Youth Football

The motion

That the Parliament expresses concern at the recent decision by the Scottish Football Association (SFA) to expel Dunfermline Athletic, Dundee and Ross County Football Clubs from the SFA’s elite Performance Level Youth Football initiative; notes that the ruling, particularly in the case of Dunfermline Athletic, was based on apparent non-compliance with SFA regulations on child protection despite the clubs being legally compliant with current child protection legislation; believes that none of the clubs affected were given time by the SFA to make the necessary adjustments to meet the SFA requirements before this decision was made to remove the clubs from the scheme; understands that, in the Scottish Youth Football Initiative Programme, clubs either play in the performance or initiative leagues and that this decision will leave just one non-SPL club, Stenhousemuir, in the top league of youth football; regrets that this decision will deprive these clubs of up to £30,000 per year in grants from the SFA and, consequently, may impact on the ability of these clubs to provide any form of quality youth football programme; notes with further concern that the whole of Fife, Perth and Kinross will subsequently be without a top-level youth football programme; fears the impact that this will have on developing football talent in the region, especially the future for the highly acclaimed Fife Football Partnership that is leading the way in developing grass-roots football for young people, and hopes that, given the final ruling to expel the clubs was tied among committee members and only decided by a casting vote of the current SFA Chair, the SFA will review its recent decision before a generation of young footballing talent is wasted.

No recorded vote on this motion. Most motions are never debated, and many that are debated are agreed without a division. Vote records are published from 2011.

Lab 15 SNP 7

Party shown is each supporter’s party when the motion was published.

No contribution in the Official Report cites S3M-02346 by reference.