Homeless World Cup: Scotland face India

Scotland's 2013 Homeless World Cup campaign started with a defeat in Poznan yesterday.

Opening up against Indonesia, Group G's top seeds, always looked a daunting prospect and so it proved as the Scots lost 6-4.

In a tight round of fixtures Argentina edged Wales 5-4 and Norway beat India 5-3. Scotland face India today - you can catch the game live on the Homeless World Cup website from 4pm UK time.

A bit of a tough day for the home nations yesterday - England lost their opening fixture 13-2 against Lithuania and Northern Ireland were beaten 6-1 by Hungary.

2013 is actually the first time all four home nations have been represented at the Homeless World Cup with Northern Ireland making their debut, the team drawn from street leagues in Belfast and Derry.

Finally being represented at the tournament is an achievement in itself and Northern Ireland's Sean O'Neill remained philosophical: "Have fun and you’ve won."

Today's football headlines are again infuriating - rich men and rich clubs arguing over transfer deals and money, quoting figures most of us can't comprehend.

Mel Young, the co-founder of the Homeless World Cup, counters that in his blog post about the tournament's opening ceremony which was hosted by Lech Poznan before their league match against Korona Kielce:

Sometimes the football industry receives a lot of bad press and deservedly so. Some parts of it seem elitist and greedy where the rich take all at the expense of the smaller players and where cheating or play-acting is encouraged in an atmosphere of win at all costs.

However, I really believe in the power of football and my experience of the football world is incredibly positive. Lech Poznan deserves huge praise for allowing the official opening of the Homeless World Cup to take place at their stadium yesterday. They didn’t have to do anything but they went out of their way to organise something which will be cherished by everyone involved.

Lech Poznan has shown how professional football clubs can put something back into the community and make a difference. Other clubs should follow their example. It gives the club genuine soul and an authenticity which is reflected in their fans who gave the Homeless World Cup teams such a fabulous welcome when they entered the stadium.

We shouldn’t have any homelessness in the world. We need to end it. The Homeless World Cup has proved that football has real power and we make genuine impact every day. But, we need to build on the momentum. Everyone has the ability to make a contribution and help change the world.

Lech Poznan has shown what is possible and other clubs should follow their example. I thank the Club and its supporters for their fabulous input. 

25 Years Ago: Mexico '86

1986.

When men were men. When shorts were short. And when a grocer's daughter from Grantham was lord and master of all she surveyed.

Younger readers might also need some reminding that back then Scotland played in World Cup finals. All the ruddy time.

A simple but surprisingly effective formula of having decent players in a smaller footballing world won us a regular seat at football's grand jamboree.

Once there we would mix incompetence with bravery before falling agonisingly short. But we damned well got there.

25 years ago we were in Mexico under the guidance of Aberdeen manager Alex Ferguson OBE. We were but 48 hours away from a clash with Uruguay that would decide our fate.

A predictably cruel fate.

More on the 1986 World Cup campaign here.

And below some snippets from a pre-tournament magazine.

Seriously, take a look at some of those shorts. Minimal.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Update: Between writing and posting this the English FA seem to have announced that a 2013 home international tournament would be a one off to celebrate their 150th anniversary. Ah, well. Still think I'm right.

And so the home internationals might be on the verge of a return thanks to the money of Vauxhall. I'm tempted to run naked down Sauchiehall Street carrying a banner proclaiming this as nothing less than the second coming of British football.

Not because I have a particular emotional attachment to the home internationals. I don't. But the news has once again allowed Henry Winter to unleash the righteous indignation that he so enjoys. And Henry's indignation is a guaranteed way of awakening my inner contrariness.

Henry's argument is that the home internationals will send English football back to the dark ages. He's like the lady of the manor refusing to let her son play with the servant's children lest their bad manners rub off on him.

England won the World Cup when the home internationals were in full flow. English clubs - their team's stuffed full of English players - dominated the European Cup when the home internationals were played.

Indeed England's World Cup record is probably pretty much the same with or without the home internationals, that glorious Wembley day in 19-whatever aside. Whatever problems English footballers have in international competitions, the quality of their friendly opponents is not to blame.

The aesthetics of Ghana might appeal to Henry Winter, as if by some miracle of footballing osmosis the skill of the opposition will rub off on England, but does it thrill the fan? With Vauxhall leading the marketing charge, with Sky on board, I would imagine a home international tournament in 2013 sparking quite a bit of interest. When money talks, the FA listen.

Still, if the tournament is to be resurrected the arrogance of people like Henry will at least crank up the atmosphere.

And how should we Scots feel about these developments?

