Edinburgh football team 'devastated' after vandals destroy pitch
Ratho Athletic will be forced to play their home games elsewhere for the rest of the season
Last updated 11 hours ago
An amateur Edinburgh football team has been left “devastated” after vandals destroyed their pitch - causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.
Ratho Athletic will be forced to play their home games elsewhere for the rest of the season after a car was driven across the playing surface in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Player-coach David Whelan, 34, says everyone at the football club and in the local community is heartbroken by the incident.
“It's devastating to be honest,” he said.
“Not many clubs are lucky enough to have a pitch right in the middle of the community that they can play on and that everyone comes down and sees.
"To see someone come and destroy all that work for a little bit of fun... it's devastating."
“We're quite protective of our wee pitch - the committee at Ratho puts so much time and effort into sorting the pavilion that's there, sorting the pitch on game days, putting out the ropes, putting out the sponsor signs and everything to sort of make it look more professional and for everyone coming down to see it - and we take a lot of pride in it.
“So, to see someone come and destroy all that work for a little bit of fun... yeah, it's devastating.
“It looks like there's a rally been held on it to be honest. From goal to goal, there's not much of the pitch that's not been touched.
“There are huge divots out of the ground where you can see the tyres are and they've gone over and over and over it so it's not just a little bit of tyre damage, it's proper dug into the ground. It's going to take some effort to repair it.”
The club, who play in the Lothian and Edinburgh Amateur Football Association Premiership, has raised almost £4500 in donations so far on their GoFundMe page to help towards repairs and extra security measures - including protective fencing to prevent similar incidents - as well as covering the costs of hiring alternative venues to play their home games.
“The response has been amazing,” David said.
“We've had local businesses and local tradesmen reaching out to us to see if they could help, local residents speaking out, offering help, offering donations, the golf course asking if there's any way they can help.
"It's really positive to see the impact that we've had in the community and that people do want to help us.”
You can donate to Ratho Athletic's GoFundMe page here.