Strict Liability For OFBA - But Will The Blazers Be Prepared To Grasp The Nettle?

I HAVE long thought, he may be sitting over there in Donegal, and he most-certainly is obsessed with his subject, but, when it comes to events at Ibrox, Phil Mac Giolla Bhain is more-often on the money than the guys he terms “stenographers”, who take as gospel any old Level Five pish.

Yesterday, the bold Phil posted an “Exclusive”, to the effect the Scottish Government is thinking of forcing the SFA to apply “strict liability” to the clubs, and, the belief is, in return, OBFA, the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act, might be removed from the statue book/toned-down/seriously modifed, whatever.

Now, this blog has long believed this is the only way to rid Scottish football of this continuing stain on its reputation, but, as to it happening – Ah continue tae hae ma doots.

I do not for a minute believe the worst excesses of anti-social behaviour in Scottish football only happen because of the game. No, a sober, sensible, upright member of the community does not suddenly turn into a screaming sectarian bigot, shouting and swearing at the opposition the minute be passes through the turnstyle, only to turn back into a model of decorum 90-odd minutes later when he leaves the ground.

Similarly, I support the abolition of segregated schools, not on the grounds of any role in eliminating bigotry and sectarian behaviour – which is all too often taught and encouraged at home, but, on the grounds of cost. If any religion wants to ram its theology down the throats of the young – then encourage their parents to send them to Sabbath School, or to religious schools AFTER they have done their due time in compulsory general education. I don't see why those of us who have little time for education should be promoting it out of our taxes.

Also, while, because they have more fans, and therefore, it stands to reason, more bams – I do not believe that ObatF is the sole domain of the Bigot Brothers. You get offensive behaviour at Ayr United v Kilmarnock, St Mirren v Morton, Motherwell v Hamilton, Hearts v Hibs, Dunfermline v Raith Rovers, Dundee v Dundee United and, most-certainly at Auchinleck Talbot v Cumnock games.

But, the worst excesses happen when a certain couple of Glasgow teams get together, we have to face that. I also believe, the football authorities are scared stiff to make an example of these two teams.

Just imagine if strict liability was brought in. The first chorus of the Billy Boys or that chant in support of the IRA and strict liability would kick-in. Perhaps a warning for the first such outburst, followed quickly by the deduction of points. It would not be long before the clubs would be forced to take action, bans would have to be imposed, making going to football a much-more-pleasurable experience for us all.

For instance, and here I am not picking-on the Rangers fans, merely pointing out, as: “a continuing embarrassment and occasional disgrace”, they, arguably, are the worst mass offenders. We all know the accompanying sound-track to any Rangers away game is a 90-minute singalongabigot rendition of the old Party Song Book. We also know, such is the depth of that club's fan base that the great majority of their ticket allocation for away games is distributed via their strong network of supporters clubs.

So, the club knows which supporters clubs are in which sections of their allocated seating. The technology exists to record the offensive singing, and to separate accurately where it is coming from.

Thus, we have a hypothetical scenario whereby – we assume strict liability has been brought in. At an Aberdeen v Rangers game at Pittodrie, the strains of the Billy Boys, up to yer knees etc and all is coming from the seats where the Rangers fans are congregated. The singing is pin-pointed at say Section D of that part of the ground. The tickets in Section D were allocated to the members of The Kilwinning True Blues and the Larkhall Loyal (apologies if such clubs exist, I am using these names as stereotypes and no offence is meant).

So, Rangers can drop a quick note to the secretaries of these two clubs, pointing-out: we have you bang to rights – any more singing of offensive songs and you don't get a ticket allocation. Pretty soon, the neanderthals would be flung out of the clubs and, perhaps over a season, the offensive singing would stop.

Same thing on the other side – any bad behaviour which could be shown to emanate from the seats occupied by (again stereotypical names here) – The Carfin Sons of Erin or the Croy Sean South Memorial CSC and the same sanctions would apply.

BUT, and it is a shame there has to be a but. For the SFA to clamp down on the bigots, and their copy-cat wannabees from the other clubs, would require a desire within the Hampden corridors of power, to see things change. And, I honestly do not see the will being there to make the changes.

