SPL In Europe: Somebody Make It Stop!

I didn’t get round to writing a preview of last night’s Europa League qualifiers. If I had it’s doubtful that even in one of my darker, not only was the glass half full but now the barman has taken it away moods, would I have predicted such a disastrous night.

Motherwell and Dundee United offered brave performances against Odense and AEK Athens to fill the traditionally Scottish roles of the gallant loser, the plucky failures.

Celtic took the catastrophic route, turning a 2-0 first leg lead into a 4-2 aggregate loss to a team, if you need reminding, that finished seventh in the Dutch league last season.

Defeats, like victories, come in a variety of guises. But co-efficient systems take no account the twists and turns that lead to a final result.

Scottish teams have now been knocked out of European competitions by clubs from Portugal, Denmark, Holland, Greece and Slovenia. We can include in the list of pain two 3-0 defeats and now a 4-0 defeat.

Our reputation is in tatters. We have become a footballing backwater. People look at Scotland and see a game on it’s knees.

No hopers in Europe, falling attendances, players without technical skill - and now too often not even the passion to compensate - managers who get tactics wrong and seem powerless to inspire performances that could even be described as coherent.

The sick man of Europe? The drinking, overeating and smoking is a consequence of watching this crap week in, week out.

In Holland, Portugal and Turkey - where Rangers will now carry the banner of Scotland’s sole European representatives - we have seen challenges to the established order, unfancied teams coming through, enjoying success and forcing others to raise their game.

In Scotland Rangers and Celtic are allowed to get away with not being good enough as the rest scramble around for a touch of silverware or the European misadventure that finishing in third place will bring.

The national team have been outcasts at major events for over a decade now and with each passing year the road back seems to get ever trickier to negotiate while the talent pool seems to dwindle.

This is August. Four teams have been dumped out of European competitions and the national team have been humiliated by Sweden. August.

Time to stop the talking. The SFA, SPL and SFL should be planning a joint press conference to announce that they are putting in place a method of streamlining the organisation of the game. One singer, one song. Everything stems from that.

Do we implement the McLeish Report in full? Or just import a system from another country? The money needs to be found to bring in the very best to run this transition. Has to be. The cost of failing to act is now too high.

League restructuring and an entirely different approach to the youth game. Get it done.

I don’t have all the answers, I don’t have the expertise. But like every fan in the country I recognise there is a problem.

We no longer deserve to be patronised. Don’t simply tell us that you’ll do something about while jealously guarding your own vested interests.

Fans might not know how best to run the game. But they do know when something stinks. And they’re currently running from the game to get away from the stench. They need more to bring them back than the chance to try and kick a football into the boot of a car at half time.

We’re not idiots. Stop treating us like we are. Everything has to change. Start appeasing fans by putting more thought into the fixture list than simply giving an office junior a blank sheet of paper, a year planner and a supply of LSD.

Small things, big things. A revolution needs to sweep every corner of the game. If the refereeing is poor at under-seven level then change it. If SPL clubs are mismanaging their youth schemes then change it. If players arriving for national duties aren’t fit enough or are lacking in technical ability then start doing something to change it.

Take the game - the national game, the people’s game - and rip it up and start again. There we go, we’ve even got a soundtrack for the revolution.

I hate writing these articles. I fully expect I’ll be writing one again next year. But here’s the thing. If I’ve seen that changes are in place, if we are actually convinced that something is done, we might accept that it can’t be a short term process.

Years of mismanagement, of men like George Peat looking smugly self satisfied as they preside over catastrophe, won’t and shouldn’t be forgiven. But some semblance of honour in that failure can be found if the guilty hold up their hands, admit what’s gone wrong and move aside to let more qualified people begin to make changes.

The players involved can’t be absolved of all blame. But their performances are symptomatic of the wider malaise, the failings that have now stretched over decades.

Things are bad. But their is enough interest, enough people getting annoyed at the situation, to prove that the passion to keep the game alive is still there.

Act on it now. If we don’t then this misery continues and there won’t be much of a game left to fight over. But maybe, just maybe, last night can be the start of the something rather than just another chapter in Scottish football’s hall of infamy.

Turning Back The Clock

I was reading a review of Robert Winder's new book Open Secrets: The Extraordinary Battle for the 2009 Open the other day.

Interested to read it because Tom Watson's amazing title challenge had me spellbound last year.

It also got me thinking. Many of us would love to have turned back the clock to let Watson hit that eight iron on the 72nd hole again. Even just to force the ball to land a foot earlier, anything to give him the title.

Of course that's not the nature of sport. The beauty lies in the drama. And losing is as central to the narrative as winning. A golf shot hit too well. A free kick that just doesn't dip enough. Fractions make the difference, provide the agonised losers that make the winner's stories more compelling.

But, just for fun, what footballing moments would you like to rewind and rewrite?

Mine, I think, would probably feature Scotland.

David Seaman failing to stop Christian Dailly's header as Scotland enjoyed the momentum in the Euro 2000 play off.

