Well Said Paul - But, That Horse Has Bolted

I KNOW, I spend a lot of time criticising the personality-driven agenda which passes for football coverage in Scotland today. But, just occasionally, one of these puff pieces comes up with a nugget or two of truth.

 Paul Lambert, right, in Champions League action with Borussia Dortmund

So, well-said Paul Lambert for his views on the Champions League as it is currently organised. The former Scotland captain is well-qualified to comment on the CL, he has, after all, won the thing, so, he has the tee-shirt, the DVD and, most-importantly, the winner's medal.

But, sadly, PL's views will not get Celtic, or whichever team wins the 2017-18 and future Scottish Champions the guaranteed place in the CL which that status ought to guarantee. It goes without saying, a “Champions League” should be limited to the champions of Europe's leagues.

If the UEFA playing field was level, the CL would involve the Champions of the 55 member associations within UEFA. A competition involving these 55 clubs and only these 55 – with perhaps the defending champions, should they not have won their own domestic league - would be a true Champions' League.

But, the stable door is long kicked down over that one. It is not going to happen.

If the right to rule football of the big beasts – the Real Madrids, Barcelonas, Bayern Munichs, Juventuses, Manchester Uniteds and Chelseas seemingly HAS to be protected, and I don't see that it has – then why does not UEFA go the whole hog, hand management over to the European Clubs Association to allow it to form a sort of European NFL, and UEFA could concentrate on what ought to be its core role – developing football across Europe and taking care of ALL the national associations, not just the big boys.

UEFA's current club rankings list 442 clubs across the continent. The top 10 in the list are: Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Seville, PSG, Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and Benfica. Whaur's yer English Premiership: “The Best League in the World” noo?

 The crest of the best team in Europe

Positions 10 to 20 are filled by: Arsenal, Porto, Chelsea, Napoli, Bayern Leverkusen, Manchester United, Schalke O4, Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit St Petersburg and Fiorentina.

We then have to go all the way down to number 64 to find Celtic. Then, zipping past such household names as Wigan Athletic (99), and a few teams which are not even household names in their own households, we find, at #192, Aberdeen.

St Johnstone are at #217, (three places below Wales's New Saints), with Motherwell at #244, Hibernian at #266, Heart of Midlothian at #294, Inverness Caledonian Thistle at #296 and Rangers at #311, (78 places above Progres Niederkorn by the way).

That's the reality of where we are in present-day European football.

In the big professional leagues in North America: MLB, the NBA, NFL, NHL and now too: MLS – the richest sporting leagues in the world, the top baseball, basketball, American Football, ice hockey and soccer teams have their places in their leagues and therefore, there noses' positions in the financial trough guaranteed.

Below that, through North America's long-established collegiate sports system, the future talent is allowed to develop and these players get an education and prepare for “The Show” in whichever discipline they favour through the NCAA system.

Here, they still get exposure to TV and keen competition through a progressive season – beginning in their local conferences, then going on through the national play-downs to the big events – the Bowl games in American football or the annual “March Madness” of the NCAA basketball season, so winners still emerge, and new stars are born.

The above statistics are gleaned from UEFA's club co-efficient standings, the figures are no-more comforting when we look at the associations co-efficient tables, which read:

Top 10 – Spain, Germany, England, Italy, France, Russia, Portugal, Belgium, Ukraine, Turkey. Places 11-20: Netherlands, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Denmark, Croatia, Poland, Israel, Romania.

Scotland - the 26th best country in European football

Scotland comes in in 26^th spot, below: Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria and Sweden. Indeed, I would say, the only country with a lower ranking than us, which has fallen as far, or further, will be Hungary, who are 35^th.

So, Paul Lambert, and the rest of us whinging Jocks, can scream all we like about how unfair the current system is, and about how it penalises our clubs, but, the fact remains, we have not done a lot about getting up the co-efficient tables in recent years.

The only way any Scottish club could possibly qualify for the big league, should my suggestion of a European NFL or similar ever come about, might be if the ability to attract fans became a major component of entry to this league.

In that case, Celtic and Rangers could make a strong case. At the end of last season Talksport issued a rankings list of the top 30 clubs in Europe – based on their average home attendances. Celtic came 10^th , with an average home crowd of 55,882, Rangers were 21^st with an average home attendance of 48,573.

Their ability to pull-in the fans, regularly, in big numbers, would appear to be the only grounds on which even our big two could lay claim to being top clubs.

Scottish football clearly has work to do.

WHEN he was running the MIM basketball team, Sir David Murray never got involved in the governance of the game in Scotland. He, perhaps rightly, thought his club was bigger than the game; and, there was the impression across the rest of the sport that if he said: “Jump”, the full-time office bearers, who ran the sport day-to-day, would not even have asked how high in any case.

So, when he bought Rangers, he never involved himself in the minutia of Hampden meetings and football politics – again, maybe he thought Rangers was bigger than the game. With that wonderful thing, hindsight, he maybe should have spent a bit more time glad-handing, building alliances and being nice to people. Or, did the fact, when push comes to shove, the Old Firm will adopt an agreed position which suits them and the diddy teams will fall in line, perhaps guide his behaviour?

 Rangers' MD Stewart Robertson

Any way, for all the mistakes which have been made upstairs at Ibrox since even before liquidation and rebirth, there is something reassuring about Rangers' Managing Director Stewart Robertson being elected to the SPFL Board. For too long, Rangers have not had a meaningful presence in the corridors of power and Robertson, the one serious professional on the Ibrox board, has the experience to make his presence felt there.

Scottish football has tended to do well when both halves of the Old Firm took an interest in events around Hampden, so, with Robertson on the SPFL board and Peter Lawwell on the SFA one, could Scottish football be about to turn the corner?

Hearts' Anne Budge

And, by the way, how good to see the excellent Mrs Anne Budge retaining her slot on the board, such a pity Hibs' Lee-Ann Dempster, another formidable and intelligent lady has had to step down.