The blazers know there are at least a couple of really unsightly plooks on the face of Scottish football, but, they are quite happy to parade these before the world. And, that is sad.

WOE, WOE and thrice woe – you can already hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth from Hampden, with the suggestion that those European leagues with huge TV audiences might be about to hijack the Champions League, and make it a closed shop.

It could well happen that the CL becomes a closed shop, with entry limited to the top four clubs in England, Italy, Germany and Spain, but, not least because it would be only a matter of time before the English fell-out with everyone else, I don't see this happening.

And even if it did, it might not be the end of the world. Some see this proposal as the start of a European NFL. What they forget is, the NFL is an amalgamation of two separate American Football bodies – the NFC and the AFC, just as baseball is an amalgamation of two leagues – the National League and the American League.

If you know your American sports history, you will know, baseball's World Series is so-named, because the newspaper, the New York World, put up the cash which caused the two league winners to meet to decide what was the best team in the USA.

So, suppose the big five European leagues do succeed in getting their closed shop past UEFA – which is not guaranteed, in fact, I would say downright unlikely – can you see the other 49 individual European leagues simply stepping back and telling the big five: “OK guys, go ahead and do your thing”. A compromise will be reached.

But, in the unlikely event of this not happening, and the big five breaking away – what is to stop the medium and smaller leagues starting a rival competition. Celtic v Ajax, or PSG v Red Star Belgrade could surely provide football as good as anywhere else.

If a rival league was started, in time, I am sure, we would have a genuine European NFL, but, it would not be limited to a mere five nations.

Mind you, at least one of these big five leagues – the English Premiership, has bigger problems looming. If “Brexit means Brexit”, and it becomes more-difficult for European immigrants to enter the UK, once the present batch of continental players finish, it will become a damned sight harder for the top English club to attract top European talent.

There will be a lot of squealing if a top Polish plumber cannot come to England to work, but, a top Polish centre forward can. FIFA and UEFA have protocols in place for player movement, which would cut across any efforts by a non-EU England to bring in players from mainland Europe.

Mind you, one possible good thing about this, would be, the English clubs would again, hopefully, start recruiting top Scots. Aye, these are indeed interesting times.

An Encouraging Result, But Third Still Looks LIke Being The Best Celtic Can Manage

IT IS an old Scottish habit – to have the wind permanently in our faces. There is a wee bit of Private Fraser in us all, perhaps. There certainly was when it came to forecasting the outcome of the Celtic v Manchester City game.

OK, Celtic's defence wasn't great in Barcelona, but, on the night, the Catalans did just about everything properly. Losing 4-0 say might have looked better for Celtic, but, it would still have been a heavy loss, and maybe, after the seven-goal thrashing, there was a wee bit of: “We're awe doomed”, in the way we Scots look forward, though we couldnae see, to guess and fear.

Anyway, a 3-3 draw with City has Celtic and the rest of us up here in Scotland, feeling better about ourselves – except, good result though it was, we should remember a couple of things – Celtic were at home, and, on the night, City were still the better team.

Celtic's hopes of reaching the last 16 were always going to depend on how they got on head-to-head with Monchengladbach, rather than how they got on against City and Barca – their next two Champions League games will define Celtic's season far more than Wednesday night's game will.

They have a chance of finishing above the Germans, but, right now, of the four teams in Group C, Celtic remain the most-likely to finish bottom. So, enjoy the comparative boost which not losing at home has given the Hoops, but, never forget the reality – finishing third and extending their European campaign into the Europa League is still, realistically, Celtic's best hope for this season.

I STILL say, until the clubs accept “strict liability” for their fans' behaviour, OBFA, the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act has to remain on the statute books. The decision not to hit either Hibs or Rangers over the post-match scenes at Hampden back in May was correct in law – and, while it is sometimes an ass, the Law is a non-emotional being.

Sure, emotionally, these scenes did nothing for Scottish football. As the law stands, there was nothing Hibs and Rangers could do about the events.

I can understand why the Hibs fans invaded the pitch at the end. After over a century without a Scottish Cup win, it was too-easy for emotions to run riot.

I can understand why that wee knot of Hibs loonies took it upon themselves to go and goad the Rangers' fans – the Bigot Brothers have never had a monopoly on Neds.

