 The final item of business today is the member's business debate on motion number 13199, in the name of Chick Brody, on youth football's contribution to men's and women's football. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put, and I would be grateful if those members who wish to contribute could press the request to speak buttons now, please. I call on Chick Brody to open the debate. Seven minutes, please, Mr Brody. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It is normal practice in members' debates to say that one is delighted, even privileged, to bring such a debate to the chamber. Tonight against the maelstrom of this week's international criticism of global football management, I am not so determined or indeed delighted, but I do wish to thank the model Fraser and James Kelly for supporting the debate, for I know of their personal interest in the game and their inherent personal fairness. In life we have many dreams to achieve a personal desire, and aspiration is inspiring. As we sit here to make, certainly to hope to achieve just one significant change that may affect positively just one person's life and that of a child, to do so is humbling. That is what I hope we will affect tonight, to start to eschew and stop the exploitation of children's dreams, to start to make, again, football our beautiful game. Beautiful again because it has in this area, in my opinion, turned ugly. Let me, before I do so, thank those who for many years have kept that dream alive, that flame burning, to Willie Smyth and Scott Robertson of the Rio Grassroots organisation who are with us tonight to their consultants and advisers to the fantastic European Youth Football Advisors in Fifepro, and other national professional advisers and consultants that have been privileged to meet. Let me say thanks. I also thank the Scotland's Children and Young People's Commissioner organisation that has conducted its recent review of the subject purposefully, professionally and independently. Behind the great wall of support for football, of total and unwavering faith in our local and national teams, there lies a very dark corner as to why our ultimate goal and the progress toward it will be limited in our inability to be a natural producer again of our national and inherent football skills. Those two are increasingly important as young women embrace our national game. So, Presiding Officer, in challenging the normal modus of members' debates tonight and going forward, we seek answers and we seek change. Let's start first with the cherry-picking by some clubs of potentially talented young footballers. Children are some of six years old, but more generally 10 and 12 years old and only with one thought in their mind, one place in their mind. It could be Celtic Park, Ibrox, the Bernabar, Old Safford or even their own local professional park. Only to be cast aside a few years later, not good enough, and then their dreams turn into nightmares. Except for the few, the very few of the 15 and 16-year-olds with huge ability with even greater skills, but to some with greater investment potential. These young people engaged and over-enthused in some cases by parents to engage in contracts or registration forms with some of our clubs. Those are documents that are not worth the paper that they are written on. Contracts, registration forms and now, apparently, commitment letters in some cases which do not meet UK or European legislative standards. When meeting our national skills agency to talk of professional apprenticeships in football, I was told that registration forms for young people in football today were indeed wordless, and they were considering its continued financial support. The contracts, the registration forms were exorcets aimed at the dreams of the young and their parents. It cannot, for example, be right to deny an 18-year-old so contracted to be denied to play for his university, for example, because of an alleged contract, which is now the basis of challenge. However, it is not only that basis of legality of those arrangements that we challenge. For example, I have become aware, and as a result of pursuing correspondence, I have detailed information from BIS and the HMRC and tax people to support it, that there have been professional football clubs in Scotland contracting and paying young players on less than the minimum wage in contravention of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998. That announcement will have much wider implications elsewhere. However, if a player is being contracted to a club paying him £1 per week and, in fact, paying anyone less than the minimum wage is, in fact, in contravention of that act and that the contract or registration does not apply, that is a very serious but confirmed legal interpretation and, as I say, has much wider implications outside football. The additional restriction under the Human Rights Act of personal freedom of movement without appropriate transfer rights is, frankly, and also a major breach of civil rights under European law. Remember, we are talking of children. Frankly, at the door of our major football club organisation, in its subservience to the clubs and apparent lack of monitoring of those clubs and its seeming total disengagement with this Parliament and its organisations. In a letter to me of 29 January this year, when I asked the SPFL about its engagement with the consultation being prepared by the Children's Commissioner on specifically the minimum wage, it said that it was unaware of the wider