The pitch at Scotland’s National Stadium, Hampden Park, was roundly criticised from all sides following last Tuesday’s friendly between Scotland and Denmark – and just three weeks after it was completely relaid.

Despite its state, however, it emerged this week that the pitch has been awarded ‘Platinum’ status - one of only four in the country receiving top marks.

And now the debate has taken a new twist as the Daily Record newspaper reports that Scotland’s leading groundsmen are up in arms over the marking system that has seen it given the SPFL's top award. They are reported to be angry at the set-up which sees referees as the sole judge of their work and where they come in the table - and the lack of objectivity.

East Fife were ranked top of the table with an average mark of 4.7 out of five for the year, with Hearts the only Premiership side given platinum status alongside Morton and Queen’s Park who play at Hampden Park. Celtic are the next highest ranked top flight team in 14th spot.

However it’s the lack of consistency which has groundsmen calling for an overhaul of the system. For instance, East Stirlingshire and Stenhousemuir being 11 places apart in the table - despite playing on exactly the same pitch.

One of Scotland’s most senior groundsmen is quoted as saying “A lot of us have spoken in the past week since the table came out and there’s a lot of unhappiness. The problem is we can’t speak out freely about a flawed system or we risk our clubs being fined, which is ridiculous.

“It’s not so much the table or where we all come in it, as how the scores are arrived at. I’ve had 19 games marked by 12 different referees. But not one of them has asked me about the conditions in the week leading up to the game, the rainfall, the temperature, whether I’ve had development games played on the surface or the team training on it”