SFA Grassroots Awards 2013

2013 People's Award winner Pat Griffin

To Hampden last week. Suited, booted and ready to enjoy the annual SFA Grassroots Awards.

Anybody that has played football in this country will have relied on volunteers at some stage.

Parents, teachers, neighbours. People that just love football and want to pass that on in their communities.

Stewart Regan, welcoming the nominees to Hampden, mentioned that there are now over 17,000 volunteers involved in Scottish football.

Giffnock Soccer Centre, Best Community Club

That's around one volunteer for every ten registered players. Of course we should alway strive for more. But those struck me as heartening figures in a country where we're too often ready to consign football to hell in a handcart and where, I think, we increasingly feel people are no longer prepared to roll up their sleeves and get involved.

If these awards prove anything it's that people are still willing to get involved and people are quietly and tirelessly doing great things to make Scottish football a healthier, happier place.

This year also marked ten years of the awards, the programme listing all previous winners - a roll call that stretches to over 100 individuals, clubs, schools and organisations.

From the biggest clubs - Hearts won this year's Best Professional Club in the Community award, the Big Hearts Community Trust has worked with 13,000 people in the last 12 months - to individual volunteers in communities across Scotland it struck me that every winner is helping someone do something that I took for granted growing up: the chance to play football.

(I liked pies too much to be any good but I enjoyed it nonetheless, still do when the lumbago eases and nobody is watching.)

They do it with no expectation of recognition which is one of the things that makes the annual awards ceremony so special.

Take Magnus Johnson, winner of the Best Volunteer in Youth Football Award, who coaches four age group teams in Stornoway, is voluntary groundsman at Groathill Park and manages the Western Isles Games Association Ladies team.

He's also got a full time job.

Or Falkirk's Mark Lenathen, Best Volunteer in Girls and Women’s Football Award, who started coaching - and I guess this will be familiar to many - when his daughter started playing.

Mark coaches the Falkirk Football Community Programme's under-15 side. This year they won the league and reached the league cup final. After the same side went the whole season without a win last year.

Mark Adams, Best Volunteer in Adult Football

Mark Adams, the Best Volunteer in Adult Football, summed the night up when he said: "We're all here because we love football."

For Mark that led him to set up the North Glasgow Football Development Group - which now offer three after-school groups and community coaching for 60 young adults.

The scale of what volunteers can achieve was recognised in the Best Community Football Club award. Giffnock Soccer Centre was created in 1995 - today over 160 unpaid coaches organise football for over 900 players.

It was also a privilege to spend the evening in the company of Pat Griffin, winner of the inaugural People's Award decided by public vote.

It's always nice to meet someone with stories to tell about Joe Tortolano but more importantly it was fantastic to see Pat's work with Milton Amateur FC recognised.

He was instrumental in founding the club 40 years ago and has been involved ever since:

"For me it isn’t about receiving awards but making sure young footballers across Milton get the opportunity to play football."

Which nicely summed up the recurring theme of the evening.

The runners-up in the People's Award were George Ferguson of Broughty United and Ian Stevenson of Lenzie Youth. Between them Pat, George and Ian have served grassroots football for over 130 years.

I'm also told that Pat's win came after a large public vote, a vote that compares favourably with the People's Award across the other Home Nations.

Which does suggest that, whatever we read and we write about Scottish football, an audience remains for good news stories and a great number of people appreciate the chance to say "thank you" to the people that give up their time to keep the game going.

10th Annual SFA Grassroots Awards

• Best Volunteer in Youth Football - Magnus Johnson, Stornoway Athletic FC 
• Best Volunteer in Adult Football - Mark Adams, North Glasgow Football Development Group
• Best Volunteer in Disability Football - Jamie and Mirren McDonald, Lothian Special Olympics
• Best Volunteer in Girls & Women’s Football - Mark Lenathen, Falkirk Football Community Programme  
• Best Volunteer in Schools Football - Philip Stuart, Milnes High School, Moray
• Best Professional Club in the Community - Heart of Midlothian FC
• Best Community Football Club - Giffnock Soccer Centre
• Best Coach of the Year - Billy McAdam, Linlithgow Rose Community Football Club
• McDonald’s Community Champion - Jimmy Whelan
• 2013 People’s Award - Pat Griffin

With thanks to McDonald's for inviting me to a great night at Hampden.

Kenny Dalglish v Arsene Wenger

In a weekend of one sided cup semi finals, a dose of massive drama at the Emirates.

