FOOTBALL bosses have been warned that laws may be passed to protect the human rights of youth footballers if they do not voluntarily overhaul their "exploitative" system.

SNP backbencher Chic Brodie yesterday led a Holyrood debate into youth football, focusing on the current system of youth player registrations, which was heavily criticised last week in a report penned by the Commissioner for Children and Young People.

It hit out at the level of power professional clubs held over players that sign youth agreements, revealing that they could block youngsters playing football altogether for several years if the player no longer wanted to represent them.

Mr Brodie said children as young as six were being cherry picked by pro clubs, before the vast majority were "cast aside" as not good enough, leaving their "dreams to turn to nightmares".

He said registration forms were "not worth the paper they are written on" from a legal perspective yet gave clubs the power to deny players from playing for school, amateur or university sides.

The South Scotland MSP added that he had evidence that some clubs were breaching minimum wage legislation, in one case paying £1 a week.

He said: "An attitudinal change in youth football is now required. Dickensian we are no longer, and children's rights will be protected and there should be - will be - no circumstance where the state or associated bodies should invest resources or finance that may violate these rights. Those primarily involved are children, not investments.

"If the current administrators of Scottish club football and by default Scottish youth football cannot themselves make the required changes to meet these rights, then we shall seek to pursue a statutory course and underpin current European legislation that does so."

The issue has been on the agenda at Holyrood for several years, following a petition from the Real Grassroots campaign group which led to the commissioning of the recent report.

Jamie Hepburn, Minister for Sport, Health Improvement and Mental Health, said that Mr Brodie had raised "legitimate concerns" and revealed that he had set up a meeting with Tam Baillie, the Commissioner for Children and Young People, to discuss his report.