Parents in Glasgow have called on a major sports retailer to review its funding of football performance schools in Scotland amid concern girls are continuing to miss out on opportunities.
No girls have been accepted for places at Holyrood Secondary's academy for the second year running.
There are seven performance schools in Scotland, run by the Scottish Football Association (SFA) and sponsored by the JD Group, with academies also running in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee, Falkirk, Kilmarnock and Motherwell.
They were set up to give "talented boys and girls" the opportunity to practice football every day within an educational environment.
However, parents have repeatedly complained that despite applying for places, few girls are accepted and have described the trials as a "tick box exercise".
The Herald revealed last year that no girls had been accepted to any of the SFA's seven performance schools with all 48 places awarded to boys. Three girls were awarded places in the new school year.
READ MORE: Glasgow girl rejected for school football academy after 'tick box' trial
Last year the SFA appointed Shirley Martin and Michael McArdle to oversee the girls' and women's game and pledged to introduce wide-ranging changes to the performance school model.
The SFA confirmed it is to introduce a new, bespoke pathway for girls and will release more details in the coming months.
Sara Wilson's daughter was rejected for a place at Holyrood in first year and was not offered another trial in S2 despite apparently being told this was an option.
She said: "I had hoped that given the publicity last year and the current status of the women’s game there would have been improvements.
"My daughter is in S2 now and things don’t appear to have changed.
"They previously admitted that they didn’t have the experience of coaching girls and that there was no funding for girls.
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"I think the JD group who sponsor should seriously look at themselves and the funding that they provide.
"They are more than happy for girls and females to spend money in their shops however they do not appear to be funding the girl's game within Holyrood and SFA Performance schools."
She said she was initially of the view that JD should withdraw funding for the academies but said she didn't want boys to miss out "through some people’s small-mindedness, prejudice towards women and failure to address equal opportunities."
She added: "Girls are not allowed to play competitive football with boys from the age of 12 - so why is there not a separate academy?"
Leanne Crichton, one of the most renowned figures in Scottish women’s football, has said the mixed-trial selection process “isn’t really suitable for girls”.
Lauren Rabbitte, who played professionally in Scotland and the United States, has said the women's game in Scotland is at least ten years behind England, who reached the final of the World Cup before being defeated by Spain 1-0 on Sunday.
READ MORE: Women's football gets a major boost with sponsorship deal
Ami McLaughlin's daughter Lily was unsuccessful in gaining a place at Holyrood's academy but now plays in the boy's team at the school as well as captaining the girl's team. She said she was also in favour of a separate academy for girls, funded by JD.
She said: "Lily won three cups playing with the boys last season and was the first girl ever in Holyrood to do so.
"It’s the old-school dinosaurs of the SFA that are the problem."
North Lanarkshire Council said it runs its own Girls School of Football and this year's S1 intake was 11 players. One girl was accepted for the performance school.
A spokeswoman for the SFA said a record number of girls and women were now playing football in Scotland with more than 21k registered players last year.
She added: "This year has seen extensive work done around the development of bespoke girls’ and women’s performance programmes – the details of which are being finalised and we’ll be looking to share further information in the next few months.
"We have also recently established a Talent Identification System for the girls’ youth game including a scouting network which previously was not in place.
"We also run the SPAR Futures Cup which is a girls only competition."
"We also run the KDM Group Soccer Centres – again these are only for girls."
The JD Group declined to comment.
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