A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away

PERHAPS he did not resort to the catch-all errant schoolboy's excuse of last resort, but, in blaming the referee for Scotland's failure to beat Lithuania on Friday night, big Craig Levein found himself unwittingly adopting almost the default position of unsuccessful British managers in Europe.

Of course continental teams pull jerseys, certainly they body-check at every opportunity, of course they will attempt to disrupt the flow of the game - these have been part of their stock-in-trade since pan-European competitive football started 55 years ago.

We have three choices:
Shut up and get on with it.
Don't play them.
Kick the shit out of them and get banned.

There is, however, a fourth - and it is a choice which the SFA can take up.

Jack Warner and his developing (football) world allies may not like it, but, back in 1946 when the four British FAs bailed-out a bankrupt FIFA and rejoined that organisation, as part of their agreement to become involved, each association got a permanent place on IFAB (International Football Associations Board), the supreme law-making and changing body of the game.

On IFBA, the English, Northern Irish, Scots and Welsh have just as much say as the other 204 member associations combined. The trouble is, all too often the four British associations are so busy fighting each other (or more likely the three 'Celtic' associations are at war with England, the common enemy), so they do not make their bloc vote count as much as it ought to.

Over the years IFAB has tinkered with the laws, amended a few and produced a lot of hot air, as they will again when they meet in Cardiff in October - one of two meetings per year which that body has.

Perhaps the British associations ought to have a wee imperomptu meeting before then, ready to enter the Cardiff summit with proposals for a genuine root and branch overhaul of the Laws of the Game - intended to root-out the nefarious practices which the Scots did not have the wit to overcome in Kaunus.

Let them look at other sports - if, like basketball players, footballers found them selves held responsible for individual fouls and repeat or persistent offenders could be "fouled-out" of a game, countries such as Lithuania might clean up their acts.

If there was a "zero tolerance" towards foul play, including a definite ruling on tackling from behind and so on, we could clean-up the game. IFAB could and should be leading the way towards this.

But, sadly in one other potential answer to the problems which beset him and his team in Kaunus, Levein will have to wait a bit longer - for Scottish football to again produce players with the skills levels and application to make the efforts of lesser teams to hinder, thwart and otherwise frustrate them impossible.

Sadly, Friday again showed how barren is our cupboard when it comes to the heirs to the kingdom of Baxter, Mackay, Bremner, Souness, White, Reilly, Steel, Law and Dalglish - to name but a few.