consultation. Well, it should have been. Based on the data that I have received from SPICE, the Foodball Authority agreed to deliver an integrated and four-year cycle plan, an investment plan and in the course of that, Sport Scotland invested over the period 2011 to 2015 £5.5 million and that included a network development centre to support the best young grass roots player. In seeking to determine the return on that investment, we shall seek to have an audit trail of that expenditure, some of which I accept will be bona fide. Many questions arise, not least are we following the robust guidance of FIFPRO, UEFA and the Football Trade Unions. Will we now listen to the wise words of the valued commissioner, where the report commendedly headline said, I would like to have control over my life and do what I want to do? Or do we sit back and allow the directors and the agents to use actions that we shall turn to in the future, to treat children, as the commissioner said in 2011, as commodities? Commodities are now subject to financial raids from clubs south of the border. That attitudinal change in youth football in Scotland is now required. Finally, we are no longer the Keynesian and children rights will be protected and there should be no circumstance where the state or associated bodies should invest in those resources or finance that violates those rights. Those involved, I repeat, are children, not investments, not commodities. They too have rights. Football in Scotland shall now return to its roots, belonging to its fans, to our young footballers and to our collective dream. If the current administrators of the Scottish Football Club and by default Scottish Youth Football cannot make themselves the required changes to meet those rights, we shall seek to pursue a statutory course and underpun current legislation that does so. We will not wait a further five years to do so. I ask members to keep to four-minute speeches, please, and I call Malcolm Chisholm to be followed by Kenny MacAskill. I congratulate Chick Brody and bring forward this important motion. Like him, I want to start with the football for those who are pining to play in the top bracket, but I think that the motion invites us also to consider football for a much wider range of young people. It is very timely, of course, given the Children's Commissioner report. I think that the Children's Commissioner has quite rightly emphasised, as he is a central theme, that we must take account of young people's rights when it comes to the contracts that they signed with the big football clubs. I think that that is the main concern, but it is also worth observing that perhaps the clubs in many ways have not been very good in general at bringing on young people in terms of realising their potential. Perhaps my own club Hibs is an exception to that. They have done very well in bringing on young people, but I think that all the top clubs have to listen very carefully to what Chick Brody has been saying and the Children's Commissioner is saying about the rights of young people who sign up for them, particularly the right to have control, the right to be able to leave when they want to. I think that that is one of the commissioner's recommendations that young people should be able to leave giving 28 days notice. It is particularly appalling that, when young footballers are 15, some of them are actually stuck with that particular club and cannot move to another club and cannot play for the university, as Chick Brody referred to. There are big issues there that Chick Brody has highlighted and we have had quite a lot of publicity around that over the weekend from the papers and from the commissioner's report. I hope that some momentum will build up around that central theme of the debate. As I said, I want to consider football for a much wider range of young people, boys and girls. I will use two examples from my constituency, because I am lucky to have two outstanding examples in my constituency. If I can start with Leith Athletic, which involves, I think, around a couple of hundred young people and teams of varying ages from the early years of primary right up beyond school, leaving age in particular, I want to congratulate the Rundr21 team, which won, in fact, their third trophy in a matter of a few weeks on Saturday. That is a splendid example of a large number of people in a local area being supported by a youth football club. The main point that I would make about that is that they do a great job, but they really do need more financial support. I think that there are big challenges for the SFA in that. Are they really going to support youth football and, perhaps, challenges for the Government as well? The other example that I want to give is the Spartan Community Football Academy, which is a social enterprise based in my constituency at Ainsley Park in the Pylton area. It is the charge of alarm of the highly successful Spartans football club. If you look at their website at the top, it says, live together, play together, win together. There is a massive number of young people given an opportunity to participate in football there, and they can stay there for several years. Those first two words, live together, emphasise the wider aims that they have, because they want to strengthen community cohesion involving, for example, specific initiatives for ethnic minorities, and they also want to have a positive impact on social targets such as health inequalities, increased employment opportunities and climate reduction. They have been an outstanding example of youth football for the many, but, in my last minute, I must talk about girls and women. Girls are involved, for example, at Spartan, and we need to do a great deal more to encourage girls to have opportunities in football. One important initiative is that the Scottish Football Association joined UEFA's women's football development programme, a project to promote role models and ambassadors as a way of encouraging girls to be involved in football. Specifically, members of the Scottish women's national team were selected as ambassadors to raise the profile and support the women's and girls' game. Those players attended workshops and then went on school visits and grass-roots festivals that had been arranged for them. That is one example of how to increase participation in girls and women's football in Scotland at all levels, but we need a lot more initiatives. Girls must not be deprived of that opportunity. I know more play than did in the past, but there is a lot more to do there, and we should not forget that aspect of the topic. I now call Kenny MacAskill to be followed by Cameron Buchanan. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I should declare an interest as the chairperson of Heberian Supporters Limited, a company established for the ultimate fan ownership of Heberian FC by their fans. I would thank Chick Brody for bringing this debate. I think that it is opportun, but I do believe that the glass is half full, not half empty. Although there are issues troubling Scottish football, the game remains strong, certainly at grass-roots, and that is what we require to support. I think that it is important that, along with Malcolm Chisholm, we should thank all those who do such sterling services in each and every one of our communities and constituencies. The game is built upon its grass-roots. That is where the foundations remain, and the clubs and the individuals who give a great deal of commitment. It is not easy being involved in grass-roots football, whether for young people or women. It takes out a lot of time that can come out of your family life, that can come out of your working life, that can cost you a significant amount of money. The inconvenience that you may have to go through, understandably, for various checks and disclosures, all of which people have to surmount to be able to do what we all appreciate and welcome in terms of their commitment. It is not an either or, though, between the grass-roots game and the pinnacle of the professional game. They are both dependent upon each other, and they require to show mutual respect and to work together. Earlier this afternoon, I was indeed down at Easter Road with two new signings for Hebernain, a 22-year-old and a 24-year-old. One of them has now moved to a full-time contract. That may be the pinnacle of his career, but it may not. It may go on to even greater heights than playing for hybs at Easter Road. However, that is, as I say, a momentous moment for him. It is something that he has probably dreamed for as a youngster, as many do. Very few have the opportunity, though, like him and his colleague, to make that progress. However, it is in many instances what drives him, as indeed people all over the world will tune in on Saturday evening for the Champions League final. I enjoy the grass-roots game, but equally I also enjoy supporting the very elite level. Scotland and Scottish football have had its difficulties, but there are good things happening. The national team under Gordon Strachan is doing remarkably well and, hopefully, not simply in the friendly, despite the controversy, but more importantly, next week in the fixture that really matters for qualification, we will see success. Equally, I think that we also have to recognise the importance that football has. It can provide opportunities both for youngsters and indeed for women. It can provide opportunities for those with learning difficulties, for those with educational difficulties, for those who are offending. All of those people can be transformed by the power of football. I do believe, as I say, that that is based upon what the SFA and indeed the clubs can provide and support, but more importantly, the base in the communities that provides it. We have seen progress. The growth in the women's game is huge and significant and is to be very much welcomed. In youth football, we have seen a change, and I think that it is for the benefit. We have perhaps seen less clubs but more teams. In Scotland, for too long, we perhaps had too many people involved with clubs because of their own youngsters, and that is admirable and appropriate. Equally, we have to look to the continent where clubs have not only hundreds of youngsters but thousands of youngsters. They are a proper pyramid establishment and elite, perhaps even and often with a professional club at the top. That is the direction that we have to go. We have to support the professional game. It is not, as I say, at the consequence of the grassroots. It is how they work better and best together. That requires mutual respect, but, given that, the game will flourish and go on to the success that we know it can and will have. Many thanks. I now call Cameron Buchanan to be followed by John Pentland. Football is not just our national game. It is our national obsession. Since the early days, boys and girls now have grown up wanting to wear the dark blue jersey at Hamden. Football has the power to cross barriers and getting it right at a young age can help to