Two converted injury time penalties meant a 1-1 draw. Liverpool's came with the last kick of the ball.

Arsene Wenger, unsuprisingly unchuffed, seemed to remonstrate with Kenny Dalglish. Kenny, it seems, told him to piss off.

I know that we're not supposed to be in the business of condoning touchline spats. But to me this seemed to me nothing more than a spot of handbags in a moment of high drama.

Conclusive proof though that Kenny is back. And getting right into it.



Wenger will have been understandably annoyed at the loss of yet another opportunity to exert real pressure on Manchester United. He's already claimed that it wasn't a penalty and that too much time had been played.

His frustration might also stem from how comprehensively his side have been the architects of their own downfall this season.

Hampden Happiness

To Hampden last night, tuxedo-ed up and on best behaviour.

The SFA Grassroots Awards presented by McDonald's and The Sunday Mail.

Easy to be dismissive of the SFA and it's a target I'm loathe not to take a kick at when I think they deserve it.

Obviously problems with the development of young players persist. The SFA and our professional clubs are both culprits in that long term failing.

But there is good work going on. Whether that's McDonald's supporting clubs and training coaches or the SFA's regional network doing their stuff across the country.

So while we bemoan the lack of youngsters coming through, wait impatiently for a golden generation, we shouldn't forget a lot of the work being done by those organisations and volunteers across the country.

Volunteers who can give hundreds of children a love of the game. Not all of those children will be the next Kenny Dalglish but they are learning about football, about life and being given a structure that many of them might struggle to find elsewhere.

And that, in my opinion, is a good thing and deserves to be applauded.

One of the many things about the Conservatives idea of a "Big Society" that unsettles me is the unspoken suggestion that people that don't care at the moment, aren't already willing to get involved and be proactive.

I've been lucky enough to work in a couple of jobs where I've seen that participation, done quietly and without shouting, every day.

Similarly the people celebrated at Hampden last night are already making a difference and have been making a difference for years.

Not just with children and youth football. Last night also saw women's football, adult football and disability football recognised.

Take away Sky's bombast, millionaire bad boys and the SPL's self preservation lunacy and many indeed are the ways that this silly game we love can make a big, big difference.

More to follow on the winners over the course of next week. It would probably be bad form to "scoop" the media sponsor of the event before Sunday.

> Guest of honour last night - with no disrespect to Neil Doncaster - was Kenny Dalglish. Among his other high profile roles, Kenny is Macdonald's head of Scottish football.

I was lucky enough to get a few minutes of chat with him before we were ushered to our seats. No major grilling from me on Fernando Torres or Andy Carroll. I find it hard to be Jeremy Paxman when I'm wearing a bow tie and drinking from a champagne flute.

So the conversation revolved around Stornoway black pudding, a mutual Hibs and Liverpool acquaintance and whether or not Sir Geoff Hurst has a photo driving licence and, if the answer is yes, should that have been enough to get a knight of the realm on a flight to Belfast.

Thus my incisive investigative reporting concludes that Kenny Dalglish is more approachable and down to earth than you might expect and more willing to interact with "ordinary people" than many a Hibs manager I've met.

And that, I feel, says a lot about the man.

> Why was I there?

Obviously when you're putting together a guest list for a night celebrating Scottish football, my name appears just after Kenny Dalglish, slightly above Craig Levein and yards and yards ahead of Stewart Regan. No?

Actually I was a guest of the sponsor with the golden arches.

Bloggers are still often pretty much ignored by the football world. Other, more forward thinking industries, have embraced the concept of blogging, of new media.

Football chooses to ignore, belittle or, in the case of fixture lists, chase and threaten.

Writing this blog is much like being a Hibs fan, a tale of frustration, occasional enjoyment and the odd laugh with very little chance of rewards or baubles coming your way. I knew that when I started and I expect and accept it now.

But as football blogging continues to grow and continues, irrefutably, to improve I do feel that football is missing out on an important way of connecting with fans.

So kudos is very much due to McDonald's and their communications officer Steven Birrell for keeping abreast of all forms of football media and extending an invitation. Steven, incidentally, is a Dunfermline fan. Which, if nothing else, suggests he can recognise a good bridie when he eats one.

More than that, he gave me the rare chance of a visit to Hampden with no risk of my team losing. The luxury.

English Premier League: Bent Transfers In England

Football's versions of the January sales - inflated prices and manager's traipsing far and wide with the desperation of a father searching for a Buzz Lightyear toy on Christmas Eve.

