IT is the best of times, it is the worst of times, it is the age of wisdom and the age of foolishness... it is the season of light, it is the season of darkness.

Paraphrasing Charles Dickens, this is a tale of two cities and two football clubs – one a truly historic club in Glasgow and the other a proud club with a shorter history in Edinburgh.

Both have one thing in common: they are currently amateurs. But next season Queen’s Park FC will turn professional and hopefully survive, while Craigroyston Amateur FC will cease to exist at the end of this season.

I suppose I could have devoted this column to Sunday’s Betfred Cup final between Celtic and Rangers which is a money-spinner for both clubs and the Scottish Professional Football League. Instead, I am going to highlight life at the other end of the spectrum which rarely if ever sees any trickledown money from the top.

Interest in the final shows that Scottish football, with its legion of faults, is still an attractive source of entertainment with plenty of cash available at the top end. It’s life at the bottom which concerns me and I have a real fear for the future of grassroots football in this country.

READ MORE: It's a myth that Scottish football is dominated by Celtic and Rangers

I have to admit, I was not entirely surprised by the decision of Queen’s Park to end their 152-year-long tradition of amateurism. The original Glasgow giants agreed to sell Hampden Park to the SFA and are moving to a redeveloped Lesser Hampden from 2021.

It was obvious some time ago that with no income from leasing Hampden to the SFA, money was going to be needed to keep The Spiders afloat and there just isn’t a lot of cash going into the amateur game nowadays. Also, Queen’s Park suffered as an amateur club because professional clubs do not have to pay them compensation for finding and developing young players, such as Scotland captain Andy Robertson and fellow internationalist Lawrence Shankland.

As club president, Gerry Crawley pointed out last month: “It becomes more and more difficult for producing players if the club are not remunerated and they can simply go off and leave.

“If you just think it through, it makes no sense. We were developing players for other clubs and we want to develop players for this club. That’s what we want to do.

“The club is very proud of Andy Robertson. Incredibly proud that he played 36 games. But if we were relegated as an amateur club, that wouldn’t have saved us. We’d be down in the Lowland League.”

There will be many who will be sad at the end of their great tradition, but at least the club will survive and possibly thrive in their future as professionals.

For Craigroyston, there seems no hope. Founded in 1976 by former Eyemouth United manager Rab Melrose, the club has had its seasons in the sun and has always been known as a friendly bunch, but they just can’t carry on. As is the trend these days, its demise at the end of the season was announced on social media by the committee.

“It is with a heavy heart that the committee have reluctantly agreed to close the club down at the end of this season. This is due totally to the running costs of the club. The falling income and rising costs are not sustainable to keep the club running. This decision was not taken lightly.”

In a magnificent show of solidarity, the club’s manager Jordyn Sheerin and his entire squad decided to keep playing on, even though they know the club’s fate and the fact that they are currently bottom of Conference A of the East of Scotland League.

As the committee said: “We’d like to say a huge thank you to Jordyn and the players for agreeing to continue to fulfil our remaining fixtures.”

The main problem for the club has been the ever-increasing cost of hiring their pitch and facilities at St Marks Park in Warriston from Edinburgh Council via its arms-length company Edinburgh Leisure.

Craigroyston committee member Bob Currie told the Edinburgh Evening News: “The cost of training twice a week is costing around £600 a month, which is just not manageable. Our sponsorship money has fallen year-on-year as small businesses who have backed us in the past also struggle with rising costs. It also costs us around £3500 a season to be able to keep on top of the pitch and ensure that it is playable.

“We will not be the last club to fold due to rising costs and at this time you question where the backing from government, local authority and the SFA is to be found.”

All credit to my old paper, which is running its Sporting Chance campaign to highlight the increasing costs of facilities hired by grassroots sporting organisations and individuals in Edinburgh and Lothians. It’s a problem all over the country.

We keep being told of the benefits to the populations’ health and well-being of taking part in sport and recreation. I am going to tackle this problem in the future, but now I just want to highlight the plight of Craigroyston whose demise is a portent of things to come.

Please, somebody help them.