JIM FLEETING, the SFA Director of Youth Development, has hit back at what he describes as mud-slinging within the media towards grassroots football in Scotland.
Alan Campbell recently ran a three-part investigation for Herald Sport into the Club Academy Scotland system, where the project’s vast recruitment numbers versus the apparent lack of success for Scottish players in the SPFL and national team was called into question.
But Fleeting was quick to defend the efforts of Scottish clubs and those involved at grassroots level in the game.
“Clubs are putting more resources than ever into developing young players,” he said. “Can we improve upon what we’re doing at the minute? Yes. But who can say any different?
“Some people in the media just want to point fingers and say we aren’t producing the next Messi, but no one looks at the hard work that goes on here [at Hampden Park].
“I have the utmost admiration for those volunteers involved in our grassroots – and that’s the reality of it: volunteers. Some people write us off as if it’s some big operation but the support we receive from unpaid coaches is very beneficial for the future of these kids.”
And when asked if kids were being sold a dream by clubs, with the reality that a majority would not make it to the top of the game, Fleeting was adamant that this was the opposite of the goals for developing youth players.
“First and foremost, we want to make good people,” he said. “The last thing we want is to sell a dream: clubs should never sell kids a dream. It’s about developing these young kids into nice young people.
“My grandson told me he wanted to play for Barcelona. I said millions of kids around the world want to play for Barcelona, but am I going to tell him he can’t? Of course not.”
And Fleeting pointed to a recent meeting with former Celtic defender and Manchester United manager David Moyes, currently manager of La Liga outfit Real Sociedad who played against Celtic, St Johnstone and Livingston in pre-season, on the subject of developing young players.
“Davie was here to discuss development; we talked about the time, effort and resources being put into the game and agreed that the game wouldn’t survive without volunteers devoted to grassroots development," he said.
“Clubs have always found the best players – be it in grassroots, school football – and, in my experience, the best players always come to the top.”
And given the healthy state of the national team under manager Gordon Strachan, whose side stand a fighting chance of qualifying for the 2016 European Championships in France, Fleeting was quick to suggest the future looks bright for our youngsters.
“The negative press is just people coming out and wanting to have a go; the national team is doing well at the minute. Who knows what will happen if and when we qualify for the European Championships.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel