Jobless footballers 'could coach'

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Unemployed footballers should be given jobs coaching children, according to the Scottish Labour Party.

As the new season gets under way, the SPFA said more than 300 footballers were now out of work.

Frank McAveety, the party's sport spokesman, said a coaching scheme could help boost Scotland's future football success.

The Scottish Government said it had invested £1.7m to develop coaching, and a further £3.8m in football last year.

Mr McAveety urged ministers to act in the week where the national side lost 4-0 to Norway in their World Cup qualifying match in Oslo.

He said: "It is time that the Scottish Government started taking our national game seriously.

"Alex Salmond and his ministers are happy to use football to provide a backdrop for photocalls, but when the game really needs them they have gone into hiding.

"If this was any other industry there would be a national initiative to help the footballers find new employment, but Shona Robison appears to have sat on her hands and done nothing."

Frank McAveety wants to see more done for the national game

Mr McAveety said his party believed that three months after being appointed as Sports Minister, Ms Robison had not had a meeting about football.

"I believe ministers should be talking to the SPFA and organising a national scheme to provide unemployed players with work coaching children," he said.

"It might even help us produce the stars of tomorrow and help us qualify for major tournaments again."

But the Scottish Government rejected Labour's claims about Ms Robison's commitment, as she was not appointed to her new role until 10 February, and their claims were based on diary entries from December until March.

A spokesman said: "These claims are inaccurate and misleading.

"They are based on entries in the minister's diary for three months between December last year and March 2009. For two of those months Ms Robison had not yet been appointed Sports Minister.

"In the five months since then Ms Robison has been working hard to support Scottish football."

He said he engagements included discussions with SFA chief executive Gordon Smith and SPL chairman Lex Gold, as well as visits to Rangers, Dundee, St Mirren and Partick Thistle.