Raith Rovers director hits out at "very unreasonable" plastic pitch ban in Scottish Premiership

Should Raith achieve their objective of promotion from the William Hill Championship in the coming campaign, they face having to rip up their 3G Stark’s Park surface and replacing it with a grass pitch to comply with regulations introduced after Premiership clubs voted in favour of ditching artificial surfaces in the country’s top division.

This decision is one which ‘sticks in the craw’ of Kilgour, who told Raith TV: “Our pitch gets tested every year as part of a FIFA test. It passed for next season but we’ve been told there’s a good chance it will fail for the following season.

"There was grant funding available from the SFA this summer which we and a number of other clubs applied for to put down a new plastic surface.

"It’s going to cost in the region of about £400,000. We applied for a grant to cover 60% of that. We were quite hopeful – as were other clubs – and it was rejected two weeks ago.

"I think the reason being that they do not want to give funding for plastic pitches because of the new ruling in the Premiership.

"We weren’t the only ones to be rejected. It looks like we’re going to have to fund it ourselves.

"It’s not something we’re going to have to worry about this summer obviously but it’s definitely something hanging over us for next summer.

"It’s difficult because they’ve gone from zero to full on banning the pitches which just seems incredible.

"From my perspective it’s very unreasonable. There could have been a middle ground there where you just say: ‘Look, you need to renew your pitch every three or four seasons and we’ll see how that goes before we make a decision to ban them’.

"Look at the community use we get at Stark’s Park. To lose out on that just for the sake of getting to the Premiership is painful.

"On top of that we’d have to go and find another training ground which is a cost, we’d have to hire more groundsmen for which there’s a cost.

"There’s all of these pieces on top of the actual cost of having to change to a grass surface.

"It will be interesting to see what happens next year with Falkirk and Livingston (who will both take part in the 2025-’26 Scottish Premiership with artificial pitches at their home grounds). The perception could change next season.

"A lot of our players said that the Falkirk surface was one of the best that they’d played on last year because it is a brand new plastic pitch.

"It just feels so backwards that you’ve got Tottenham playing Bodo/Glimt in the semi-final of the Europa League on a plastic surface, you’re allowed a plastic surface in the Italian Serie A and the French League 1 but for some reason in the Scottish Premiership they just don’t allow it.

"Is there a chance of a reversal? Who knows? There might be, considering we’re going to have two clubs in the Premier League with a plastic pitch and a new one at that.”

Kilgour said he was aware that Falkirk would be ‘flying the flag for plastic pitches’ in the top flight this season, doing what they could to support clubs like Raith.

He added: “I think there are only going to be two clubs in the Championship with plastic pitches now, which kind of loses out a little bit in our league in terms of the reputation of fighting for it.

"It’s pie in the sky stuff to hope for a reversal. We can’t plan based on the potential for a reversal so we’re just focused on how we can get another plastic surface relaid next summer. If we make it into the Premiership that’s almost a good problem to have and we can look at putting grass down.”