Gary McCallister's Euro 96 penalty hitting the back of the net. Or, at the very least, Uri Geller falling out of his bloody helicopter.

Or a World Cup moment. Jim Leighton holding that late Brazilian shot in 1990. Alan Hansen and Willie Miller combining to stop a Russian attacker and not each other in 1982.

All contenders. But the moment I'd most like to change would probably be the 1974 World Cup. How different could our footballing history have been if Billy Bremner had scored against Brazil?

So what history would you like to change? The defensive mistake that led to a relegation? The refereeing decision that cost a cup tie?

Or a more personal moment? The mistimed sliding tackle that caused your shorts to fall down in a Saturday morning University game when your hair was still dyed blue from the Halloween party the night before?

Actually that might just be me.

Anyway. Let me know. Comments in the normal place. I'm granting you the gift of footballing time travel - use it wisely.

UPDATE: A few comments on Turning Back The Clock from Twitter


@HamieJones @ScotFootBlog Gary Mac, PK, Uri Gellar & the Fat Geordie Maggott

@allanguthrie @ScotFootBlog Don Masson's penalty miss against Peru in '78. Still haven't recovered.

@garyrussell_ @ScotFootBlog Remembering to press record for that game on 02.04.06. (Hearts beating Hibs 4-0 in Scottish Cup semi final if I recall)

@heluvstheshimmy @ScotFootBlog steve kirk's elbows in the united vs motherwell scottish cup final

@SubSceneRecords @ScotFootBlog balde not making that stupid tackle in Seville or hit the changing room in 70 in Milan and tell Jock to rethink his teamtalk!

@theSteve71 @ScotFootBlog Hansen & miller in 82

@madsainty @ScotFootBlog 1966...a confident, skillful West German team beat hosts England 3-0 in the WC Final thereby making my WHOLE life happier ;-)

@JTSmyth @ScotFootBlog I'd travel back to a couple of Januarys ago and buy Steven Fletcher for Celtic, it could have been 5 in a row.

@aland1903 @ScotFootBlog 11th May 1991 - Alex Smith doesn't say to the Aberdeen dressing room "A draw will do here lads"

@StewTodd @ScotFootBlog Easy. Iain Ferguson's "goal" is given in 87 Cup Final v St Mirren. We then win the Cup and go on to win the UEFA Cup.

@DonnyMcI1888 @ScotFootBlog Seville 2003

@Blair_Bookshop @ScotFootBlog June/July 1970. The conception of James Grady > Ha.

@FrugalNory @ScotFootBlog I'd remove the extra time that Gretna were allowed for grady to score the goal that got them promoted in 2007.

@arabtrust1909 @ScotFootBlog I'd change the moment Kenny Clark chose not to see the stonewall penalty in the 2008 CIS Cup Final & Mark Kerr's passback!

@davie050370 @ScotFootBlog Dundee getting relegated in the 1st season of the Premier League. And the day United won the league at Dens. A dark day.

500

Regular readers will know that this blog is pretty much a stranger to planning.

So it's really nothing more than a fortuitous coincidence that the Blogger dashboard is informing that I've reached my 500th post on the same day as the 2010 World Cup kicks off.

And, if I had really planned it, I'd have had something to say.

Maybe I'd have said something profound about how, even though FIFA is corrupt and inexcusable, even though football is now a bloated, commercialised, egomaniacal disgrace, there is still going to be something emotional, something incredible, about the World Cup kicking off in Africa for the first time.

Maybe I'd have delivered a rant about how, despite 499 posts and almost four years of blogging, Scottish football is no further forward than when I started. Not, you understand, that I expected this blog to make a difference. Just that the game might have made some progress. In fact, when I consider that George Peat is currently both president and chief executive of the SFA, we appear to be hurtling backwards.

Maybe I'd have written something witty and self deprecating about Hibs now failing to win the Scottish Cup in 500 blog posts as well as what feels like 500 years.

Maybe I'd have worried about the financial plight of Scottish football and the resounding wall of silence in the game when people go looking for answers.

Maybe I'd have noted with weary resignation that nothing ever changes. That in this blog's first season the Old Firm finished first and second in the SPL and Kris Boyd finished top goalscorer.

Maybe I'd have done some blatant self promotion for my Twitter account or the Scottish Football Blog Bookshop.

Maybe I'd have done one of these things. Or all of them. Or none of them.

But I hadn't planned anything.

So I'll just say thanks for reading some of the 500 posts and even occasionally letting me know what you think about my ramblings.

No doubt in the next 500 posts I'll return to some of the subjects I've written about before. Sometimes I'll write something worthwhile, though provoking or entertaining. Once in a while I might even pull off all three.

And sometimes I'll write a lot of rubbish. You're more than welcome to point this out. You can say what you like. After all, I moderate the comments myself.

It won't be long before our five brave clubs begin the annual assault on Europe, the league's get back to business and we see if Craig Levein's revolution is going anywhere.

The McLeish Report needs to be implemented. Football's debts need to be addressed. Somebody, somewhere needs to work out how to make Scottish football sustainable.