I can accept some of Ra Peepul would react as they did, coming on to the park themselves – they have past form on this.

BUT, until the clubs grasp the nettle and self-police their fans, through implementing “strict liability”, they (the clubs), are safe from having to take responsibility, and, that's fact.

FAREWELL then Big Sam, it was fun while it lasted. Sadly, by falling for that Daily Telegraph “sting” operation, Sam merely gave those in England who knew his appointment as England boss was an accident waiting to happen, ammunition to say: “Told you it would all end in tears”.

Being England boss truly is a poisoned chalice. I wonder who will be the next numpty to take-up the challenge. Of course, when we face the Saxons in November, poor old Gareth Southgate will be the man in charge. I wish him good luck – he will need it in the face of the combined lack of trust of the English media and football public.

In the 70-years since the late Sir Walter Winterbottom was their first managerial appointment, the FA has, to my mind, only ever made four good appointments – Winterbottom, who set the template, and was driven out of office by the club appointees to the FA; Sir Alf Ramsey, who won them the World Cup, and was sacked seven years later – without a succession plan being in place; Sir Bobby Robson, who was driven from office by press criticism and dear old Joe Mercer, who probably didn't want the job in the first place. The rest have been good, bad or indifferent, but have suffered from the archaic way the FA is set-up.

And, in case it has slipped your memory, we up here have not exactly treated our national managers well, and, our system is, if anything, less-organised and less fit for purpose than the FA's.

SPEAKING of Scotland bosses. WGS has just announced his latest Scotland squad, for our next two World Cup qualifiers.

I have been doing some research into Scotland teams through the years and, right now, WGS is doing a lot of things correctly. For instance, we now have a fairly-settled Scotland squad, with a bit of continuity of selection, which has to be good.

Now, it may well be that our current squad lacks the sprinkling of stardust we enjoyed in the past, but, we should remember, even when we had players who are now in the Scottish Football Hall of Fame and who were, at the time, playing regularly at the top of the English game, and going a long way in Europe with their Scottish clubs – we had some horrendous failed qualifying campaigns.

It might be argued that, at times in the past we had such a glut of choices, it was easy to make the wrong ones.

For example, our failed qualifying campaign for the 1966 World Cup finals in England. In the qualifying games, we used the following players:

Goalkeepers: Campbell Forsyth, Bill Brown, Adam Blacklaw.

Full-backs: Alex Hamilton, Jim Kennedy, Eddie McCreadie, John Greig and David Provan.

Central-defenders: John Greig, Jackie McGrory, Billy McNeill, Ron McKinnon, Ron Yeats.

Wingers: Jimmy Johnstone, Alex Scott, Willie Henderson, John Hughes, David Wilson, Willie Johnston, Jim Forrest.

Central midfielders: Jim Baxter, Davie Gibson, Paddy Crerand, Willie Hamilton, Billy Bremner, Bobby Murdoch, Charlie Cooke.

Strikers: Stevie Chalmers, Denis Law, Neil Martin, Alan Gilzean.

That's 30 players – pick a first XI from that lot.

Our worst European Championships qualifying campaign was for the 1980 tournament, when under manager Jock Stein, the following players were used:

Goalkeepers: Alan Rough

Full-backs: Sandy Jardine, Danny McGrain, Stewart Kennedy, Willie Donnachie, Frankie Gray, Ian Munro, George Burley.

Central-defenders: Gordon McQueen, Martin Buchan, Kenny Burns, Alan Hansen, Willie Miller, Alex McLeish, David Narey.

Wingers: Archie Gemmill, John Robertson, Arthur Graham, Eamonn Bannon, Davie Provan, Davie Cooper.

Central-midfielders: Graeme Souness, Asa Hartford, David Narey, John Wark.

Strikers: Kenny Dalglish, Andy Gray,Joe Jordan, Derek Johnstone, Steve Archibald, Ian Wallace.

Another group of 30 players, including several legends of the game – they won one game out of six, the last one, when the group was already settled.

The truth is, when it comes to Scotland qualifying for big tournament finals – it has never been easy; perhaps it is meant, always to be difficult for us.