break down old age prejudices in class, gender, race and religion. Youth football is not just about nurturing the next generation of professionals. It also helps youngsters to learn transferable skills that can be used in everyday life, such as teamwork, dedication and hard work. Ensuring that we have enough coaches to have sufficiently skills to teach our kids the right footballing and life lessons is very important. Historically, Scotland has always been on top of the game when it comes to coaching. Largs on the west coast is home to the prestigious SFA-run elite coaching centre, where many of the game's greats earn their stripes, including the special one. No, I am not referring to you, Chick, but to Josie Marino. Despite that, the past two decades have seen declining standards, sadly, in our national game. The McLeish report sought to provide a pathway back to the top table, and youth football was placed at the centre of this ambition. That report called for a minimum of 20 football academies and an increase in participation to half a million. Therefore, the creation of a national academy based in Edinburgh is to be welcomed. A place where youngsters can come and learn from the best, both on and off the pitch, will hopefully develop the next generation of Dalglesias and Laws, but more needs to be done. The Scottish FFA commenced the performance schools project in August 2012, which is designed for elite boys and girls and runs from S1 to S4. In Edinburgh, the programme is located at Broughton High School, where participants undertake their football education within the standard school curriculum. Beauty of this programme is its marriage between football skills and academic qualifications. Not everyone turns professional, and having a solid education is just as important as having a thunderous right boot. I would also like to reserve a special mention for Spartans, as did Football Club and Malcolm Chisholm, who have created an almost professional setup with both the age grade and senior teams. Spartans is now a model of diversity, housing both their senior men's, juniors and women's teams under the same roof, which I think is very important. The partnership between the club and Edinburgh leisure has shown what can be achieved with public and private co-operation. I have always believed that if clubs set aside rivalries, we can have a far more integrated youth coaching set-up, particularly in relation to provincial clubs. Across the water in Fife, we have a regional academy, which draws together four professional teams who provide coaching until the age of 16. Upon graduation, players have the choice of four different clubs to sign for. I believe that anyone in this chamber can help clubs set aside rivalries. It is Chick Brody, who is a man who has swapped sides more times than Mo Johnson. Changing a system is never easy. There have been bumps along the road. The Dutch coach Mark Wotty, who pointed to overseeing the reforms in the McLeish report, recently left the SFA citing that some people in Scotland are reluctant to change. This, I think, is disappointing, as we need more men like him. More men like Ian Cathrow, who set up the youth football academy in Dundee, helped to produce a string of technically gifted players at Tannadise. Players like Ryan Gold, who now plays for Sporting Lisbon in Portugal. Ian's talent took him to Portugal and now Spain, where he is assistant manager at Valencia. Success stories like this should be champion, but we should also be disappointed that we have not retained talent like this in Scotland. In conclusion, youth football in Scotland has never been run so professionally. We have more coaches and volunteers than ever before. There is still a long way to go before we can match our continental competitors, but I think that we are on the right track. The growth and success of the women's game should serve as a template and inspiration. I would urge the SFA and Scottish Government to continue to collaborate to ensure that every youngster has the opportunity to learn life skills associated with playing football. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am speaking in my capacity as a convener of the Public Petitions Committee and, like others, I thank Jack Brody for bringing this motion to the chamber for debate. Having been lodged in 2010, the public petition by William Scott and Scott Robertson has the dubious distinction of being one of the oldest still in the committee books. We are still considering three interlinked issues, contracts or registration agreements with professional clubs, young elite players being able to play for school teams and the system of compensation payments between clubs for the transfer of young players under the age of 16 years. Children up to 14 can register with a club for a maximum of one season, registration lapsing at the end of each season, thereafter registration carried forward from 15 to 16 and from 16 to 17 so that a 15-year-old player can be kept for a further two years. In 2010, the committee took evidence from the Scottish Premier League, the Scottish Football Association, the Commissioner for Children and Young People, Rangers director of youth development and the heads of two club youth academies. Now, while the SFA is primarily responsible for the operation of the sport, it is right that the Parliament and the Scottish Government ask questions as to how appropriate and fair the arrangements are. Football's governing bodies told us that the concern arose from misunderstandings