18/03/2025
Club Statement
Everyone at Grays Inn United is disappointed to hear the latest news from Sport Aberdeen this week that for the foreseeable future, they would only be able to supply the ASAFL with only one pitch. For a league of 14 teams this is unacceptable, causing the potential cancellation of our beloved Aberdeen Sunday League.
In recent years, Aberdeen have divested significant assets related to grass roots football through the closure and / or sale of many sites including:
- Inverdee
- Aulton
- Hazelhead
All of the above sites acted at one point as the centralised hub for grass roots football, not more so than the ASAFL which in recent years has seen a significant decline in available pitches, leading to increased downtime due to pitch condition, leaving clubs and players angered at not being able to do what they enjoy every week.
In recent weeks, we have seen that the newest hubs for Sunday amateur football, Sheddocksley & Kaimhill now become unplayable due to various reasons, which we note is not at the fault of sport Aberdeen.
The recent throttling of available pitches therefore brings into questions whether the continuation of our league and cups is feasible, an action which all clubs would like to be avoided at all costs.
In light of this information, the ASAFL and all member clubs request a formal consultation with members of Sport Aberdeen senior management on how this situation can be mitigated and allow us to play the remainder of the season with maximised pitch availability, and as part of this would like to discuss what plans Aberdeen have to cement the long term future of the ASAFL for years to come.
All we want to do is play football, but this is slowly being taken away from us, and we trust that this matter is taken seriously.
Please share if possible please.
MTG