Arbroath boss Dick Campbell calls for halt to ‘ridiculous’ early start

Arbroath boss Dick Campbell has called for an end to the “ridiculous” July start to the season for part-time teams.

The veteran manager saw his side beat Alloa in the Betfred Cup on Tuesday night on penalties.

However, despite the victory, Campbell was far from pleased that he was without several players as they are still on holiday.

And he insists the ruling body needs to have a rethink about asking sides like his own to start competitive action in the middle of the summer.

Campbell said: “I am very angry about the decision to bring the season forward to the 15^th of July.

“It is ridiculous to start the season on that date for part-time players.

“I don’t know who made that decision. We should be putting the season back to August for part-time players.

“The season doesn’t finish until the end of May so I am angry about it.

“For example, I have five players away on holiday in the first two weeks of July.

“They are all either schoolteachers or married to teachers and that’s when they get their holidays.

“So against Alloa, we still had players missing.”