The Fact Is - There Were Two Dodgy Goals at Pittodrie

THE Monday-morning back-page headlines were all about the award of that free kick, from which James Madison secured Aberdeen's win over Rangers at Pittodrie. Needless to say, the Lap Top Loyal were all over it like a rash, insisting James Tavernier had not commited the foul, from which the youngster netted.

Allow me to quote Law V I - “The referee is the sole judge of fact”. End of, the ref said it was a foul, he gave it, Madison scored, end of.

Funny how the churnalists are not similarly all over the Rangers penalty. The TV footage clearly shows, Johnny Hayes' first connection with Lee Wallace was a tug at his shirt, outside the box, so, the Rangers penalty was as iffy in some ways as the Aberdeen free-kick. Let's take these two disputed goals out of the game, it still ends up 1-0 to Aberdeen.

One of the differences between Rugby Union and Association Football is – rugby makes greater use of specialist coaches. I accept, the number of set pieces in rugby mean specialisation might be required, the likes of Glasgow Warriors have a specialist forwards coach: Dan McFarland, who coaches line-out and scrum drills. The Warriors also have Mike Blair, who works with the half-backs, ensuring the right link between the ball won by the forwards (aka the piano-shifters) and the backs (aka the piano-players). They also have specialist strength and conditioning coaches, not figures we ever see advertised by football clubs to any extent.

In Assistant Manager Davie Weir, a man with 69 Scotland international caps. If his specialist knowledge of the ins and outs of defending are not being used, and, the way Ragners defend you have to doubt this, then that is a serious mistake being made by the club.

The Cry Was No Defenders is often sung when the ball is slung into the Rangers box. Surely with the likes of Weir in-situ, they ought to be defending better than they are.

I also question whether today's coaches are thinking enough about the game. We do not appear to see fresh ideas when it comes to set pieces – although, having said that, that was a cracker Manchester United came up with off a corner for Marcus Ratchford's goal v Leicester at the weekend.

Simple wee things often work – I still laugh at that Aberdeen ploy that had Gordon Strachan and Neale Cooper (I think) colliding – trying apparently to take the same free-kick, only for Andy Watson to swing it over for Mark McGhee to score. That one worked more than once.

As a young goalkeeper, just when defensive walls were coming in, I used to get my defenders out of the way and more or less challenge free-kick takers to beat me from 25-yards. I can tell you, I won more of these face-offs than I lost.

Come on goalies – dispense with the walls, dare the taker to shoot. If you are any way competent, you will win the battle.

Another thing, in rugby, they have been lifting in the lines-out for more than 20-years, and some of the routines which clubs come up with are fairlysophisticated. Back when lifting first began, I remember a future Scotland internationalist, then still a teenager, telling me, if he, at six foot four, could not score with a header from a corner or free-kick, when lifted rugby style, he shouldn't be playing. He wanted to try it, but, his manager said no. It might stop the shirt-pulling and barging we see at so-many free-kicks and corners into the box, you know.

I SEE Graeme Souness, the man who must take a large part of the blame for the decline of Scottish football over the last 30-years, is calling for Rangers to spend their way out of their current troubles.

Aye right Graeme – except, has he not noticed, Rangers are skint, virtually living hand-to-mouth and without a credit line from a bank.

It was spending that got Rangers into bother in the first place, as Souness went for the instant money fix, and paid little or no attention to player development.

Since Souness became Rangers' manager in 1987, 43 players have emerged from their player development system to become Scotland Under-21 internationalists. Only nine of these players – Charlie Adam, Chris Burke, Ian Durrant, Derek Ferguson, Barry Ferguson, Alan Hutton, Allan McGregor, Barrie McKay and Charlie Miller went on to win full Scotland caps while with the club. It should be remembered, the likes of Adam, Burke and Derek Ferguson were perhaps chased out of Ibrox, by either fan fury or “not fitting in”.

Souness can hardly claim credit for the development of Durrant and Derek Ferguson – they were already there when he arrived, and of the rest, only Barry Ferguson, Allan McGregor and Hutton managed 100 games for the club – although McKay has time on his side.

