A new football centre for Falkirk Football Club (FFC) has opened at the University of Stirling.

The Craig Gowans Football Centre was completed following a 17-week build in May as a new base for the club. FFC has housed its first team training and youth academy at the university since 2005.

Funding for the £900,000 centre, designed by Stirling architects McEachern and MacDuff, came primarily thanks to a private donation from Sandy Alexander, with FFC also contributing towards the cost.

On the ground floor of the new two-storey building is the first team changing room, a docking station for heart monitors, showers, baths and plunge pools, as well as a fully-equipped physiotherapy area. The second floor boasts another changing area, meeting rooms and a players' lounge. The new centre also has four grass and two synthetic pitches.

The centre is named after a former Falkirk player, who died in 2005 in an accident at Falkirk's former training ground at Little Kerse.

Chair of FFC, Campbell Christie, said: "This building symbolises the permanent partnership between Falkirk FC and the University of Stirling. It is the final piece in the jigsaw to create a first-class performance environment for the club."

Professor Christie Hallett, principal of the university, said: "It is fitting that Scotland's University for Sporting Excellence is supporting Scotland's national sport. Football has joined swimming, golf, tennis and triathlon as a scholarship sport at Stirling, and this football centre is the latest example of the university's commitment to the development of football in general and Falkirk Football Club in particular."

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A new football centre for Falkirk Football Club (FFC) has opened at the University of Stirling. The Craig Gowans Football Centre was completed following a 17-week build in May as a new base for the club.

SAR

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