Thursday 30 November 2000
sportscotland underlined its position as one of Scottish football's biggest supporters with the opening today of a new lottery funded state-of-the-art football centre in Glasgow.
Fleshers Haugh on Glasgow Green is the largest outdoor football facility of its kind in Scotland and was built with over £1m of support from the sportscotland Lottery Fund. The old blaes pitches at Fleshers Haugh, which were closed in 1992 due to their deteriorating condition and a reluctance by teams to play on this unforgiving surface, have been transformed into a mix of top quality natural grass and synthetic turf pitches.
The opening of this facility brings to over £20m the investment that sportscotland has made in developing football at all levels in the past five years through its lottery and core funding.
Alastair Dempster, Chairman of sportscotland, said, "At sportscotland we believe that having access to quality facilities is a key component in increasing participation.
"Since the introduction of lottery funding we have been able to begin to tackle this area but a massive investment programme is still required across Scotland in order to bring the country's stock of pitches and changing accommodation up to an acceptable modern standard. Many more blaes pitches need to be converted into grass and whilst Scotland has around 3,000 grass football pitches, the majority are in poor condition.
"The new complex at Fleshers Haugh will hopefully set the standard for the development of other much needed playing field facilities in other parts of the country."
The new £4million complex, built by Glasgow City Council, will have facilities for match play, training, coaching, and the development of non-competitive soccer sevens for children and casual play. The facility will also be used as a training venue for Glasgow's premier league clubs.
Glasgow City Council's successful football development scheme, run in tandem with the Scottish Football Association, has devised a programme of activities and sessions for clubs, schools and the wider community with the emphasis on increasing participation and developing skills among youngsters.
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The sportscotland Lottery Fund awarded £1,071,293 to Glasgow City Council for the Glasgow Green project. The project comprises 8 synthetic 5-a-side pitches, 1 synthetic grass pitch with floodlights, 1 reinforced grass pitch with floodlights, 4 adult size grass pitches, 1 junior size grass pitch and 3 dedicated soccer 7s development pitches (U12s).
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sportscotland, through its Lottery Fund, has made 387 awards to football projects since 1995 totalling £19,248,861:
| Capital Programme |
60 awards totalling £13,882,272 |
| Sports Facilities Programme |
11 awards totalling £1,264,456 |
| Safety at Sports Grounds |
9 awards totalling £2,947,146 |
| Talented Athletes |
70 awards totalling £160,472 |
| Junior Groups |
3 awards totalling £133,328 |
| Major Events |
1 award totalling £58,800 |
| National Coach Support |
2 awards totalling £345,386 |
| Performance Coach Development |
3 awards totalling £22,218 |
| Awards for All Programme |
228 awards totalling £434,783 |
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Examples of sportscotland's support for football ranges from funding youth sport co-ordinators for Men's and Women's football; a National Coach for Women's football, Vera Pauw; the Men's U16 squad's preparations for major tournaments; and safety improvements at clubs such as Dunfermline, St Mirren, Dundee and Ross County.
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The largest proportion of sportscotland's investment in football - some £14m - has gone towards improving community facilities the length and breadth of Scotland.