Scotland’s leading football clubs can tap into the wealth of raw talent that exists in refugee, asylum seeker and displaced communities in the same way their counterparts in many leading football nations have by strengthening their links with local schools, it has been claimed.
Countries like Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany and Morocco, to name just a handful, all fielded outstanding players who come from migrant backgrounds during the World Cup finals in Canada, Mexico and the United States in recent weeks.
Household names like Alphonso Davies, the Bayern Munich and Canada full-back, and Anthony Rudiger, the Real Madrid and Germany centre-half, overcame difficult upbringings to reach the very pinnacle of the professional game after their parents were forced to flee from their war-torn homelands.
Hyab Yohannes, a lecturer in forced migration and decolonial education at the University of Glasgow and an expert in refugee integration, feels that Scotland could also reap rich rewards at international level if they managed to identify and nurture more youngsters whose families have been displaced.
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Yohannes, who originally hails from Eritrea and left Africa as a young man to escape potential detention and torture, acknowledges there are numerous admirable initiatives around the country, many of which receive Scottish government and SFA funding, which are designed to help disadvantaged kids to play sport and assimilate into mainstream society.
He also knows that promising players like Islam Feruz and Joel Kasubandi, who came from Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo respectively, have been picked up by professional clubs here and given the opportunity to make it in the professional game in the past.
However, he still feels that clubs in Scotland lag behind their counterparts in many other European countries and would benefit greatly if they changed the way they recruit kids into their pro-youth set-ups.
“You could see at the World Cup that the Canadian team, the French team, the Germany team, many of the big national teams, had managed to successfully integrate people from different parts of the world into their football systems,” he said.
“I don't see that happening in Scotland to the same extent and I think it's to do with the academies here. They don't have strong connections with these communities even though they have a lot of really good players.
“I work a lot with the Eritrean community here in Scotland and down in England too. We have a lot of young kids down south in the Manchester United academy and the Leeds United academy. We have others who train with Liverpool and Arsenal as well.
“I remember an Eritrean family moved to Glasgow from London a few years ago. Their son had been playing with Crystal Palace, but they couldn’t get him enrolled in an academy here so they decided to move to Manchester so he could get registered in the United academy.
“I have a friend who lives in Leeds. He has three sons who are all really good players and they are all playing in the Manchester United academy now. Their school referred them to the local academies because the thought they saw them play and thought they were good enough to go for trials.
“There is a network that exists between the schools and the academies, the Manchester United Academy, the Leeds United Academy, the Sheffield United Academy, whatever. These clubs have been really successful in recruiting kids who come from refugee backgrounds into their academies that way.
“Some of the schools in England organise small tournaments and invite academy scouts come along and watch them. They take them for a trial for a week or two, assess what skills they have and then decide if they want them to continue training. By reaching out into these communities, they create trust. I don't see that happening in Scotland to the same extent.
“I think it would be really helpful for clubs to involve schools, local community centres and some charities as well. I know charities which organise sporting activities. Maybe taking a multi-agency approach to these initiatives would result in kids who are really skilled being identified and picked up.”
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The vast majority of the youngsters who are involved in the pro-youth set-up in Scotland have initially been spotted by scouts playing for grassroots teams.
Yohannes knows that it can be difficult for children from displaced families to get involved in boys’ and girls teams for a number of different reasons and feels that they are slipping through the net as a result.
“There are challenges which people in refugee communities face,” he said. “Kids are really interested in playing football and are very skilled. Sporting activities do happen in these communities. But they need to be organised better to gain access to institutional support, to academy, football association or local government activities.
“Lots of grassroots teams play on Saturdays and Sundays in this country, but few of them have people from refugee backgrounds and Scotland has a lot of refugees now. For me, there is a missing link. It is about spotting these kids first and foremost.
“Services are either not readily available for many people who come here or they don't understand how to access them, particularly when they first arrive and there are language barriers. So they end up organising with the people they know.
“There are lots of small groups playing football here. Kids organise football tournaments among themselves. We do so in the Eritrean community, in the Sudanese community.
“But the next level should be actually mixing these kids with the local population. I think it's very difficult for the refugee community to tap into those spaces because it’s difficult for them to understand those things.
“For me, there should be more of a concerted effort from the government, local authorities and sporting associations to facilitate that mixing. I think they could do more.
“Schools are the most accessible institutions for people with a refugee background so that would be a good starting point for clubs.
“It would be really good to see players from refugee communities contribute to the Scottish game. But I think there are systemic barriers at the moment which do not allow that to happen.”
Anti-immigration protests have been held in towns and cities across the country by right wing demonstrators this summer and there were racially motivated assaults during a march in Glasgow back in June.
Yohannes feels the increasingly toxic discourse in modern politics is also impacting on the ability of children from refugee, asylum seeker and displaced families to get involved in football.
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“Certain communities are struggling to deal with all kinds of stuff at the moment,” said Yohannes. “It's not safe for somebody like me to travel, to walk on the streets, at times.
“I have gone to places like Falkirk and Stirling to deliver keynote speeches and I have had to be escorted from and back to the train station because it has not be safe for me to travel alone.
“So I think that people are increasingly nervous about their place in both society and in their community and they often end up struggling as a consequence.”
Yohannes added, “Scotland is a better country than many others, much better. I lived in England previously and it was a completely different world, particularly in the north.
“I came to the UK around the time of Brexit and it was really difficult to live in places like Bradford and Manchester. There was clear discrimination and racism on the streets.
“I faced threats almost daily at that time because of the discourse there was in politics of the time. But I've never seen that during the eight years I have lived in Scotland.
“Sadly, we are now starting to see that appear with the protests which have been staged. There is a lot of misunderstanding, a lack of education, about what our contributions are.
“I think we have to come together, play together and create spaces of joy, not just hold protests and counter-protests. Sport is a really good way of bringing people together and allowing integration.”
Yohannes feels that it would send out a powerful message about what refugees, asylum seekers and people from displaced backgrounds can contribute to Scottish society if more kids from those communities could force their way in to professional teams and possibly even the national side in years to come.
“People come here with a lot of skill and ambition to be part of sporting activities,” he said. “It would be really useful for Scottish football to exploit that.
“But it would also help with integration. Visibility is everything these days in this social media world we now live in. If more people could get into professional teams and have that visibility nationally it would be really helpful.”
