LET US PLAY

Managers blast treatment of teenagers left in lurch over leagues chaos

- MARK MCGIVERN

FOOTBALL chiefs have been urged to step in after red tape left three youth football teams with no league to play in.

The three Under-18 teams were left in the lurch after their local league in Tayside collapsed but the neighbouring Fife youth league refused to let them in.

Now, coaches have blasted the Scottish Youth FA, claiming it should have stepped in to find more than 50 players from the three teams a place to play.

The manager of one of the stricken sides even offered to move his Under-18 team from Dundee to play in Fife, but his plea was rejected.

Jimmy Robertson claims he made futile pleas on behalf of his Dundee United Sports Club Lions 07 team to the Scottish Youth Football Association to help find his team a place to play.

Hitting out after being forced to scrap the team, Jimmy said: "The mantra for the SYFA has always been to let the kids play football.

"But teams in our Dundee league are essentially being forced to fold because other teams apparently won't travel to play us.

"My main complaint is that in previous years our league would accommodate teams from the Association of Fife Youth Football Clubs and the SYFA said we were obliged to accept them.

"In previous years, we'd be happy to travel to places such as St Andrews and Perth.

"Now we're simply being told that the Fife league had a vote and they didn't want us in the league. I don't think the SYFA should have accepted that.