Along the way I'll be amused, annoyed, depressed, optimistic and convinced that we're all doomed.

Nothing much does change after all.

In the meantime enjoy the World Cup. And stick a fiver on Holland.

Changes?

More rumours about changes to the SPL set up. Jim Spence on the BBC reports that:

The Scottish Premier League could be set to increase to 14 clubs from season 2011-12, with relegation play-offs also featuring in the new set-up. A senior Scottish football figure has told BBC Scotland that the current 12-club set-up could be replaced.

The new format would see all clubs play each other twice and split after 26 games into a top six and bottom eight. The SPL insists that a 14-team league is being considered but is not the only option open to them at present.

Many of you will have spotted that this retains the split. I'd actually go a bit further and say that this takes the split and makes it worse, a feat that only yesterday might have seemed all but impossible.

Time for me and everyone else to face facts: the SPL split is here to stay. All the discussions are going to be based around the principle that extension means adapting the current league, split and all. This is not a march to revolution but a few baby steps to compromise. 

But at least the discussion seems to be taking place and the idea of relegation play off is to be applauded. Don't hold your breath though.

This is only one of a number of proposals that the SPL clubs are set to discuss at a "strategy review" at the end of the season. Oh, to be a fly on the wall at that meeting of minds, it will be nothing less than a modern day Yalta Conference.

They'll also discuss extending the league to 16 or 18 teams and the old issue of the SPL2 is being whispered about again.

The problem of course is that any changes need that 11 to 1 voting majority. If any proposal is going to be strong enough to emerge as a consensus building strategy remains to be seen.

Ah, Yalta right enough. We've not got a Churchill, we search in vain for an FDR. But we've got a version of democracy that would have Uncle Joe beaming with pride.

The McLeish Report Part 1

Henry McLeish launched the first part of his much delayed report into Scottish football today?

Was it worth the wait?

I've not had time to consider it properly but he has at least admitted that the game is in desperate trouble. So that's a start.

Today's instalment focused on the grassroots. Here's how the BBC is reporting it:

And he urges the SFA, Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football League to work together more closely.

He calls for summer football to be piloted at youth level and for the SFA to appoint a performance director to oversee a new network of academies and the development of youth and elite players.

"I have been greatly encouraged by the strength of feeling and diversity of opinion encountered during the process of producing this report," said McLeish.

"I hope that the recommendations will strike a chord with football fans throughout the country."

McLeish said he consulted a broad range of football interests, including those involved at the grassroots of the game, with questionnaires sent out to all professional clubs and 32 local councils, as well as meetings with government ministers, departments and agencies.

He also visited six SPL and three SFL clubs, the Dutch FA and Sporting Lisbon - and held discussions with SFA, SFL and SPL administrators and supporters.

McLeish described Scotland as "an astonishing football-loving nation" with one of the most fervent and loyal fan bases in the world but suggested that greater effort was required to match the country's ambitions.

His report highlights "serious weaknesses in our current approach which prevent the identification and development of talent and the tapping of this potential to produce world-class footballers and elite athletes."

"There is also evidence to suggest that a great deal of world-class activity is taking place in our recreational and youth development, especially in terms of the excellent approaches to coaching," said McLeish.

"But this is not reflected in either the provision of facilities and football infrastructure, the structure and governance of the game surrounding it, or any real sense of what a talent recognition and development model really needs.

"There has been considerable progress in grassroots, recreational and youth development over the last few years.

"Despite these significant achievements, it is clear that our national efforts still fall short of what is happening in other successful countries and against our own understandable ambitions.

"We are not tapping the potential and, as a consequence, there is a talent gap between the youth development at grassroots level and the performance and quality of players coming through to national and club level.

"In modern Scotland, the present provision is shocking relative to our ambitions for our national game and to the provision in other countries.

"In addition to the serious lack of overall provision and state-of-the-art facilities throughout Scotland, we have problems of availability, cost of use, poor quality, the chronic lack of access to school facilities outwith school hours and holidays and a crisis in relation to the lack of indoor facilities.

"Some progress has been made with new facilities in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and Ravenscraig, but this is not enough."

As I've said before his recommendations - and I'm in full agreement that the long term footballing future of Scotland begins with a new vitality at youth level - cost money. Lots of money. Money that nobody seems to have.

He's made 53 recommendations. I presume he expects action on them all.

I'm not convinced. Here's George Peat:

"The Scottish FA realises the importance of improving the overall football landscape in this country.

"With Henry's guidance, we will help drive the implementation of key recommendations outlined to enhance the standard of our national game."

Is that all 53 key points? Or the few that For Peat's Sake and his SFA chums want to implement. The cheapest, the least uncomfortable, the ones that present the least threat to the SFA's luxurious status quo?

Might I borrow a phrase from Tom Nairn?

Scottish football will be free when the last SFA committee man is strangled by the last copy of the McLeish Report.

- This is all a but rushed I'm afraid. I predict I'll be returning to the subject soon though.