encountering issues with registrations.
“We had about 250 players. It went down to 100 and now the rest have been banned. We’ll now fold if league access is not given. That will be 250 kids out of the game. We believe we’ve been targeted.”
McMaster, 50, of Johnstone, Renfrewshire, has coached Glentyan for 20 years. An SYFA spokesmans said: “Glentyan Thistle failed to submit a fully completed membership application and have not complied with requests to remover proposed legal actions against the youth football league.
“They’ve also been asked to remover offensive social media posts.
“Mr McMaster’s membership wasw terminated and he was reported to Police Scotland and Disclosure Scotland following al legat ions of threatening behaviour against a 16-year-old.”
They added: “Mr McCallum has been the subject of several complaints of aggressive and abusive behaviour towards people associated with the SYFA and these have been reported to police.
“His conduct and behaviour were prime factors in his membership application being rejected.”