I
SAT DOWN last night at 7pm, fully intending to watch the
Scotland v England Women's European Championship match. I lasted
until 7.22pm, then I switched off the television and went and did
something else.
By
then, I had realised, my worst fears were being realised – the
broadcast would be: Engerlund, Engerlund Engerlund” on steroids.
No, I decided lang syne, when they started that, switch off, for the
good of my health.
FFS,
before a ball had even been kicked, Channel Four had a graphic in
place, detailing how “The Lionesses” would make it all the way to
the dream final – England v Germany. Thanks Ch4, you just wrote a
few pre-game team talks for their opponents, and, converted a few
hundred more Scots to voting “Yes” at Indyref2.
OK,
I fully expected England to beat us. There is simply no way our
lassies can take on England, with half a team out injured. I sensed
England would win, but 6-0 is another sore one. Let's see, I have now
endured:
7-2
at Wembley, 1955
4-0
at Hampden, 1958
9-3,
5-0
in the Centenary game in 1973
5-1
at Wembley in 1975
15 April, 1961 - a really bad day to be Scottish
so,
last night was nothing new. But, bad though it was, it didn't hurt
nearly a much as: Peru, then Iran in 1978; 7-0 to Uruguay in 1954;
winning at Wembley but failing to qualify in 1999; beating England in
1967, then, in the next Euros qualifier, being taken apart by a
one-man show of genius from George Best. To paraphrase Wullie
Shankly: “If ye canna beat yin man, ye shouldnae be playin fur
Scoatland”.
My
long service in the Tartan Army has taught me to channel my inner
Kipling – I can face the twin impostors and treat them both the
same. Kipling did If, Scotland's sporting history is too full of If
Onlys.
Any
way lassies – that's the obligatory bad one out of the way, onwards
and upwards.
THE
FAN'S comment prize for season 2017-18 has already been
won – and the season isn't even properly underway yet.
Surely
nobody can top the Celtic fan, who tweeted last night, after the
Celtic v Linfield Champions League qualifier at Celtic Park, that he
had just gone to see his team, playing on their own ground, in his
home city, and been advised from fans of the visiting team – from
Ireland: “The famine is over, why don't you go home”.
President
Trump isn't the only “orange man” who doesn't do irony,
obviously.
SCOTLAND,
it seems is, in spite of a marked reluctance to elect
Members of Parliament who adopt the label with a capital C – a
conservative country.
That's
conservative in the sense averse to change for the sake of change, or
adopting measures which appear too radical. In sport, this is obvious
and was best expressed some years ago in writer Allan Massie's
excellent Saturday essay in The Scotsman, in which he bemoaned the
culture of “Ayebeenism” - “Ye canna dae that son, it's aye been
done this wey” in Scottish rugby.
Allan Massie - identified Aye Beenism in Scottish Sport
Ayebeenism
is also rampant in Scottish fitba – ever noticed how, any change in
the game up here seems to be driven by the interests of the big
teams, rather than the “diddy” ones – although, for my money,
we tolerate too-many diddy teams at senior level. The Scottish fitba
dug has a gey lang tail.
With
little in the way of real fitba to write about just now, I thought I
might throw a few ideas into the fires of discussion, and, maybe one
might catch fire and we see something new in Scottish fitba.
For
a start, a couple of reorganisations ago, the SFA did away with the
local cup competitions – the Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, Stirlingshire
and so-forth cups. In the West, the likes of the Ayrshire,
Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire Football Associations, which let's be
honest, were merely a means towards getting club directors closer to
the big trough inside Hampden, were swept away, to be replaced by a
West of Scotland region.
Now,
some of the clubs, not wishing to slaughter the silver, if not golden
goose, found ingenious ways of keeping these fans favourite local cup
games going.
But,
I feel this was a chance missed. In the Juniors, the West of Scotland
Cup is a genuine favourite, and is seen as second in importance only
to the Scottish Junior Cup. Why not a senior West of Scotland Cup,
and, while we're at it, similar competitions in the other three
regions – East of Scotland, Central Scotland and North of Scotland.
Again, if such competitions were used to get the clubs to play their
home-bred, Scottish players only, it would boost the development of
young Scots.
Even
make then an Under-23 competitions – we need to do more development
beyond Under-20; and, taking it on, we could even have a
supplementary competition for the four regional cup winners.
Such
competitions would be good, season openers I feel, to ease the clubs
up to speed for the important league campaign.
Speaking
of which. I say, not for the first time – we have too-many “senior”
clubs in Scotland. I would like to see us going to a maximum of two
senior leagues, 24 clubs tops, playing in Scotland-wide league
competition.
Below
that, concentrate on the local aspect, with local leagues, maybe even
with an Under-23 or Under-25 general age limit. Eight guys on the
park at any one time, would have to be below the upper age limit.
That way, you give guys the chance to make a name, but you do not, as
you see now, see players moving around on an annual basis between the
various lower league teams in their area.
With
local leagues, we could better integrate the junior and senior
non-league clubs into a properly-functioning pyramid system.
And,
while I am flying this kite – England and Wales, with a population
of 55 million, has 92 senior league teams. Scotland, with 5 million
of a population, has 42 – the economics of that simply do not
compute.
You
can say: “But, it's aye been that way”, all you like. It still
will not make it sensible.
The Lisbon Lions - 1 out of 61 is terrible
Scottish
clubs have contested the European Cup for 61 seasons, since 1955-56.
We have won it once – back in 1966-67, when our league set-up was a
16-club top-flight, under-pinned by a 20-club second division.
Ten
of the top 12 clubs in that 1966-67 Division 1, as it then was –
Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hibernian, Dundee, Kilmarnock, Dundee
United, Motherwell, Hearts and Partick Thistle, in their 1966-67
finishing order - are still in today's Premiership. So, not a lot
has changed in 50-years, Scottish fitba is largely, the way it has
aye been.
We
are stagnating, for how much longer will the Hampden “blazers”
allow this to continue?
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