Leith Athletic with Albert Bungay

Please read below for my interview with Leith Athletic President Albert Bungay. It was published in the latest Football Focus magazine which can be viewed here for absolutely free.

The crest of Leith Athletic FC

 Leith Athletic

Leith Athletic are a club that pride themselves on the success of their youth system. Football Focus spoke to Albert Bungay, President of the Edinburgh club, last month and the names of players who have come through the youth system was very impressive. Former Dundee star Leigh Griffiths began his footballing career at Athletic and recently joined Premier League side Wolves for a fee believed to be around £150,000. Other big names are Dundee United's Danny Swanson, St. Mirren defender Darren McGregor and Hibernian's Sean Welch.

However, Leith Athletic are certainly not a club living in the past. The first team won promotion to the East of Scotland Premier League this season and Albert has high hopes that they can consolidate their position in the Division. “We will be looking for our first team to consolidate their position in the Premier League. We we will hold our own at this level and may even surprise a few teams as the season progresses. We soon hope to see our first team challenging the current league leaders in the Premier Division and to be one of the leading clubs in the East of Scotland league.”

Indeed, Athletic are very much focused on the future and Albert is very proud of the current youth set up, but he hopes to encourage more girls to take up the sport. “We have around 500 boys and girls from five years old to twenty-one learning and playing for the club. The most pleasing aspect of our current first team is that every player in the team had previously played for one of our youth teams. The clubs longest serving player Kevin Freedman aged twenty-six has been involved with the club for fifteen years and is currently a member of our first team. We have just recently established a girls section over the last year. At present it is a work in progress but now that the light nights are here and the girls can get back training outside we will attract more girls to the club over the next few months. ”

Youth development and community involvement is something Albert believes go hand in hand and is delighted to confirm this is the case in Leith. “We have built our reputation as a community club. The majority of the boys and girls live local. All the teams are sponsored by local firms and the local schools and sports halls benefit from our teams using their facilities. We have just recently received the Community Quality Mark award from the SFA in recognition of the standard the club has set and we are one of only three clubs in Edinburgh to receive it.”

Leith Athletic have done very well since they formed fifteen years ago, but Albert knows there is still a lot of hard work to be done, especially in tough financial times. “One of the biggest challenges facing our club has to be the lack of facilities for training and the changing room facilities. It is an old building and although it meets a certain requirement we would definitely look to expand or improve if we could. The problem for the club is that in the current economic climate changing facilities for football clubs is not high on the council’s agenda.”

Leith continue to excel in their teaching of football to youngsters, but Albert wants to go a step further than most football clubs go. He is keen to link the club with other sports so youngsters have a number of different sporting opportunities. “On the field we will be looking for our soccer schools and youth teams to continue the work we do in learning and teaching young boys and girls the basic soccer skills. We are keen to build relations with other sport clubs in the immediate area in a bid to allow youngsters in the community to experience and improve their skills in a variety of different sports. We believe having attended meetings with people from Edinburgh sports councils that the way forward for most clubs is to become part of a community based sports hub with all sports coming together giving the kids an opportunity to try different sports. Which may attract funding from local councils easier than all sports working individually.”

written by Will Lyon

Scotland says 'snow way' to winter break

Click here or read below for my article on a winter break in Scottish football. It was published on www.thefootballreporter.com.

In recent weeks Scotland has been pounded with copious amounts of snow. Postponements have been rife and so to avoid all the hassle caused by these call-offs, fans and pundits have started calling for a winter break again. But could it really work?

To be blunt, no, it could not.

Some of the flooding during the storm

On 21 July 2009, Scottish First Division side Raith Rovers hosted a friendly against Hibernian. Everything was going well until the second half. The players came out and started the second period, but after just two minutes there was a power surge and the floodlights cut out. In just the next ten minutes, as the lights were turning back on, a freak storm occurred and flooded the pitch. Unfortunately, the match had to be abandoned.

If you had not already observed, this was a friendly abandoned due to weather, not in winter, but in the heart of summer. Admittedly it was a freak storm, but it underlines the point that Scottish weather is unpredictable at the best of times.

The current league campaign has seen postponements because of large amounts of snow (and referee strikes) as early as 27 November, while last season, Scottish clubs still saw matches called off as late as 2 March because of frozen pitches. So going by the events of just one year, 2010, if a winter break was to cover all possibilities of postponed fixtures, it would have to start in mid November and continue till mid March.

Of course this is far too long a period for no football to be played in the current league set up. How are Scottish teams supposed to find enough time to play their 36 or 38 league games, plus cup fixtures, between August and mid November, and mid March till May? Some clubs would have to play at least two games a week for the entire season to fulfil their fixtures. The product on display is bad enough already without having to watch the same players trying to perform whilst physically shattered.

Three or four months of fixtures cannot be wiped out because pitches 'might' freeze or flood, or snow 'might' compromise the safety of fans. Instead, the country has to continue to battle on with what the weather serves up. If Scotland is hit by adverse weather during December and January, then so be it. It can not be predicted when conditions will be unsuitable, so clubs have to stay tough and play the hand they are dealt by nature.

Some may say the solution would be to employ a winter break and extend the season by a few months. However, this would lead to league campaigns finishing in June or July. How are pitches supposed to repair themselves if football is still being played deep into the summer? How are clubs going to afford paying wages for one or two months longer when they struggle to pay wages as it is? And how are players going to have enough time to recuperate for the following season if they have just a few weeks to rest?

The 'winter break' is a pipedream and always will be.

Old Firm Dominance

Click here for the link to my column on the dominance of Celtic and Rangers in Scotland and also an insight into Hibernian's own title challenge this season. The article was published in The Student on the 9th of March 2010.