Regular English Premier League guest blogger, Mark Briggs, is back with a look at the moves and speculation as Kenny Dalglish looks to revitalise Liverpool, Charlie Adam and Blackpool face up to a parting of the ways and a calm and collected Aston Villa are in no way panicked into a big money move for Darren Bent. And Scottish managers take control:

With December now behind us, and festive waistlines deflating quicker than English confidence in Wayne Rooney, it's time to look at the stage of the season where the games become mere fodder and filler compared to the noble art of transfer speculation.

Last month we saw Chelsea slip and recover. Aston Villa moved from saying “we’re not worried” to “we’re in a fight no doubt about it” in a week or two. It looks like we’ve got a proper title race, with Manchester City confirming they are contenders.

Arsenal look like they are going to give it all they have to win something this season. Yet despite seeming progress, they are currently 0-1 down to Ipswich in the Carling Cup, needed a last minute penalty and a replay to see off Leeds in the FA Cup and face Barcelona in the Champions League. Things may not look so rosy in a month.

But they’ve played well enough to have the chairman asking where they left the key to the trophy cabinet, despite being on the third goalkeeper of the year.

The Manchester teams are in good little battle of their own, with the blue half splashing the cash on Dzeko and having a bit of a clear out of players who didn’t quite make the grade.

Alan Pardew rode in on a white horse and with promised to play “sexy football”… No, wait. Getting my managers confused, that was Kenny Dalglish way back when, or was it that bloke now in charge in Chechnya?

I am too young to remember with any detail the last Anfield reign of King Kenny but (despite some mediocre results) he has already given Liverpool a sense of belief. They don’t have a good squad and are not challenging for trophies but a feeling has been created that this is now a temporary state of affairs, whereas a few weeks ago it seemed inevitable. They will need more players to come in this month, and they need quality, but optimism is on the rise.

An interesting little side note brought to my attention the other day: There are currently more managers working in the English Premier League from Glasgow than from the whole of England. (Ferguson, Dalglish, Moyes, McLeish, Kean and Coyle vs Redknapp, Bruce, Holloway and Pardew)

Blackpool look to be facing up to the inevitability of their success, the realisation that they aren’t big enough to hold on to your truly good players. So how much is Charlie Adam worth? And, more importantly, when to let him go? Now at an inflated price, at the end of the season after hopefully staying in the Premiership, or for free in 18 months? Pros and cons to all. Tough job being a football manager.

The big news, about six months after losing Martin O’Neil because of lack of investment, Aston Villa have been forced to shell out £24million for Darren Bent because they can't score goals and might go down. Worth the trade? Tough job being a football chairman.

It's staying interesting people!

Will blog again once the transfer sagas are done and dusted to try and make sense of the prices, winners and losers.

The Scottish Football Blog News Feed

Friday Video: Kenny Dalglish

Friday afternoon and I've not done the Friday videos for a wee while. So here's a couple featuring Kenny Dalgish.

I read a comment on Twitter the other day with someone saying that they'd heard a lot about Dalglish the player but didn't see as many clips of him as they did other great players of the past. Hopefully the goals below will redress the balance.

The Scottish Football Blog News Feed

Kenny Dalglish Looks To Turn Back Time

Football seems to have a hold on those involved that many of us don't experience in our working lives. It's not too much of an exaggeration to say that I've been daydreaming about my retirement since about second year at school.

Football managers are different. They just keep going and going. Sir Alex Ferguson. Our very own Craig Brown.

And now, as he approaches his 60th birthday, Kenny Dalglish. The king is back, long live the king.

More than ten years since he left Celtic Park on the back of the John Barnes pantomime, for which he was at least partly responsible, Dalglish has been granted his wish and is back as Liverpool manager on an initially temporary basis until the end of the season.

He had wanted the job before Roy Hodgson was appointed. When that didn't happen the presence of Dalglish, as revered as any of the Kop's heroes, hung over the club. No matter how dignified and respectful Dalglish was in his ambassodorial role, just by being there he offered a rallying point for increasingly disgruntled Liverpool fans.

Some of those fans seem to think that Dalglish offers a quick fix, that his appointment will return immediate dividends. It would dangerous to put your faith in that.

Liverpool's problems did not begin when Hodgson became manager. Nor will they end now that he has left. If Dalglish's methods, even his legend, can stir a reaction in the squad then they can improve. But from what I've seen of Liverpool this season their failings are too deep to be healed by nothing more than motivation.

