A football pitch in Cathkin Park will be leased to the Jimmy Johnstone Charitable Trust for 20 years.
Council officials recommended a £750 per year deal should be agreed and praised the trust’s work over the last decade.
Opposition to the move was voiced with councillors ahead of the decision, but the proposal passed by seven votes to five.
Councillor Jon Molyneux said members of the local community feel the trust “hasn’t got a good track record of engaging.”
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He called for a further report from officials with more details on the terms of the lease before a decision was made but the suggestion lost out in the vote.
A council official told the contracts and property committee this week that the Jimmy Johnstone Trust, which runs youth football teams and football-related community activities, has leased a pavilion and multi-use game area near the pitch “for some time” and has looked after the pitch for a decade.
“They have already had some sort of tenure over these pitches, through some temporary licences, through some lets.”
He added the trust has been “doing a really good job of looking after the pitch for the past 10 years”.
He said: “We believe they are in a good place to continue the good work they have been doing for quite some time.”
Friends of Cathkin Park and Third Lanark AC had asked about leasing the pitch but the council ruled “neither of the bodies had sufficient standing” to be considered.
The official said there “has been community engagement on the part of the Jimmy Johnstone Charitable Trust.”“
He added: "We will continue and have continued to encourage them to keep engaging with the local community in that regard.
“You will always have a split in most communities when you do something like this. We just need to take it on the balance that Jimmy Johnstone [trust] have done a very good job.”
Bailie Malcolm Balfour, who chairs the contracts and property committee which made the decision, said councillors had received emails saying there had been “very minimal” community engagement.
Councillor Stephen Curran said the site is being run in a “very efficient way” but it “isn’t just a site that’s only for the use of the Jimmy Johnstone Charitable Trust.”
He said: “We do need to have a bit more reassurance about the potential for the local community, the people who immediately see that as their resource.”
However, Councillor Jim Kavanagh said: “I remember going up to Cathkin Park about 15 to 17 years ago and it was in a dreadful state. I went up there a number of months ago and it has more or less been completely revamped, tidied up, so I would like to thank the Jimmy Johnstone Academy for that.
“To set the record straight, it is not Jimmy Johnstone Academy owning the facility, it is a lease. They have been there for 10 years. Does everyone approve of it? Of course they wouldn’t, you would never get 100 per cent approval.”
Bailie James Scanlon added: “I think we should really be going with the tried and tested proposal which has obviously been working well for the past 10 years.”
