Over the past few weeks, we have seen an unfortunate trend developing.  Rumour and misinformation has been feeding a big game of “Chinese Whispers” across the league concerning Highland League players participating in this season’s SBWFA campaign.

So we are now going to set the record straight once and for all.

There are NO Highland League players on professional contracts competing this year.  This would be strictly against Scottish Welfare FA rules, and the entire situation has been checked and verified by the powers that be at Hampden.

Amateur and Youth HFL signings are permissible however, and it is these players which appear to have been the source of much of the absolute nonsense being thrown around the area recently.  Nothing – we repeat nothing – has taken place which breaks SWFA rules.

HFL side Strathspey Thistle FC have even enquired into the possibility of farming players out across all the SBWFA clubs in order to keep them fresh and improve competition.  We are very much in favour of this happening, but again nothing can be done until the players themselves have been restored to amateur status by Hampden.  So it is clear that red tape is actually preventing a very positive move which will benefit all clubs in the association.

This is our final say on the situation, and we hope the rumour mill will now grind to a shuddering halt.