Pricing kids out of playing is a crazy own goal
The devil they say is in the detail and Satan himself would be shaking his head at the state of Scotland’s grassroots football.
Where to begin? A boys’ club in East Dumbartonshire arranged a parents’ evening last week and asked for a show of hands in order to agree a £ 10 increase to their current monthly £25 direct debit.
Running at a loss, this club were handing 90 per cent of the funds generated to their local council to pay for somewhere to train and host games.
Each and every parent shoved an arm in the air, a pledge to push the boat out to keep the team afloat.
So a family with three boys wil l pay £105 a month to make sure their kids can play an organised game of our national sport. This scandal is laid at the door of our local authorities. Their disgrace has them hiring out sect ions of thei r ar t i f icial pitches to maximise profits.
Here’s another outrage... Funding has been found, taxpayers’ cash to be exact, to install CCTV to oversee facilities with janitors being ordered to ensure there’s no unauthorised use of their pitches.
It doesn’ t take 20- 20 vision to see that parents who are struggling to make ends meet can’t afford to send their kids out to play. One quarter of our children are clinically obese – it’s little wonder when their sporting opportunities are out of financial reach.
My old Dundee United team-mate Andy McLaren raised the point a few days ago that this inability to pay impacts on the parents as well as the kids.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s grassroots football policy is simple but brilliant. He wants a portion of the billions in TV revenues down south ringfenced to support the game’s lowest level. The penny has even dropped for SFA chief Stewart Regan.
He said: “We have any amount of grass pitches in Scotland, we hav e any amount of sports and leisure centres. But what we don’t do is actually make them available all the time. There is a lot of responsibility for that.
“How many schools are locked at quarter to four on a summer afternoon?
“We don’ t use the resources that we’ve got efficiently enough.”
It’s time to open the gates to heaven or forever be damned to footballing hell.
Fans should turn out for the A&M Scotland and Manorview Hotel Group’s legends charity football match on July 9.
The game at Hamilton’s New Douglas Park will feature many former stars from Scottish football.
Proceeds go to A&M Scotland who provide vital facilities for boys and girls in deprived areas.