For years the decision by the Scottish Football Association to make football in primary schools non-competitive has gradually seen a downturn in the number of games played in the Highland Capital.

The only avenue for young players is the leagues provided by the Inverness and District Soccer Sevens Association, but that only runs from May to June with the maximum number of games played being six for any one side.

That is all about to change, however, as local coaches prepare to launch the Highland Primary League at the start of the new term next month.

Craig Crichton, who has been coaching the primary school team at Croy for the past two-and-a-half seasons, is one of the principal organisers of the new league and insists he was prompted into action after he was unable to answer the simplest of question from one of the players in his side.

"I remember that one of the kids asked me why they called it a league when you couldn't see what your position was," Crichton explained. "I couldn't answer it, but it really got me thinking.

"Over the past few years competitive football has been progressively taken away by the SFA because they wanted to make it more fun and while I can understand that for children in primary five and under, older kids want to play competitively.

"I know that over in Moray they scrapped the non-competitive set-up they had and decided to change it back. Since then, they have established four very successful leagues, which include promotion and relegation, and have continued to go from strength to strength.

"From the initial response about the new league we had 10 teams more than willing to take part. That's now gone up to 20, so it just shows that both adults and kids want to see competitive football."

With 20 teams registering their interest, there are plans to split the Highland Primary League into two sections — north and south — with the season running from August right through until March the following year.

There would also be prizes handed out at the end of every season for the top team in each section, while a trophy for the overall winners of the league has been planned with the final between the winners of the north and south divisions possibly taking place as part of the Highland Games after organisers expressed an interest in hosting such an event.

"It is all moving along quite quickly, but we would hope to have a committee organised by the end of the month," added Crichton. "The plans is to start the league in August, so we've not got much time to get things organised, but I'm confident we'll be up and running by next month."

* Anyone willing to sponsor or even just become involved with helping to run the Highland Primary League should contact the Courier sports desk on (01463) 732250 and your details will be taken and passed on to organisers.

The League are also on the lookout for qualified referees who might be able to help officiate the matches and would be interested to hear from any individual or group that are willing to offer their services.

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