Can I admit to a certain ambivalence? I'm too young to remember the home internationals. What I think I have is a collective memory, a shared nostalgia, that we all have about a time when our football was, simply, better. The black and white footage, moving to colour in the age of Dalglish, of Scotland beating England fuels that memory.

It might also be misleading. Scottish football's miraculous purple patch in international football, five tournaments in 12 years from 1986, came after the home internationals had fallen by the wayside. If we are to accept Henry Winter's spurious argument then Vauxhall's idea is likely to harm Scotland more than our illustrious neighbours down south.

And maybe that is the case. Our habit, our curse perhaps, is to define ourselves too often not by our own achievements but by how we compare to our neighbours. A ruinous attitude, as many a little brother will tell you. Will the return of the home internationals not simply pander to that insularity, give rise to the feeling that it's alright to lose in the Czech Republic without playing a striker as long as we beat England at Hampden?

I don't think so. Football has changed. The home internationals will not return as an annual slogfest, I would imagine they will be played every two years at most. They'll offer the fans something that normal friendlies don't. Crucially, and this point seems to have not been lost on the English FA even as it sailed over Henry Winter's beautifully coiffured head, they will offer a decent simulation of a competitive tournament.

What have England got to gain from playing against Wales? Let's accept the snobbish premise of that question and look at how England often huff and puff against "lesser" nations in competitive internationals. Will they not learn more about coping with those situations against Wales in Cardiff than they would in a friendly against Ghana where a half empty Wembley is treated to the farcial sight of both managers making half a dozen changes?

I was at Hampden in 1999 when Paul Scholes proved too much for Scotland in the first-leg of the Euro 2000 qualifier play-off. The result was a disappointment but the day, from standing outside an off-licence drinking a can of lager and realising that the besuited man with the carry out next to me was Alex Totten to the atmosphere in the stadium, was memorable. There was a tangible reward at stake that day but I'm guessing these are games that don't need much to give them an edge.

Let's not kid ourselves that the reawakening of the home internationals is about anything other than money, cooked up in a marketing department and likely to make the already well-healed even richer.

But I can see benefits for all four home nations and their players that go beyond the spoils of a lucrative TV deal. A semi-regular home international tournament could also help kindle more interest in international football in Britain, something we badly need. Reimagined for the modern era this most traditional of football tournaments might just be a force for good in our game. Bring it on.

The Scottish Football Blog News Feed

Britons unite

A really bizarre article on the New Statesman blog the other day.

James Macintyre offering his arguments in favour of a British football team:

The reason I do not support England has nothing to do with its abilities, dire though they are (I will be very surprised indeed if it gets any further than the quarter final in Africa). No, it is because there is no logic at all in its existence.

We all belong -- for now at least -- to the United Kingdom. There is a "Team GB" British side in the Olympics. So why not in international football?

Englishness is ultimately, alas, a racial brand. Britishness, on the other hand, is cultural. Most first -- or even, dare it be said, second -- generation foreigners who live here can comfortably consider themselves British, but less so English. I, for example, am roughly three-quarter Canadian and a quarter Scottish.

My Scottish descent but London up-bringing makes me Anglo-Scottish, and therefore British, not English.

Which is why I feel like a stranger in my own land amid the creepy mass influx of St. George's flags -- by definition exclusive emblems -- that are now prevalent in cars and house windows. And why I felt so queesy at the Prime Minister, David Cameron's populist decision to fly the red and white flag over Downing Street during England's -- albeit limited -- "campaign". That the Union is under much more threat under the Conservatives (increasingly the English party) is another story, and I won't go into it here.

But it is because of a growing fear for the future of the Scottish-English Union -- one that represents 300 years of rich social, cultural and political integration -- that I hope one day to be able to cheer on British goals in the World Cup. And do so with great pride and patriotism.

(Doubtless, some of the many attacks such a view would provoke, will be that such a side would only be Englandm players plus Ryan Giggs of Wales. And it is true that -- apart from, say Colin Hendry and Ally McCoist -- it isn't easy for someone whose close interest in football has tragically waned over the years, to think of a British squad today that would be that much better than England's. But that is not the point.)

It's time to replace English aggression with open, generous British unity, before it's too late.

Easy of course to write such pieces during a World Cup hoping for a reaction – we’ve seen a few them this side of the border as well.

And always nice for a political hack to get his teeth into something else and play devil’s advocate.

But it does tend to work slightly better if the author has some knowledge of football. As it does this doesn't even come across well as the tongue-in-cheek piece I suspect was intended.

And it takes a certain arrogance – however Anglo-Scottish the author – to argue for the abolition of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish footballing identities because you’re not comfortable with English aggression.

Sorry James, but leave the football to Hunter Davies from now on.