Youth football investigation call

It is feared young people wanting to become professionals will lose out

The Scottish Government has been asked to investigate the expulsion of three teams from top flight youth football.

Dunfermline and Ross County were thrown out by the SFA because they did not meet rules on renewing child protection disclosure forms.

Dundee were demoted because they only had one youth licence holder when two were required.

City MSP Joe Fitzpatrick has lodged a parliamentary motion calling on ministers to look into the matter.

The clubs claim the rules are being applied unfairly because SPL outfits who have not met the criteria have not been demoted.

'Opportunity to excel'

Third Division Stenhousemuir are now the only non premier league side within the top flight of youth football.

Mr Fitzpatrick, the Dundee West MSP, has written to the SFA about the matter and plans to contact them a second time.

He believes the three clubs should not be punished, as they have already sorted out the problems with their registrations.

And his parliamentary motion urges the Scottish Government to investigate as it provides the funding for the elite performance youth football initiative.

Mr Fitzpatrick said: "Football's very important for a lot of young people, it gives young people an opportunity to excel, some of the young folk might not manage to excel in other ways.

"It's about giving as many young people as possible opportunities.

"Also, there's potential for some of these young people to be professional footballers in the future. By removing Dundee from the youth performance league, that's going to remove that chance for many talented young folk."