Kick-off for new Falkirk FC base

Craig Cowans died after being electrocuted during training

Scotland football manager George Burley has opened Falkirk Football Club's new base at the University of Stirling.

The centre is named after former player Craig Gowans, who died in 2005 after being electrocuted at the club's training ground in Grangemouth.

The two-storey block will provide practice and physiotherapy facilities for the Scottish Premiere League side.

Falkirk FC has had its first team training and youth academy at the University since 2005.

Stirling became the first university in the UK to offer football scholarships to promising young players earlier this year.

Synthetic pitches

Also named after Craig Gowans, it operates in partnership with Falkirk FC.

The first four scholars are due to take up their places at the university next month.

Seventeen-year-old Craig was killed on 8 July 2005 when a 2ft-long pole for nets he was carrying touched overhead power lines at the club's former Little Kerse training ground.

He had spent 12 months with Falkirk FC, having joined in July 2004 from Tynecastle Boys' Club in Edinburgh.

The new football centre will feature first team changing rooms, a docking station for heart monitors, showers, baths and plunge pools, as well as a fully-equipped physiotherapy area and kit storage room.

There will also be offices, meeting rooms and the players' lounge, with a balcony overseeing the four grass and two synthetic pitches.