and that change was not required. On the other hand, the petitioners, some young players and their parents and the children's commissioners feel that the arrangements restrict young players' freedoms and acts in the interests of the clubs, not the young players. The SFA says that FIFA requires national football associations to have a system to place reward, to place to reward young players, but are our systems fair? Now, since 2010, some changes have been made. Some young elite players can now play for their school teams, but those who train several times a week and play matches at the weekend is at restriction fair. A new system of transfer compensation payments has been introduced. It prescribes that payments to be made ranging from £600 to £15,000 depending on the club's contribution to the club academy Scotland programme. However, despite the changes, there are still concerns. In June last year, the Public Petitions Committee asked the Children's Commissioner to review registration process and report its findings back to us. We recently received his report. It makes very interest to read it and I welcome his recommendations, which include that young players' rights must be respected when entering into what is in effect a contract, current arrangements create an imbalance of power, registration for older youth players should not carry over from the end of a season, and young players should not be prevented from playing football because professional clubs are negotiating trade deals. The registration process needs to be independently monitored and there should be clear complaints and mechanism. The point that I agree with whole heartily is that clubs must take a greater account of young people's rights. They should respect all their needs, not just treating them as footballing assets or worse, as monetary investments. In conclusion, the committee will take evidence from the commissioner on his findings before the summer recess and I commend his report to the chamber. Graham Dey, to be followed by James Kelly. The registration slash contract situation pertaining to young football has been the subject of debate over many years. In certain regards, where we find ourselves today, is a considerable improvement on where once Scottish football was. I make that point not in any way to diminish the validity of debate in this matter. I congratulate Chick Brory for giving us this opportunity. I want to bring a degree of context to things. I can go back the best part of 35 years to my early days as a sports journalist when certain clubs were signing up youngsters on lengthy pro contracts that involved extended options. What they did was to bind rising talent to the teams for an initial four-year term. Then, if the club wanted to hang on to them because they progressed to the point of becoming a playing or financial asset, the option was exercise and the contract was extended for perhaps another three years. Of course, there was no guarantee of that happening, so the option was of one-way benefit to the clubs. The player could be held on to regardless of whether he wanted that. Notwithstanding the problems that exist currently as regards the youth registration process, it is fair to say that the Scottish game has become far better organised and more professional in its development of young players, which is to everyone's benefits. Let's acknowledge that a number of our major clubs, such as Aberdeen, the team that both Mark McDonald and I support, Dundee United, Hamilton and Hartford, are bringing through talented home-reared players, which is to be very welcomed. However, it is only right and proper that, from a sport that can fulfil or destroy the dreams of young people in far less than equal measure, we demand the same standards of treatment of those young people as we do from other sectors of our society. The Scottish Football Authority is really doing—I would suggest—need to respond appropriately to the commissioner's report, which has been considered, as we have heard by the Public Petitions Committee. There are undoubtedly a number of the key recommendations contained within the report. They could, without undermining the structures that are delivering this emergence of young talent within the Premier League, deliver on. Let me pick out five key demands relating to the pre-formal contract phase of a young player's development. Recommendation 3, professional youth football in Scotland needs to undergo a significant attitudinal change. The clubs, and to some extent the SFA, refer to youth players purely in terms of investment and fail to acknowledge the young person in their own right. Recommendation 7, rules that are required in the formation, performance, enforcement and impact of contracts. Rights and remedies must be accessible, relevant, independent and effective for children and young people. 