THE cracks are already starting to show; no sooner have Messrs Doncaster, Longmuir and Regan stood on the top step at Hampden, brandishing a wee slip of paper and proclaiming: "Peace in our time", than one of the "blazers" breaks ranks.
And well said Stewart Gilmour, the "Fat Controller" of St Mirren Park, for having the good sense and bottle to say: "Me no likee" to the absurd 12-12-18 plans.
Admittedly wee Stewart - a guy I know quite well and like, also, the one chairman in Scottish senior football with experience of top-flight European competition, as a member of a legendary Kelburne Hockey Club squad which won hockey's equivalent of the old European Cup-Winners' Cup, then over-celebrated and caused an international incident between Spain and Gibraltar, but, that's another story - hasn't spoken out for the common good, but on a basis of what's best for the Buddies.
Still, given the way things usually work in the SPL, one dissenting voice will surely become three, then five and so on and Peter Lawwell will have to resort to arm-twisting to get his way. Meanwhile, across time, Chuckie will also be indulging in the time-honoured Ibrox tradition of threats and intimidation to get his way, which also isn't 12-12-18 and the chances are, we'll end up with a right pig's breakfast.
If only we could get back to the time when the Old Firm spoke with a single voice and the rest jumped, but, we may have to wait a while for this to happen again - if ever.
Laws changed in haste are seldom good laws, made better by the change. Better perhaps by far for the clubs to go in for some genuine cost-cutting: do they really need such large squads? Might not they do just as well with a small squad of key men who are full-time, and who perhaps work at their game to the same extent as golfers, tennis players, even professional rugby players, augmented by some part-timers, within a capped quota of players, say 23 or 25?
Might it not be a good idea to genuinely invest in youth? Why not, in the SFL, go for something akin to the Olympic Games selection criteria, and insist on mainly Under-23 squads, thus giving youth its chance to develop?
If the TV companies are unwilling to pay a decent figure for coverage of Scottish football, why not tell them to go stuff themselves, go back to 3pm Saturday kick-offs and really SELL the benefits of actually going to games?
Why not look again at starting a dedicated Scottish Football TV Channel, round-ups, news etc on Freeview - the top game each week on Pay Per View. Production costs in TV are, so we are told, coming down year-on-year thanks to cheaper and newer technology, it could work?
Why not play around with the laws? OK as far as the actual playing of the game is concerned, there's not a lot they can do in terms of things such as changing the offside law or introducing rugby/cricket/tennis style television intervention in terms of contentious decisions. But, why not try things such as doing away with draws - and here I understand a draw at 90 minutes would still be a draw for football pools purposes; but, the teams could then go into what American sport terms "overtime" to get a decision: one 15-minute period seeking a "silver goal", ie score in that period, the score at the end of the 15-minutes is the match score. Still level, we have a second 15-minute period seeking a "golden goal", which ends the match. Still level, we go to penalty kicks.
There is a case too for bonus points, as happens in rugby. Why not one bonus point for every three goals scored, with losing sides getting a bonus point if they only lose by a single goal? Here, I would only allow this provided the losing side scored at least two goals, which might encourage more-attacking play.
I would also think of upping the number of points awarded per match. Why not try:
- seven points being awarded to a team winning in 90 minutes
- a six-one points division if the game was won on a "silver goal"
- a five-two points division if the game was won on a "golden goal"
- a four-three points division if the game was won on penalties
And remember losing sides could still gain extra points if they had a go. If a match finished say 5-4 in 90 minutes, the winning side would get eight points, the losing side two. A willingness to keep going forward rather than shutting-up shop to try to achieve a narrow loss in a low-scoring game would be rewarded. Fans want goals, try to give them to them.
Standing still isn't an option, but, if genuine efforts are made to make Scottish football more competitive, more attractive, with more goals scored and with more Scottish players scoring them, who knows, we might get back to somewhere akin to where we think we once were in European and World terms.
With goodwill and a bit of thought, we could do it.
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