And if any club should realise the importance of steady, measured empire building it is Liverpool. Bill Shankly transformed the club. But European dominance wasn't delivered until after Shankly had retired. Their journey to pre-eminence in the 1970s and 1980s was about building a dynasty. No matter how messiah-like the new manager is depicted as being, he can't replicate that sort of success overnight.

Emotional attachments, past achievements and a nostalgic longing for him to do well aside, what can we say for Dalglish the manager? His achievements at Liverpool and at Blackburn are on record and remain as impressive as they ever were.

A good start at Newcastle drifted in his second season. Those Liverpool fans expecting their club to turn their back on Hodgson's defensiveness might have forgotten that the Newcastle fans came to deride Dalglish's negativity.

At Celtic he steadied a ship that John Barnes had left steaming for the rocks. A league cup win followed but there was little evidence that anyone at Celtic wanted to retain Dalglish's services when the season ended.

And let's not forget that Dalglish was in place to mentor and support Barnes. He failed in that role and, in prickly, facetious press conferences often conducted from a pub, he showed little desire or even aptitude for the day to day business involved in running a modern football club.

A modern football club. Crucial that. The Liverpool Dalglish led to three league titles was closer to the Liverpool of Shankly than to the English Premier League side of today. 20 years away from the club and ten years out of football is a long time. For all that we're assured he's still watched the game passionately, that is not preparation for running a club like Liverpool. Nor, for example, do we know how Dalglish the manager will react to working with a Director of Football - a role he himself never appeared particularly comfortable with.

So King Kenny is destined to failure, proof that you should never go back?

No. The appointment of Steve Clarke is a clever one and offers Dalglish Mark II a firmer foundation than earlier rumours of Ian Rush becoming assistant would have. And Liverpool still have quality players. Maybe not enough and maybe some of them are experiencing commitment issues, but they remain good footballers.

If anyone can unleash their potential surely it is Dalglish, a walking embodiment of both the glory days and the emotional pull of the club. His previous spell at Liverpool proved him to be a manager adept at knowing almost instinctively how to pick 11 players who could go out and do the jobs expected of them. Maybe the players will react to that more positively than they did to Hodgson's more lecturing style and system based methods.

The truth is none of us know how Dalglish will fare. I don't know, the Liverpool fans don't know, the ex-Liverpool players lauding his appointment don't know and the press don't know. Maybe he himself doesn’t know.

Some managers click at certain clubs and some don't. Dalglish has worked his magic at Liverpool before. It's a very different club now but he might well repeat the trick.

I'm finding it hard to get over my initial scepticism though. We don't like to see our heroes fail. Dalglish is maybe the greatest Scottish football hero of them all, blessed with more ability in just his backside than most of us could dream of. And there is a chance that he's about to fail.

And surely Liverpool's owners, New England Sports Ventures, realise is this is the simplest move they could make to establish their power at the club.

For as long as he remained on the peripherary, active but not fully involved Dalglish offered the fans a figurehead to acclaim as they aired their grievances.

That's now changed. If he succeeds then the new owners can bask in his reflected glory and acclaim themselves as visionaries for going back to the future. If he fails they can jettison him in the summer and free themselves of his influence, however benign he himself saw that influence as being. The past will be shown to have failed and the owners will be free to dictate their own future.

I wish him luck and I'll be watching with interest. But my misgivings remain.

Liverpool play Blackpool tonight.

A Dalglish Anecdote

Some years ago a retired Dalglish played for Hibs in a testimonial at Easter Road (I think for Alan Sneddon against Aston Villa) and made a cameo man-of-the-match appearance. Before driving home Dalglish was asked if there was anything he wanted. There was. A fish supper and a can of cream soda. The groundsman of the time was dispatched to the chippy to pick it up. Dalglish left a happy man. Old school.

Wicked Webb

I only saw about the last ten minutes of Manchester United v Liverpool. And I haven't seen either the penalty or red card decisions. I've enjoyed the discussions over the past few days though. I don't actually believe Howard Webb is biased towards Manchester United through any skullduggery. Rather I think he is suspect in his handling of big games, swayed by both the crowd and how his decisions will be played in the media. That makes his career trajectory odd. What I've really been enjoying is the lists of Webb's failings produced by Liverpool fans, dossiers of evidence you might say. Bad refeereeing and the conspiracy theories that go with it recognise no borders.

The Scottish Football Blog News Feed