Dundee’s bid to host the £30 million national football academy is being undermined by a shortage of pitches for local teams, according to a leading figure in youth football.
David Hunter, president of Douglas Lads Club, has called for the Scottish Football Associationand the Scottish Youth Football Association to investigate why so many pitches across the city are rendered unusable.
He said: “These governing bodies are talking of grassroots football being key to the development of our nation on the international footballing stage.
“Our council also have to look into this as we are a city who are at the moment putting in a bid for the national football academy.
“Yet we are struggling to give adequate facilities to our local youth teams who we hope may have players who one day will use this national academy.
“How can we hope to progress as a nation at any stage?
“This is completely unacceptable and needs to be addressed.”
Mr Hunter has raised the problem of the number of pitches for seven and 11-a-side matches taken out of action through over-use and needing to be set aside to let the ground recover.
Complaints had been made about the problem to Dundee and District Youth Football Association, and he said they were doing all they could to make the city council treat it seriously.
Mr Hunter said: “When this is spoken about at monthly meetings we are told excuse after excuse that the committee has received from the council.”
One such “excuse” was there is not enough money but teams paid fees of up to £150 a season for the use of pitches.
He asked: “What has the money been spent on?
“It has not been on the upkeep of the pitches as there are a number of pitches that are unusable.”
He accepted pitches could not be used all the time but he believed that pitch space could be better managed.
Parks have unused land and he believed pitches could be moved round the space to let heavily used surfaces recover without reducing the number of pitches available.
A Dundee City Council spokesman said: “There are 27 seven-a-side football pitches in Dundee.
“Dundee and District Youth Football Association only use a maximum of 14 of these at the busiest time, leaving 13 pitches available.
“Clearly from time to time maintenance is required to football pitches and facilities and we are working with DDYFA to have pitches reinstated as quickly as possible when that is the case.”