Former Hibs star says island kids are held back

Comment Colin Campbell

There are a lot of really talented youngsters on the Western Isles – but they are at a big disadvantage being brought up there.

I’m originally from Benbecula in the Western Isles and was signed up for Hibs while in my third year Edinburgh University studying economics. But, if I’m being honest, when I was growing up I never considered it.

There’s no real history of people from our part of the country going on to play football. It didn’t cross my radar, even though I was football daft. The first professional match I saw was Celtic v Aberdeen when I was 15. Even then it didn’t dawn on me that was something I could try for. If I’d grown up on the mainland I’d probably have been taken to a Rangers and Celtic game or Hearts and Hibs at a younger age.

One of the problems is that young players don’t have enough company there to have really strong competition to play against. There are probably lots of talented players, far better than me, not getting a chance to show what they can do.

I’m sure things have improved since my days. But making that jump from playing locally to a higher standard is still very difficult and when players on the islands reach 19, 20, 21, they tend to drift away from football to other things.

People up there definitely feel their kids are not getting the same chances at sports as others.