11, steps must be taken to avoid situations where a child or a young person is prevented from playing football for an entire season, whilst professional clubs negotiate trade deals. Recommendation 12, the youth registration process is an agreement between two parties that places obligations on both to ensure that it takes account of the interests and rights of children and young people. As much as the interests of professional football clubs it needs to be regulated and monitored in a manner that is independent of the clubs. Finally, regardless of whether or not an independent regulatory body is established, a clear process needs to be put in place immediately to ensure that children and young people can lodge a complaint where they feel their rights have been infringed by a club. Those are not unreasonable expectations in this day and age. We cannot continue to have a situation where, as the commissioner says in the overview, it is reasonable to conclude that the terms of the contracts are not necessarily mutually agreed, as they are not adequately understood. Where the process of cancelling or renewing a young person's registration would, as the reporter asserts, appear to be skewed in favour of the best interests of the professional club and that, from the age of 10, children are effectively making a decision that ties them to one professional team for the duration of their youth football years, unless on other side steps are on reimbusess training costs. Surely no one would deny the appropriateness of ensuring that each young person registering to play with a pro-club is provided with age-appropriate guidance on what that registration actually means in advance of signing it and the age-appropriate versions of codes of conduct are developed. Some will balk at some of what is being proposed, they will predict implementation of those measures, will put clubs off bringing through youngsters and undermine the whole development process. I am not sure quite why that would be the case. The better that young players are treated, surely more likely is that they will choose to remain with the club that they are linked to, and the club will inevitably get far more out of a contented player than one being forced to be held on to. In other words, everyone wins. I now call James Kelly to be followed by Mark McDonald. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. First of all, I congratulate Chick Brody on securing the debate tonight, focusing on the issue of youth football. There is no doubt that when you listen to all the members speaking and I very much align myself with that, football is a big part of our lives, a big part of our upbringing, and I think that it is also really important in our constituencies a lot of communities that we represent. Football currently plays a big part there and, historically, it has also made a major contribution. I want to start by noting some of the local successes in relation to my constituency and start by highlighting the excellent work of the Blantyre Soccer Academy, which has been chaired and organised by local Jimmy Whelan. This is an excellent club that supports many in the community across boys and girls. The highlight for this club each year is the Raymond Gormley memorial football tournament. It is in celebration of young Raymond Gormley who tragically lost his life in a stabbing in 2011. However, the tournament not only allows a lot of young teams in Blantyre to come together but also raises money for charity and also helps to support the Gormley family. I think that that is something to celebrate. I also very much welcome the growth in women and girls football in recent years. In fact, there are two youngsters in my constituency, Miltmore and Cunningham from Stonelaw High and Brogan Hay from Trinity High, who are part of the Scotland under 15s girls team. I think that they are very much to be commended on their success. I also think that football can be used positively. Nill-by-Mouth has some excellent schemes where they use football as a method of tackling sectarianism to bring down barriers that exist between communities and that they use football as a vehicle for dealing with that. I very much want to commend the work of Dave Scott and his team in doing so. In relation to tonight's debate, although we want to celebrate youth football and be positive as Kenny MacAskill was about the current state of playing in Scottish football, I think that Chick Brody raised some very important issues about how young people are treated. When people are tied into contracts and they are not able to play as freely as they would like to play, as John Pentland pointed out, that is not only unfair but an infringement of young people's rights. I also think that it is totally unacceptable if we get a situation where clubs are paying youngsters less in the minimum wage. As Chick Brody said, it is incumbent not only on the clubs but on the football authorities, the SFA and the SPFL to take responsibility in this area and to ensure that that does not happen. We cannot have it not happen. We have an opportunity with the Petitions Committee to examine the commissioner's report. It gives us a platform not only to examine those issues but also to ensure that we can hold the clubs and the football organisations to account. That gives us an opportunity in relation to tonight's debate, not only to celebrate the success of youth football but to ensure that the arrangements around taking good care of our youngsters are robust going into the future. Mark McDonald, please. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I stand as somebody who has both been a youth football player and a youth football coach, having coached the under-13s team at Dice Boys' Club back in the before I became elected. Both Dice Boys' Club and Albion Boys' Club, who are the two youth clubs in Aberdeen, who tend to compete for honours alongside Loose United Youth, are based in my constituency. Loose United Youth are an interesting club, because they are established as a result of players being released from the Aberdeen FC under 12 development squad and have since grown to become a much larger club with teams at all age groups. Dice was the club that I coached with. The past players who have come through that system include Graham Shinney, who lifted the Scottish Cup for Caledysol at the weekend, and his brother Andrew, who plays for Birmingham. He recently retired Aberdeen captain Russell Anderson and Stuart Armstrong, who recently signed for Celtic from Dundee United. Many clubs can point to players playing their trade professionally as players who have come through their system. Many can also attest to the ones who got away as well and who perhaps came through a different route. The point is prescient around expectation among young players. Certainly, I remember when my brother played youth football, he was a contemporary of Sean Maloney, who played for one of the competitor clubs that he played against. There were players who my brother played for the Aberdeen squad that went to the Jack Wood tournament in Wales, who were training with professional clubs. At that time, those clubs did not have their own age group-specific teams per se. They would take players who were attached with other clubs to train with them and would then decide who they would sign up on to forms at a later stage. However, now, clubs have development squads at all age groups, consisting of a large number of boys. I think that Chick Brody makes the point that, for many of those youngsters, they perhaps do not realise at the point at which they sign for the clubs just how few people can make it in the game. Perhaps we need to do more to ensure that that realisation in those expectation levels is managed both for the players themselves and for their parents. I think that there is a question about how we develop young players in Scotland. One of the things that I am very passionate about is summer football. Having coached at youth level, one of the most frustrating things is trying to encourage passing football, trying to encourage the skills that you teach in the gym hall or the training area, and trying to put that into practice on the pitch. We are trying to do that in some of the weather conditions that we experience in Scotland in January and February when it becomes much more difficult for young players in particular to hone those skills. You end up developing the kick-and-rush football because in driving rain and gale force winds, sometimes that is all that you are faced with. I think that, in terms of the development of young players, how the professional clubs interact with what we call the feeder clubs or the established youth clubs when players are being released so that they are not left to try to go and find a club at a point at which they will obviously be quite upset at the fact that they are no longer going to be continued within the system of a professional club. That needs to be looked at as well. One final point, if I may, is around the loss of municipal pitches, which I think is an issue that we need to look at very carefully. In my constituency, Aberdeen Lads club pitches are about to be developed upon. That will result in the loss of a number of grass pitches, which are to be replaced by one 3G pitch, not within that community but elsewhere in the city. That will be a benefit to the community of Northfield who are set to get that 3G pitch. All 3G pitches can be used more than grass pitches because of the quality of the surface. I think that we need to look very carefully at how municipal pitches are being protected and also how the upkeep of those pitches is being protected as well, to ensure that when our young developing players go out and play on those pitches, they are able to play the game the way that we would expect the game to be played and can develop their skills from there. Thank you very much. Can I now invite the minister, Jamie Hepburn, to respond to the debate, minister, seven minutes or so? Thank you very much. I thank all members for taking part in the debate. I particularly like to thank Jack Brodie for securing the debate so that the Parliament can consider the benefits that youth football can bring across the country. I know that Mr Brodie has a keen interest in football. I know that he was a very good footballer in his youth. I primarily know that, minister, because Mr Brodie tells me and assures me that it was the case, but I know that he is a survivor of the junior leagues in Dundee, making my own modest achievements in football pale by comparison. In a week, I think that we can all accept that football has had its difficulties internationally. I think that this debate can serve as a reminder of what is good about the game and what is good about the sport of football, about opportunities for youngsters to take part in something that they love young people. Girls and boys taking part in football are the lifelid of the game, so we must do all we can to encourage them so that they can flourish and make the most of their talents and, hopefully, if they get the opportunity to have successful careers. Mr Brodie has raised legitimate concerns about the processes of registration of players with professional clubs, and I will come to that in due course. However, it is important to recognise that most youth football is delivered at the amateur level. Only a very small proportion will be delivered through Scotland's professional clubs, and that means that there are thousands of volunteers across the country. Mums and dads dedicated coaches devoting their time to support the youngsters to have the opportunity to take part in youth football. Of course, all members will have many examples of such youth