A Brave New World - Aye Right

JINGS crivvens, help ma Boab - they actually did it. Yes, I am well and truly gobsmacked by the decision of this week's Scottish Football Association's annual general meeting to vote through every one of the resolutions placed before them. So, we have seen the once-in-a-generation change which many of us feared we would never see and we can now move forward - or can we.

I must admit, I do like the changes to the disciplinary system, mind you, these will not immediately end the arguments, they will not at a stroke eliminate the cheats and divers from our game. I don't see visiting teams getting more penalties at either "the Scrapyard" or "the Tattiedome" and it will still be more-common for a provincial player, kicking an Old Firm player to be red-carded than for an Old Firm player kicking a provincial one. And Celtic will still scream "bias" at every turn.

But, let's see how it goes.

I have some reservations about the split between the professional game and the community game, each the responsibility of a specific SFA board. My reason for these reservations is simple: I do not think that such serial under-performers in the senior SFL Third Division as East Stirlingshire, Montrose or Berwick Rangers are better-run, better-funded and more professional than the top Junior sides. I can certainly say, many of the top Junior sides are certainly not "community" clubs - they hire mercenaries, usually never-weres, occasionally has-beens, as readily and with as little relevance to their community as any senior side. Certainly, to make the Highland and East of Scotland League sides "professional" while the Junior Superleague sides are not, shows no regard for reality.

The appointment has not yet been made, but, come-on: what good will a Performance Director do? Neil Lennon, Ally McCoist, Jim Jefferies and most-certainly "Granpaw" Broon will hardly take kindly to being told they are doing something wrong by a Hampden pen pusher. I could maybe see the need or reason for a full-time Technical Director, to run the coaching course, oversee youth development and so forth, but Performance Director - nope, don't get it.

I now see, emboldened by the success of getting his proposed changes through the agm, Stewart Regan is turning his attention to league amalgamation. This is a no-brainer, Scottish football doesn't just have too-many league organisations, it also has too-many "senior" clubs who are not senior. More power to Regan's elbow on this one though, but I fear he faces a long, very hard and bloody fight to amalgamate the SFL and SPL.

Right now I feel we're more-likely to see Glasgow Rantic playing in the English Premiership or Cumnock Talbot winning the West of Scotland Superleague.

Never mind, go for it Stewart, but don't expect a quick breakthrough.