The likes of Robert Fleck, Stephen Hughes, Ross McCormack, Barry Nicholson, Steven Pressley and John Spencer had to leave Rangers to establish themselves and win full Scotland caps – as did Barry Robson, who never even made it as far as the Under-21s at Ibrox.

In addition, a lot of these promising young players went on to have very good club careers with other Scottish clubs, or in England. So, it has to be conceded, the club's development scheme has never really worked well.

Of course, when the management model calls for buying-in big names, it does take exceptional talent to come through the ranks – the same situation applies at Celtic it has to be said.

Except, Rangers no longer have money to burn on buying-in players who might (Lee Wallace) or might not (too-many to count but, Joey Barton for starters) work. Therefore, getting the youth development working, and having a plan for the young players is crucial.

One of Mr Warburton's supposed plus points was, he was a good coach/mentor of young players – except the Rangers' board's seeming: “We are the people” approach does not allow for the time for a youth policy to work. If it had, with the Chuck Green consortium, the current Rangers squad would be full of guys who had come up through the divisions with the club, and proved themselve.

When placed in the bottom tier, they had a chance to start afresh, get it right and put the money to burn ethos behind them. The club didn't do this and is now paying for their lack of foresight.

Let there be no doubt – the tight-fisted days of the Four Families at Celtic, the days of the Kelly Kids and breeding from within, maybe didn't win the club many trophies, but, it allowed the Lisbon Lions to learn their trade, realise what it meant to play for Celtic – and reap the benefits when the Messiah came back from Hibs.

I know, with the vast lakes of money in England, good young talent is less-likely to hang around with even the Old Firm, but, as Jim Baxter famously said: “Better to be the King in Glasgow than a Prince in Milan”.

Any way, once Brexit happens, the knock-on effect for the mega-bucks English Premiership will be potentially catastrophic. If the Brexiteers have their way, the English, and if we have not gone independent by then, the top Scottish clubs, will no longer be able to import continental talent, because they will not get immediate work permits.

Now would be a good time for Scottish clubs to beef-up their youth development academies – the days of English clubs shopping for young talent in Scotland could be coming back, over the next decade.

For Rangers, it might be their best hopes of survival.

Well Done Girls, Our Media Was Too Polite To Say This

I DESPAIR of our mainstream sports media. By a country mile, the biggest story in Scottish football in the past week was – SCOTLAND QUALIFIED FOR A MAJOR CHAMPIONSHIPS FINALS.

OK, it was “ONLY” our Women's team who did it, but, at the end of this season, when the UEFA Women's European Football Championship Finals kick-off in the Netherlands – the Saltire will be flying amongs the flags of the competing nations, and Flower of Scotland will be heard before some games. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it all our managers and players who have failed to qualify for nine successive tournaments – and counting.

Anna Signeul and her girls have done us proud, we should be celebrating their success. But, sadly, misogyny still rules in too-many sports departments, indeed, coverage of Women's Football in Scotland is virtually a one-man cottage industry. The women's game, which is, in many ways leading the men's game, is all-but-ignored when it comes to allocating column inches.

So, the girls going to the Netherlands was a feel-good story in a week when we were all down after Celtic's Nou Camp hammering, but, what was THE big story of the second half of the week – why, surprise, surprise, Joey Barton had thrown a wobbler. Well, did anyone NOT see that one coming?

Once Mr Barton signed for Rangers, it was always a case of when, not if, he had a meltdown. With Joey boy, shit definitely happens.

All we need now is for the girls to get out of the group stages and into the knock-out phase in the Netherlands in June, then it should be big reddies all round for the blazers in the Hampden corridors of power – except it won't be: they'll all be over there, enjoying the hospitality and trying to tell the stenographers they always knew our women were leading the way.

THE other bit of earth-shattering news in football this week was: Glenafton Athletic beat Auchinlec Talbot 3-1 at Loch Park. Now, the Glen beating Talbot is not new, what is new is, this is the second straight week in which Tucker Sloan's men have shipped three goals and Talbot historians such as “Jumbo” McAuley are already consulting the tablets to find-out when last that happened.

OK, they have a couple of games in hand over the early pace setters, but, Talbot are in the bottom half of the West Superleague Premiership, and I don't ever recall seeing that.

