Toryglen Regional Football Centre is a facility for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

in the

Toryglen Toryglen is a district in southern Glasgow, Scotland, falling within the Langside ward under Glasgow City Council. It is approximately two miles south of the city centre, bounded to the west by Mount Florida, the north-west by Polmadie, to the n ...

area of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The complex was completed in 2009 and is situated close to the national stadium,

Hampden Park Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden''), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the no ...

History

New sports facility in Toryglen - geograph

Toryglen cost approximately £17 million to build, with funding from

Glasgow City Council Glasgow City Council is the local government authority for the City of Glasgow, Scotland. It was created in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, largely with the boundaries of the post-1975 City of Glasgow district of the S ...

and

sportscotland Sportscotland (officially styled sport), formerly the Scottish Sports Council, is the national agency for sport in Scotland. The Scottish Sports Council was established in 1972 by royal charter. The body works in partnership with public, pri ...

. It was constructed by ''CBC'' and uses turf from ''Greenfields'' The centre opened for business in April 2009, with the official opening in August of that year;

's most-capped player

Kenny Dalglish Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. During his career, he made 338 appearances for Celtic F.C., Celtic and 515 for Liverpoo ...

was the special guest at the ceremony. The centre was built on old red blaes (gravel) playing fields used by

Queen's Park Secondary School Queen's Park Secondary School was a secondary school in Glasgow, Scotland. History Queen's Park School was built in 1873 for the ''Cathcart Parish School Board'' and opened officially in 1876, with the original building located on Grange Road in ...

(closed 1994); some of the land may have been contaminated with toxic chromium waste from a local chemical works. The

culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom ...

ed Malls Mire Burn flows beneath the site. A large

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...

and a regional police headquarters are located nearby.

Features

The main feature is a fully enclosed, international-sized

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commer ...

pitch engineered to the highest specifications available at the time. The dimensions of the

playing field Play is a range of intrinsically motivated activities done for recreational pleasure and enjoyment. Play is commonly associated with children and juvenile-level activities, but may be engaged in at any life stage, and among other higher-functio ...

are the same as

Celtic Park Celtic Park is the home stadium of Celtic Football Club, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest football stadium in Scotland, and the eighth-largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is also ...

. There is also a raised visitor area featuring a snack bar and bench seating for 700 spectators. There are three full-sized,

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

-approved 2-star floodlit outdoor artificial pitches outside. The primary outdoor pitch was re-laid in late 2018 after a decade of constant use. The indoor pitch includes a plastic/canvas dividing curtain which can be lowered and raised from the 18m-high ceiling, separating the area into halves or quarter sections suitable for Seven-a-side games. The Toryglen complex has its own vehicle parking and more spaces are available near Hampden (except on event days at the stadium). No professional team is based at Toryglen, meaning the facilities can be hired by local clubs and groups at most times. A large proportion of the juvenile and amateur teams in the Glasgow and

Rutherglen Rutherglen (, sco, Ruglen, gd, An Ruadh-Ghleann) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, immediately south-east of the city of Glasgow, from its centre and directly south of the River Clyde. Having existed as a Lanarkshire burgh in its own ...

Cambuslang Cambuslang ( sco, Cammuslang, from gd, Camas Lang) is a town on the south-eastern outskirts of Greater Glasgow, Scotland. With approximately 30,000 residents, it is the 27th largest town in Scotland by population, although, never having had a ...

areas who do not have a permanent home ground of their own now play their fixtures at the complex (including the revived

Third Lanark Third Lanark Athletic Club was a Scottish football club based in Glasgow. Founded in 1872 as an offshoot of the 3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers, the club was a founder member of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) in 1872 and the Scottish ...

) due to the quality of the surface and the low chance of cancellation due to weather conditions (although the outdoor parks are susceptible to waterlogging in heavy rain). In 2012 the controlling company faced criticism from youth teams’ representatives over prices rises at Toryglen. Minor international matches such as Scotland women's under-17 and Centenary Shield (schoolboy) fixtures have been played there, and professional teams have trained at the facility when their usual training grounds were unavailable during times of bad weather. The outdoor pitches have hosted semi-finals of the

Scottish Women's Cup The Scottish Women's Cup is the national knockout cup competition for women's football in Scotland. First held in 1970–71, the competition is owned and managed by Scottish Women's Football (SWF), an affiliated body of the Scottish Football Assoc ...

, while the final of the 2011 competition was staged indoors at the venue.

References

External links

Glasgow Life: Toryglen Regional Football Centre
{{Football in Glasgow 2009 establishments in Scotland National sports institutions Sports venues completed in 2009 Football venues in Glasgow

History

Features

See also

References

External links