WHEN the Realgrassroots campaign kicked off, George Peat was president of the Scottish Football Association and Gordon Smith its chief executive; Martin Bain held the same post at Rangers; and Frank McAveety was convener of the Scottish Parliament's public petitions committee.

A lot can change in two years. Peat, Smith, Bain and McAveety were all key players when Scott Robertson and Willie Smith took advantage of a new form of democracy and raised an e-petition at Holyrood in January, 2010. It was entitled Improving Youth Football in Scotland and, although multi-faceted, the thrust of the petition was an all-out attack on the SFA's Youth Initiative.

In particular, Robertson and Smith were incensed at the huge number of boys – 2700 each year – being sucked into the initiative, despite the fact that only a fraction have any prospect of becoming professional footballers.

While Robertson and Smith were far from alone in having serious concerns about the effectiveness of the youth initiative, they are unique in raising public awareness of what they describe as serious abuses within it. Not only are these 2700 boys banned from playing for their schools, or indeed any other form of organised football, they and their parents are required to sign registration forms which, say Robertson and Smith, are restrictive and possibly breach Scots and European law.

Fed up with being rebuffed by the footballing authorities when they tried to raise their concerns, Robertson and Smith decided the only recourse was to petition the Scottish Parliament. After all, they pointed out in the years between 2006 and 2009 alone, the SFA received £12.3m of public money to nurture the youth initiative.

The two men make a good team. Robertson, a policeman, is a leading light in Musselburgh Windsor Boys' Club. Smith is in his sixties but has boundless energy. A salesman, his many extra-curricular activities include having been the founder and driving force behind Hillwood Boys' Club in Glasgow for four decades.

Kenny Burns, Owen Coyle, Alex McLeish and even Peter Lawwell, the Celtic chief executive, are all former Hillwood players, and Smith has a formidable network of contacts. He also knows how to make a nuisance of himself, and his direct approach has dovetailed perfectly with the more considered and forensic methods of Robertson.

Boys clubs were, until comparatively recently, the breeding ground for Scottish footballers. Name any famous player of the past and he will inevitably have played for one – as well as turning out for his school and perhaps even a third team, such as the Boys' Brigade. But since Scotland's senior clubs took control of developing footballers, the boys' clubs have been plundered and schools have been denied their best players. And for what?

"The Youth Initiative was set up 16 years ago to benefit Scotland in terms of players," points out Smith. "It has failed miserably to do that. You now have something like 12 English-born players in the national squad, while emptying stadiums show what supporters think of the standard of football.

"At the same time, Scotland's senior football clubs used to have respect for grassroots clubs. Now they have none at all. They hoover up our players, sometimes causing whole teams to be disbanded, and that is one of the reasons why boys' club football, which used to be the lifeblood of the Scottish game, is deteriorating sharply. When the foundation of the game is crumbling, we're all in trouble."

Today, at Holyrood, the petitions committee will consider which witnesses to summons next as they continue their probe into how well, or otherwise, taxpayers' money is being spent on the youth initiative. Among those already called to account have been Stewart Regan, the SFA chief executive, his Scottish Premier League counterpart Neil Doncaster, and the heads of youth at Celtic and Rangers, Chris McCart and Jim Sinclair.

When Sinclair was giving evidence, he exposed a disturbing episode involving a 14-year-old boy. One of the successes of the Realgrassroots campaign has been to flush out the fact there is a "children's transfer market" for players in the youth initiative – which means that large amounts of money change hands if a boy moves from one club to another at the end of his registration period.

Despite compensation already being set at the already high figure of £5000 for each season a boy has been at a club, Sinclair revealed that Rangers had been asked by another club to pay £35,000 for a 14-year-old, even though the agreed SPL compensation figure was £20,000. "I am sure you will agree that is reprehensible," Sinclair told the MSPs on the committee.

There are many other aspects of the youth initiative which Robertson and Smith believe are reprehensible. At the heart of their campaign is the document children as young as 10 and their parents have to sign when they join a youth initiative club. Is it a registration form, as the SPL and the clubs maintain? Or is it a contract, in which case it is subject to Scots and European law, as well as having implications for children's rights under the United Nations charter?

According to Robertson it is a contract, because it binds the child to a club for one year (three in the case of 15-year-olds) with no exit clauses. He adds that the legal advice Realgrassroots has received is that it is also a contract because it prevents the child from playing any other form of organised football with their school pals and friends. "For these reasons, it is hardly just a registration form," he points out.

As the Realgrassroots campaign enters its third year, what has been achieved? Despite seriously underestimating how much time and effort the campaign would involve, Robertson can see glimmers of hope.

By complete coincidence, their campaign has run alongside the Henry McLeish review and resultant performance strategy. "That, and the determination of Stewart Regan and Campbell Ogilvie [the SFA president] to implement the McLeish recommendations, means that there are likely to be far fewer children in elite youth development in the future," said Robertson.

"The emphasis will be on performance, not just filling jerseys to qualify for SFA payments as is the case at the moment. If that happens, it should help boys' club football because the senior clubs will not be requiring nearly so many of our players.

"Since our campaign started, the SFA has dropped its previous stance that youth initiative players cannot play for their schools. They now leave it up to the clubs, which doesn't really resolve the problem, but I have heard that, even here, attitudes are softening with at least one SPL club prepared to turn a blind eye to their boys playing for their schools."

While external issues, such as the performance strategy, have undoubtedly played a huge part in starting to address the concerns of petitioners Robertson and Smith, the Scottish Parliament has given them a platform which has allowed them to call the SFA, the SPL and the clubs to account.

"If it hadn't been for the petition, they would have got away with 'no comment' or just ignoring us completely," says Smith. "Two years has been a long time to spend on the campaign, but we are prepared to see it through, however long it takes."