Big Kick Off on Sunday

[johnrebus]

East Region youth football kicks off the new season on Sunday and it is here that we need to start to begin to get Scotland back to being a serious football nation again.

Ramshackle (or the complete lack of) changing facilities, dog ***** ridden pitches, mad, mental parents (and coaches) living out their own sad dreams and poor referees trying to keep a lid on it all. Any kid who has shown the smallest modicum of talent is hoovered up by a senior club, spends a year or so kicking his heels doing nothing and then spat out on to the scrapheap, to give up the game completely in a dissallusioned fog of dispair.

Little wonder that most kids prefer to stay at home on the Xbox or Playstation.

I keep hearing about all these SFA 'initiatives' and investment into the grass roots of the game, but I have seen precious little evidence of this in the last couple of years.

Take a look at the facilities at some of the overused pitches we have, Sighthill, Inverleith, Saughton, Jack Kane Centre, etc. etc. It really is a national disgrace.

As much of the young of Scotland get fatter and more and more unfit, the Scottish Government would rather squander millions on garbage like 'Homecoming' and the tram system that nobody wants, than invest in the infrastructure desperately needed to take the country forward in a sporting sense.

There is so much needs to change in the game at grass roots level that it is difficult to know where to start.


:grr:

[dangermouse]

East Region youth football kicks off the new season on Sunday and it is here that we need to start to begin to get Scotland back to being a serious football nation again.

Ramshackle (or the complete lack of) changing facilities, dog ***** ridden pitches, mad, mental parents (and coaches) living out their own sad dreams and poor referees trying to keep a lid on it all. Any kid who has shown the smallest modicum of talent is hoovered up by a senior club, spends a year or so kicking his heels doing nothing and then spat out on to the scrapheap, to give up the game completely in a dissallusioned fog of dispair.

Little wonder that most kids prefer to stay at home on the Xbox or Playstation.

I keep hearing about all these SFA 'initiatives' and investment into the grass roots of the game, but I have seen precious little evidence of this in the last couple of years.

Take a look at the facilities at some of the overused pitches we have, Sighthill, Inverleith, Saughton, Jack Kane Centre, etc. etc. It really is a national disgrace.

As much of the young of Scotland get fatter and more and more unfit, the Scottish Government would rather squander millions on garbage like 'Homecoming' and the tram system that nobody wants, than invest in the infrastructure desperately needed to take the country forward in a sporting sense.

There is so much needs to change in the game at grass roots level that it is difficult to know where to start.


:grr:

I know what you mean!!! :grr: I'm struggling to get 11 players for Sunday (why do they start before the schools go back and kids are still on holiday?) so if anyone has a son born in 1997 looking for a game on Sunday drop me a PM.

[Delboy4]

My son was playing a friendly the other night and the state of the changing rooms were a disgrace...

The toilets were STINKING as there was no running water!!!!!! :grr:
No showers
The paint was flaking off the walls

The pitch was crap too!

I cannot believe that we are in the 21st century and we have amenities like that, It's is a *****in' disgrace.

No wonder we have very little players coming through the youth football.

I think there must only be around half a dozen decent parks/changing rooms in Edinburgh to take care of hundreds of teams from youths through to amateurs?

We need the councils and the SFA to get together and demolish these 'AULD TIN HUTS' and re-build new state of the art changing facilities for the kids.

Rant over.

:thumbsup:

[Brizo]

East Region youth football kicks off the new season on Sunday and it is here that we need to start to begin to get Scotland back to being a serious football nation again.

Ramshackle (or the complete lack of) changing facilities, dog ***** ridden pitches, mad, mental parents (and coaches) living out their own sad dreams and poor referees trying
to keep a lid on it all. Any kid who has shown the smallest modicum of talent is hoovered up by a senior club, spends a year or so kicking his heels doing nothing and then spat out on to the scrapheap, to give up the game completely in a dissallusioned fog of dispair.
Little wonder that most kids prefer to stay at home on the Xbox or Playstation.

I keep hearing about all these SFA 'initiatives' and investment into the grass roots of the game, but I have seen precious little evidence of this in the last couple of years.

Take a look at the facilities at some of the overused pitches we have, Sighthill, Inverleith, Saughton, Jack Kane Centre, etc. etc. It really is a national disgrace.

As much of the young of Scotland get fatter and more and more unfit, the Scottish Government would rather squander millions on garbage like 'Homecoming' and the tram system that nobody wants, than invest in the infrastructure desperately needed to take the country forward in a sporting sense.

There is so much needs to change in the game at grass roots level that it is difficult to know where to start.


:grr:

Agree with all that. Imo while disgraceful facilities are a major factor the highlighted bits the main problem. As long as you have coaches and parents with the mentality you so accurately describe and kids as young as primary age being treated so ruthlessly by professional clubs then the best facilities in the world wont solve the problem alone.

In my time it was the high profile youth teams like Hutchie and Leith who gave it the most :blah::blah: about youth development but who in reality treated youngsters appallingly and had the worst win at all costs attitude. In the professional ranks we didnt cover ourselves in glory in the insensitive way we released boys as young as primary school age. Hopefully these particular youth clubs and Hibs will have improved how they treat youngsters but overall I get the impression nothing much has changed.

[Hamish]

Whilst I agree that something has to be done, all this was being said 30/20/10/5 years ago and nothing much gets done - a few changing rooms get a lick of paint, some get showers that work for a few months etc, but the whole infrastructure from how the laddies and lassies are coached all the way through to pitches, facilities etc has to be rethought and revamped. The mindset of coaches may in some cases be changing,(that winning at particular primary school/early secondary level isn't important) but the facilities won't be, well certainly not in the foreseeable future