Sport / New 3G pitch could ‘lift the ceiling’ for rugby and football in Shetland
FIGURES from the football and rugby scene locally have said a new 3G pitch in Lerwick has the potentially to be “genuinely transformative” for both sports.
Shetland Football Association (SFA) president Jakob Eunson believes the all-weather surface will “lift the ceiling” of what footballers in the isles can achieve.
And Shetland Rugby’s Jon Pulley said their ever-growing club could have been kicked out of the men’s and women’s leagues if they did not find a suitable pitch to play on.
He said the new surface – which replaces an existing rugby pitch at the Clickimin which has been besieged by flooding in recent years – is “absolutely massive” for Shetland.
The £1.46 million project was given the final council thumbs up on Wednesday, after around 18 months of debate, questioning and scrutiny.
While Shetland Islands Council (SIC) has been asked to put in more money than was first estimated, Eunson said its eventual £690k outlay was still cash well spent.
“The council have paid a peerie bit more for it but it’s such a bargain, and such a great opportunity,” he told Shetland News.
More than half of the project costs are coming from external funders such as Scottish Rugby, Scottish Football Association and sportscotland.
SFA president Eunson said you “really dinna get that sort of offer” every day.
And both him, and Pulley, expressed relief that elected members did not decide to throw out the project this week – as has been threatened throughout the process.
“It’s a huge relief, more than anything, to get to this stage,” Pulley said.
“If it had gone the other way after getting this far it would have been really, really disappointing.”
Eunson and some of his SFA colleagues took to canvassing some of their local councillors in a bid to ensure they got the pitch over the line this week.
He said they “knew it was going to be close” – but added he was “excited and delighted” that it had finally been approved.
For rugby and football the pitch means different things – it finally gives the rugby club a reliable surface to use year-round for training, matches and competitions after continuing problems at their current venue.
And for the SFA it could mean Shetland’s players can compete in cups and leagues through the winter, as well as welcoming teams north for competitive action.
Pulley has been playing rugby for Shetland for more than 20 years, but said the unreliability of the pitch had been steadily worsening for the last five of those.
“The number of games being called off has been growing year on year,” he said.
“Valkyries only played one game at home last season because of the state of the pitch.
“It’s an important step in terms of fixtures and competitions, but we’ve also lost God knows how many training sessions over the years.”
The new pitch, he said, “genuinely has the potential to be transformative for the club”.
“We’ve taken great strides over the last 10 years,” he said.
“The club has been growing and improving all the time.
“But there’s only so far that you can get with the pitch we have.”
Eunson says Shetland football “has not been stagnating” – but he thinks it may have hit a glass ceiling it may be about to smash through.
“Hopefully this will help us get over that hump of competitive play, just like Orkney can,” he said.
“It opens up a lot of avenues for us. A team could now come up here, if funding and travel arrangements can be made.
“This fairly lifts the ceiling of Shetland football.”
Another huge advantage for the football association is that the all-weather pitch will “take the pressure off to get the football season finished, so we’re not hoping for good weather”.
Figures from Shetland Rugby have said previously that not getting the new 3G pitch could have spelled the end of the club, and Pulley agreed with that assessment.
“That does seem quite dramatic, but it’s probably not far off the mark,” he said.
“If we don’t have a reliable pitch there’s a real risk of being kicked out the league.
“If it had gone the other way it would have been really, really disappointing.
“It’s a huge vote of confidence in our club and sport.”
For Eunson and the SFA, attentions now turn to how they can make best use of the new surface – for “all ages and genders” of Shetland football.
For the men’s county side, the SFA president thinks joining the North Caledonian league – like Orkney do – “is too much to start with”.
“I would like to think a cup would be a good way to start,” Eunson said.
“There’s cups out there that we would love to think that Shetland would be allowed to enter and maybe even host.
“It shouldn’t be an issue with teams being able to come up and play, then go back down on the boat.”
The recently elected SFA president made sure to pay tribute to George Smith, who was at the head of the association for the majority of the negotiations until stepping down last month.
“George really had put in a lot of time and effort to the meetings,” he said.
“He has figuratively laid all the groundwork for this.”
Ending on a footballing analogy, Eunson added: “He squared it across the goalmouth and I really just had a tap in. Thankfully it went in.”
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