Youth centre to get go-ahead
Hibs to get Musselburgh centre as more tickets go on sale tomorrow...

OVER THE COURSE OF THE CURRENT SEASON, HIBS HAVE SHOWN THAT YOUTH is the way forward for teams that don't have the financial resource of the Old Firm, or anyone else that lures a businessman who is prepared to 'splash the cash' in.  Despite the strength that Hibs have had for many years in bringing through promising youngsters, the club have never had dedicated facilities to help nurture this talent, preferring to train on public parks, school grounds and artificial pitches in places like Chesser or Dalgety Bay.  Much was made of the plans to build a training academy at Duddingston or Musselburgh last year but this all seemed to drift away into the background within a short space of time as more pressing financial matters came to the fore.

Last week however, one set of plans that Hibs had submitted, for a stand-alone facility on the banks of the Firth of Forth, have been rejected by East Lothian Council after Hibs didn't come forward with concrete plans for the area.  Instead, it now looks likely that the club will look to move into accommodation that will share facilities with Queen Margaret University College in the Ash Lagoons area just outside Musselburgh.  East Lothian Council's planning chiefs have now accepted the revised proposals and have recommended that they be approved by the council, a move that will see work start in the next few months.  A spokesman for Hibs told the Edinburgh Evening News, "The university has taken the lead with this project and we wanted to be part of it. The size and scale of the Hibs academy was always going to change as it went through various planning stages."  East Lothian Council leader Norman Murray explained why the plans would be approved in their current state.  "The football academy was part of the proposals put forward by the architects. This is a large area and has many opportunities for development.  We didn’t get a formal commitment to take up the idea of the academy so it was rejected. We had informal discussions with Hibs but we are now concentrating on what is achievable in the short term."

Proof that investing in youth has already benefited Hibs  (sns)

Meanwhile, back on the Hampden front, the latest and possibly last batch of tickets go on sale in under 24 hours with some earmarked specifically for those outside of Edinburgh.  1,500 briefs will go on sale from the ticket office tomorrow morning at 7.30am with a further 300 being made available to those calling in.  These tickets though will only be sold to users who have an out of town address to attempt to ensure that those unable to make the trip to Easter Road are not disadvantaged.  Hibs Marketing and Communications Director Colin McNeill has asked fans who have not yet picked up their tickets for Sunday to avoid coming on Tuesday as ticket office staff will be focused entirely on dealing with new applicants.  "Certain tickets didn’t arrive from the SFL so we had fans paying for them and getting a voucher to exchange at a later date.  To avoid complications it would be better if they came to collect on Monday or Wednesday, not next Tuesday."

With 38,000 Hibs fans and a few thousand Livingston fans set to head along the M8 on Sunday morning and lunchtime, the last thing that was needed was for Celtic and Motherwell to have their fans heading for the same area of Glasgow at the same time!  But that's exactly what the SPL have done in scheduling the two sides in a league game with a 1.30pm kick-off, a time that will see that game being played, albeit for a short period, at the same time as a National Cup Final.  In a reply to Hibs fan Max Anderson, the SPL gave their reasoning behind the decision.

"We aim to have the first thirty three rounds of SPL fixtures completed prior to the 'split' on the 17th of April 2004. In the event that Celtic progress to the next round (quarter finals) of the UEFA Cup, there will be no available midweek date or weekend date between the 13th of March and the 17th of April to play this fixture.  The new date for this fixture was set following extensive consultation with both clubs and the police. Any other date in the foreseeable future would have led to serious fixture congestion."  Fixture congestion against traffic congestion as, potentially, 90,000 people descend on the East End of Glasgow seems to be a fairly weak excuse given that there will be at least one night away from this day that this could have been played.  No response was given to the question of what the SPL, and Strathclyde Police's, decision would have been should Rangers have made the final as opposed to Hibs though.  I for one am extremely sceptical over the reasons above and would doubt whether this decision would have been made under this different circumstance.