One of my oldest friends, an Affleck man who lived-out his fantasy by playing centre midfield for Talbot, these many years in the Sudetenland, was in-touch yesterday, asking what was happening. He is in shock.

But, I am sure, this is a temporary blip, maybe a typically devious Auchinleck ploy to try to get decent odds against their team reclaiming the Scottish Junior Cup this season.

PELE was in Glasgow last week – another peripheral football event which got more coverage than our Women's team's qualification. This gives me a chance to tell a funny.

When first in Scotland, for a pre-World Cup warm-up match against Scotland in 1966, Pele and the Brazil team, then the defending World Champions, were billeted at Troon's Marine Hotel, and they trained at Portland Park, home of Troon Juniors.

Among those who went down to watch Brazil training was Alex McMenemy, one of the stalwarts of Scottish Schools football and Director of Football at Renfrew High School, long before Directors of Football had been thought-of. During his trip to Troon, Alex got his photie taken with Pele and, for many years, it took pride of place in his office at the school.

Fast forward to the late 1990s, and Alex round-up a couple of wee First Year boys to carry some stuff into his office – he was by now Depute Rector. The first wee boy puts his load down and spies the picture of Alex with Pele.

“Haw Sur, dae you ken him”? Was the question. Alex replied that, yes, as the picture of them shaking hands showed, he had indeed met that particular footballer.

The youngster turned to his pal: “Haw Wullie, luk, Mr McMenemy kens Mark Walters”.

THE first big game at the new multi-million pound Oriam Centre, just outside Edinburgh, takes place next week, when Scotland's Under-16 squad takes on France.

The Scotland squad is:

Goalkeepers

Ryan Mullen (Celtic)
Archie Mair (Aberdeen)

Defenders

Taylor Wilson (Hamilton)
Andrew Kerr (Celtic)
Nathan Patterson (Rangers)
Chris Hamilton (Hearts)
Kane O’Connor (Hibernian)

Midfielders

Marc Leonard (Hearts)
Harry Cochrane (Hearts)
Terry Taylor (Aberdeen)
Dean Campbell (Aberdeen)
Ethan Erhahon (St Mirren)
Billy Gilmour (Rangers)

Forwards

Kieran McGrath (Celtic)
Zac Butterworth (Rangers)
Jamie Semple (Motherwell)
Anthony McDonald (Hearts)
Joshua McPake (Rangers)

These boys are all Under-16, therefore, all were born after 2000. It will perhaps be interesting to look back, in say ten years' time, to see how many made it all the way through from Under-16 to the full Scotland squad. I'll wager there was more chance of the best Under-16 players born in 1900 going all the way than there is for these 21^st century tyros.

Forget The Money Get The Game Sorted

MANY years ago, hard on the heels of the release of 'Nutbush City Limits' and 'River Deep and Mountain High', a journalist from one of the American glossy magazines was sent to interview Ike and Tina Turner. The interview revealed very little, except for one sentence which has lived on: “I didn't know it was possible to spend $1,000,000 in Woolworths'.

Apparently Mr Turner and his then young wife had had a good taste bypass when it came to furnishing their home and generally spending their money. I sometimes think, English football clubs have fallen into the same trap, when it comes to spending the billions of £ sterling which Sky and BT insists on throwing at them. Fair enough if it only applied to them, sadly, although they have a lot less dosh to squander, the legendary Scottish quality of financial prudence seems to have deserted out top clubs.

In short – fitba has become obsessed with money, to the detriment of the game.

After Celtic got handed their earses on a plate by Barca on Tuesday night, their apologists in the Scottish sporting media – ok, the other lot get apologised for more-often, but, when you read some of the shite which passes for analysis where the Bigot Brothers are concerned, that old journalists joke – an “excuse” is the collective noun for a group of sports photographers – also applies to the fans with lap tops.

The churnalists were all going on about the difference in wealth between the very rich Celtic and the mega-rich Barcelona, concentrating on the balance sheet in money terms, rather than the balance sheet deficit in terms of talent, commitment and tactics which handicapped Celtic.

Scotland - this wonderful wee jewel of a country will never see its football club earn from TV the same cash as does the game in England, Germany, Spain, Italy and France – Europe's big five. But we used to be able to, and I believe can again, produce players who can take-on and beat the likes of Barca, Manchester City, Borussia Monchengladback, Juventus or Monaco – who did a right good number on Spurs on Wednesday night.

