SCOTTISH Football is something of a big village, within which there are numerous wee local areas. At either end there are the big hooses, within which dwell the super rich Celtic and Rangers families, with the various levels of local populace ranged between them.
In that part of the village known as "Ayrshire", there are a couple of wee stushies going on at present, and in one case, things are getting nasty - with the Ayr United and Kilmarnock "families" falling-out over a little local nick-nack, the Ayrshire Cup, over which they had battled for over a century, before the authorities stepped in and banned them from disputing ownership.
This caused great offence to the lesser members of the Ayr and Kilmarnock families - known as "fans" and since the annual dispute was halted, the fans on both sides have sought to bring back the annual little local battle.
The politics are complicated, the Ayrshire Cup used to be organised by the Ayrshire FA, but some years ago this organisation became part of a new body, the West of Scotland FA, and the Ayrshrie Cup went into abeyance, as did the Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire Cups. The Renfrewshire Cup has since been revived, now moves are afoot to revive the Ayrshire one.
To help make this revival happen, Ayr and Kilmarnock were due to face each other in a pre-season game; the hope being, if it passed without major riots in the douce upmarket street of Kilmarnock around Rugby Park, then maybe the Cup could again be up for grabs.
Meanwhile, Killie came up with sponsorship so that the winners of the proposed pre-season game could take away a bauble known as "The Ayrshire Challenge Cup". but for some reason this didn't sit well with Ayr's American-based owner/chairman Lachlan Cameron, who has now called-off the pre-season game.
Naturally this has caused a degree of posturing and name calling from both sides, but it means - Kilmarnock will not be entertaining Ayr United pre-season. The biggest losers here are the fans - who don't really care if the sides are playing for the real Ayrshire Cup, a pretend Ayrshire Challenge Cup, a tea cup out of the players' lounge or even the European Cup.
For them, it's US v THEM, what the game is about doesn't matter. It is all about bragging right and the feel-good factor and no game is a loss to both sides.
AS an aside here - can I just say, a real chance was lost when the West of Scotland FA was formed. The Junior West of Scotland Cup is the number two competition in the Junior ranks, behind only the Emirates Scottish Junior Cup. With Kilmarnock, St Mirren, Motherwell, Hamilton, Airdrie United, Ayr United, Clyde, Partick Thistle, Morton, Dumbarton, Albion Rovers, Queen's Park and a couple of other clubs who could maybe be persuaded to enter their Under-19 teams, a senior West of Scotland Cup - perhaps with the teams forced to field all-Scottish sides, could be a positive addition to the Scottish season - failing that, bring back all the old County Cups.
THE second little local difficulty in Scottish football concerns moves to integrate the Junior Ayrshire and Central District Leagues more fully into the West of Scotland Regional Leagues.
This goes against all sense. In the East Region, which admittedly does cover a larger geographic area than the West Region, there are, below East Superleague level, Lothians, Tayside and two other regional leagues. This makes sense, as it preserves the local rivalries which are so-important to the smaller junior sides.
In the West, the likes of Auchinleck, Arthurlie, Pollok, Irvine Meadow, Petershill and Cumnock have the support and resources to cope with playing right across the West of Scotland. Small village teams such as Forth Wanderers, Royal Albert, Muirkirk, Craigmark and Lugar Boswell cannot afford to finance travel across the same region. Keep them local and let them survive and if not flourish, continue to produce young players for the bigger teams.
Scottish rugby has just decided to become more local, below the top semi-professional level, there is no sense in junior football bucking this trend, particularly in these days of austerity and financial doom and gloom.
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