clubs in their area. James Kelly reminded us of the importance of football to communities across Scotland. I think that it is appropriate that this juncture to put on record my thanks. I am sure that all members thanks for the efforts of those volunteers involved in amateur youth football. Many members gave examples of good work in their area. Mr Kelly gave a very specific example of how powerful football can be as a positive example of community cohesion with the example of the tournament held to honour the memory of Raymond Gorman. I would like to thank him for bringing that example to the chamber. Malcolm Chisholm made the point that we must do more to support girls into football. I quite agree with that perspective. Frankly, it is a point that could be made more generally about sport. I am sure that Malcolm Chisholm would agree that I had the opportunity to attend the Scottish women. I am aware that, through the establishment of the quality mark, clubs that were specifically only orientated towards boys football are now branching out to include girls teams in girls training sessions, which allow more girls to get involved in football at the grass roots. The quality mark has been a very welcome addition. I recognise that, in my area, we have a very good example of a club that has gone through that process, the common old colts, which offer opportunities right across the age ranges to some 500-plus youngsters, including girls. They have achieved that standard. Indeed, I could let the chamber know that it was very delighted to learn that, only now that they have that status, they have just been accepted to full membership of the Scottish Football Association, which is a great recognition of the effort that they make locally. I am allowed to make a specific local example in those debates. I hope that you will allow me to do so. On the issue of the role of girls in football and sport more generally, I was very privileged to attend the Scottish Women's Sport Conference last week. Those were issues that were being taken up there. Of course, the Scottish Government commissioned the working group on women in sport, which was chaired by Barnas, Sue Campbell and Sport Scotland. They are now taking forward the work of that group through their own equality subgroup, which will ultimately report to their board. However, I very much recognise that we have to do more to promote positive role models for girls. Of course, such examples exist. Chick Brody has raised concerns. I promise that I will turn my attention to those concerns in. I say that he has raised concerns about the role of elite clubs. I can think of a very positive example from one of Scotland's elite clubs, Glasgow City, if football club is the best women's team in the country. Indeed, by the last Scottish club left in Europe in the season, they just passed the furthest of any of the clubs competing in Europe. I was delighted to meet Laura Montgomery, who is a co-founder and director of Glasgow City. I was very struck by that club's determination to support young girls into football and also providing the positive role models through the players that they have playing for their first team. Let me turn my attention to the specific points raised on youth football contracts and registration issues by Chick Brody. I know that the Public Petitions Committee has been working on that issue since 2010. When the petition was lodged with it, I know that Chick Brody has taken a close interest in it. The committee, of course, requested that comprehensive review to be undertaken by the Scottish Commissioner for Children and Young People on the current registration process, particularly from a rights perspective. Mr Brody referred to that, and indeed the convener of the committee mentioned that. I am very pleased to see that review has been completed and has begun to be considered by the committee. It is a thorough and substantial report that incorporates a child rights impact assessment, explores the views of young players and has a wide range of recommendations for those involved in youth football, particularly the clubs and the SFA. I suggest that it is a bit premature for me to comment in too much detail in relation to that report. I know that the committee still has a job of work to do, so I look forward to—the conveners confirmed that they are going to take evidence from the commission and I look forward to seeing the results from that and seeing where the committee takes its petition. However, I can say that I have seen some of the coverage generated by Mr Brody's concept with the press over the weekend. Mr Brody alluded to the example of the young man who is unable to play for his university team or an amateur level because the professional club, which holds his registration, refuses to release him from that. That, quite clearly, seems unfair and unreasonable. I can also inform Mr Brody that I have sought a meeting with the Children and Young People's Commissioner to discuss his report. I am also very happy to meet Mr Brody directly to discuss his concerns and perspectives on the matter. I recognise the legitimate concerns that Mr Brody has raised, but we should recognise the vast good that is out there in youth football across Scotland. I thank Chuck Brody for securing tonight's debate to give us the opportunity to have done just that. Thank you very much. I thank the minister and that concludes Chuck Brody's debate on youth football's contribution to men's and women's football. I now close this meeting of Parliament.