This would call for a culture change, and a lot more work by our players and coaches than they currently put-in, but, it can be done.

Celtic didn't have the ball too-often on Tuesday, but, when they did have it, they wasted little time in giving it back to Barca. Barry Ferguson, when he was playing for Scotland, used to be constantly pilloried for passing short and square – before him, Paul McStay used to get the same charge flung at him. However, these two players appreciated, in international competition, be it for club or country – possession is all; you defend the ball, you don't give it away cheaply.

You can play the risky pass at domestic level, you will get away with it. In international play, you will be picked-off if you try this.

Still on the subject of midfield passers, no Scottish player, and I include the two above, has had the range of hurting passes which Jim Baxter, Bobby Murdoch and to a lesser degree Bertie Auld possessed. These three could all play the “killer” through ball on which Joe McBride, Stevie Chalmers and Ralph Brand thrived. With a guy who could play such through balls today, Leigh Griffiths would score 50 goals a season.

The Herald, this week, did a piece on Pele's solitary appearance in Scotland as a player, in 1966. In the very first minute of that game at Hamden, Baxter put Stevie Chalmers through to open the scoring with a ball of such imaculate pace and length, the Celtic man could not possibly have missed.

Then there was John Greig's wonderful winning goal against Italy earlier that season. A limping Bill Brown tolled the ball out to Baxter, who came left, then worked his way upfield via an exchange of passes with Billy Bremner, before rifling a pass between the Italian centre halves, for Greig to run on and score from 18-yards. This was, remember an ITALIAN “cattenaccio” defence, being unpicked by old-fashioned Scottish along-the-ground passing, first-time, at a high tempo.

When, in the intervening 50-years did we lose the ability to play a style of football which Scotland had been refining for 100-years before hand, since such as Robert Gardner, Charles Campbell, William McKinnon an the McNeil brothers invented the passing game in the 1870s.

I read one of the so-called top football writers, in the aftermath of Celtic being hammered, bemoaning the fact, Celtic had only committed three fouls all game. Well done Celtic, fouling the likes of Barca's golden trinity up front merely underlines how much better they are. If you have to tackle an opponent, far less foul him, you have already lost. In football, if you get it right, you do not have to tackle, outside your own penalty area. Anticipation, positioning and quickness will allow you to intercept by cutting-out passes. The tackle has to be the last throw of the dice.

Maybe our footballers should look at arguably Scotland's best professional sports team – Glasgow Warriors. Check-out how they train, the work they put-in, and, compare it with what Celtic and Rangers players do. I think the results would shock.

Our players don't work hard enough on fitness, or in particular on technique. Our coaches have discarded the high-tempo passing game which used to be the Scottish style. Until we get back to working harder, and playing harder, we will struggle.

If we got it right, regardless of the financial imbalance, I am sure, our clubs could live with and regularly beat the likes of Barca.

But, for this to happen, there has to be an extreme culture change.

SPEAKING of culture change – I see Hearts are getting pelters this week, as regards diving. Well, while history tells us, wee David Wilson invented “diving”, this was always an Edinburgh thing. Regardless of Wilson's ability to manufacture penalties for Rangers, Scotland's foremost diver was always the late Sir Peter Heatly, a true Edinburgh man.

Diving was ok when it was a Rangers thing – Wilson begat John McDonald, who begat various other “submariners”, whilst, in recent years, across the city we had a Bulgarian and a Japanese who were up there with Tom Daley. Now, diving has spread east, although, in the Romanov era, I recall Hearts had one import from the Baltic states who had a rare talent for going to ground.

The answer is obvious, bring-in TV reviews. If the decision is “penalty”, fair enough. If not, yellow card. Add a totting-up process, with suspensions for persistent offenders – job done.

This blog has long maintained, association football, being the most free-form brand of the various codes of football, MUST be the most-rigorously refereed – this is far from the case.

Clamp down on the cheaters, the divers, the “hammer throwers”, the yards-stealers, and allow the true skills of football to flourish. Otherwise, the game, slowly dies.