Kevin Thomson: Lack of facilities in Edinburgh an outrage

Kevin Thomson says the lack of affordable, accessible facilities in Edinburgh is hindering young players' development. Picture Michael Gillen.

But I can’t deny it’s been a particularly frustrating experience this summer. And that’s for one reason only – the lack of facilities in Edinburgh. Or should I say the lack of affordable, accessible facilities in Edinburgh. It’s an outrage.

So far it has been a sharp learning curve for me. I now know, for example, the council take the goalposts down on public parks during the summer. It’s mind-boggling. We talk about trying to make kids better. What’s the point in having facilities if no-one is allowed to use them? I understand there’s cost putting these facilities in. But the cost of hiring them is the problem and means they lie empty in many cases.

I want to base myself in the community where I live, which is Craiglockhart. There are great facilities in this area. But it costs £75 an hour for a full pitch at the weekend. It means to put on a private session for two children would cost me £15 – and if I paid a coach £15 to help, as sometimes is the case, it would cost me £30 to put on a session!

This summer I‘ve just gone through seven weeks where the schools have been off and yet many Astroturf pitches lie empty, with not a soul on them. It’s astronomical to rent them.

I’ve thought about quitting loads of times. But then I think of every kid I’ve coached and will go on to coach. The positive feedback I am getting makes me feel so proud. People appreciate my hard work. Even the pros I’ve worked with such as Liam Henderson, Sammy Stanton and Raith Rovers’ Ryan Stevenson, who have all done one-to-one training sessions with me, tell me they love it, too. The enthusiasm filters all the way down from senior pros to the beginners, my five-to-eight year olds’ class. But it’s been a running battle on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. I need to jump through hoops just to get on a facility.