Step in the right direction… meeting next week to discuss plan to give young Scottish players more first-team opportunities

A plan to tackle the lack of first-team opportunities for young players in Scottish football will take a step forward next week.

A report commissioned by the SFA’s Professional Game Board outlined the challenges faced by academy prospects seeking a first-team breakthrough.

Damning statistics revealed that Rangers had a Scottish Under-21 player on the field for a mere 26 minutes across the first 33 Premiership matches of last season, while Celtic had one for just 89 minutes in total.

The report’s authors – SFA chief football officer Andy Gould and head of men’s elite strategy Chris Docherty – will now meet the SPFL’s Competitions Working Group next week to press the case for club co-operation agreements similar to those modelled in Hungary and Croatia.

These would make it easier for young academy players to switch between their parent clubs and lower-league feeder teams outwith the transfer window.

Lennon Miller (right) is one of the young players who has benefitted from first-team action

Miller is congratulated after scoring his first international goal for the Under-21s this week

The move would require a change to league rules, and the Competitions Working Group will be asked to put the matter to a vote by Scotland’s 42 senior clubs before the end of the season.

Other measures recommended by the report include innovations to encourage the involvement of young Scottish players in cup competitions, a scholarship system to discourage cross-border moves once players turn 16, and a review of the entire youth development strategy.

Attempts to shoehorn Premiership B teams into the lower leagues of Scottish football have repeatedly foundered.

And, with top-flight clubs likely to favour tie-ups with teams in the Championship or the upper half of League One, the new proposals offer no guarantee of being passed.

Strategic partnerships between Scottish clubs are not unheard of.

In 2020, Hibernian agreed a unique tie-up with then League Two club Stenhousemuir.

While the move eventually fizzled out, former Stenhousemuir chairman Iain McMenemy believes the idea is an avenue worth exploring.

‘I always believed that this was definitely one of the the routes – if not the best route – for Scottish football,’ McMenemy told Mail Sport.

‘I think there’s probably a lot of clubs at League One and League Two level that see their role, in some ways, as being able to help develop Scottish talent.

‘And this could be good for the club because they’re getting really good players that are potentially coming in and playing first-team football.

‘What it needs most of all is a total buy-in from the bigger club.

‘What we had with Hibernian was a written agreement.

‘It didn’t rely on money going back and forth. It just relied on a strong commitment from from both sides.

‘Guys (at Hibs) like Jack Ross and Graeme Mathie understood it. They bought into it right away and saw the absolute benefits to it. When they both moved on from the club, it fell apart. The board didn’t see it as the route to go

‘If they get players through the system in a much more strategic way, I think that would benefit the game at large. But it’s very difficult to get people to agree on anything in Scottish football.’