Berti Vogts, the Scotland coach, was last night on collision course with Celtic over comments made by the German regarding the club's training complex.

Vogts has called on the Scottish Premier League to force clubs like Celtic into upgrading their training facilities. He says the national game will continue to suffer unless the Parkhead club and others follow the lead of Rangers and Hearts in building state-of-the-art footballing academies. Celtic's spartan training ground at Barrowfield has often been criticised.

''In the future we need to

put pressure on Celtic and

say: 'You need to sort out a training ground','' Vogts said yesterday, speaking at the official opening of Hearts' new sports academy, based at

Heriot-Watt University.

''If Uefa are making

coaches like Craig Levein get qualifications to boss his side in Europe then maybe the SPL should make clubs have proper training facilities. Hearts' new training ground is like a five-star place and they should get credit for it, but maybe the SPL should look at it.

''The big clubs especially need to get this sorted as a No.1 priority. It's massively important for Scottish football and for the country. This is what we need in Scotland if

we are to have more quality players for our country. This is the only way forward for Scottish football.''

Celtic admit Barrowfield is hardly state-of-the-art, but can nevertheless point to a stream of young talent that it has produced. The emergence of goalkeeper David Marshall and defender John Kennedy, who ironically picked up a serious knee injury on international duty against Romania in March, have given Scottish football a welcome boost, while Aiden McGeady and Liam Miller have done likewise for Ireland.

A spokesman for Celtic said last night: ''Celtic spend (pounds) 1.5m per year on youth development. Though Barrowfield has undergone some developments in recent years we are always looking to improve our facilities.''

Rangers opened their (pounds) 14m state-of-the-art Murray Park complex in July 2001, and with Hearts now following suit, Vogts believes that Celtic are seriously lagging behind their Scottish and European counterparts.

''If Hearts have great facilities and in Norway you have over 12 places like this and at least 10 in Finland, why can't Celtic?'' continued Vogts.

''Why do all the big clubs like Bayern Munich have it? In Bayern and Dortmund you have top facilities but even the smaller ones have good facilities. Celtic must themselves be thinking about having facilities like this because they can build up a team for the future with things like this.''

Vogts also argued that Scottish clubs should be given political assistance to fund new academies, particularly in the current financial climate. ''I don't understand why there is a problem with finance over these sort of academies.

''The government has to do more because football gives them so much money and they need to put it back into football and other sports to help out. I know a lot of money is going to London for the Olympic bid but money has to go here as well.''

Meanwhile, Hearts manager Levein believes that their new facility, funded jointly by the university, Hearts and the sportscotland Lottery Fund, will help attract more quality players to the club. ''If a player is swithering over one club or another then this'll make a difference,'' he said.

Levein insists that though the club will reap long-term benefits from the academy, they will also gain tangible short-term rewards. ''It's great for the younger players but also important for the immediacy of getting the results. You go through periods when it's windy and raining and you wish you could conduct a training session in even reasonable conditions.

''The more often that you can get on the training ground and work on things the more chance you'll have of winning games and this will enable us to do that.

''We've lost players again this summer and it's been difficult but at the same time there's an eagerness to get back in and try the facilities.''