International Week - But Not For Us, Of Course

THIS is "an international week" - a period in the football calendar set-aside by FIFA for the playing of international matches. In Europe, this means, essentially, the play-off games, which will settle the final tranche of nations who will play in the 2016 European Championship finals, in France, at the end of this season.

As we already know, Scotland will not be one of these nations. Twenty-four of UEFA's member nations, 44% of the total membership, will be involved in these finals - Scotland, the nation which invented the passing game - is not one of these.

Put it another way, Scotland, one of the "foundng fathers" of football, a nation whose contribution to the game is so special it has guaranteed us a place on IFAB - the International Football Associations Board - the game's supreme laws-making body, is no longer good enough to qualify for even an outrageously bloated pool of finalists in a pan-continental championship.

Not that this is concerning the powers-that-be on the sixth floor corridor at the National Stadium. No, the likes of Stuart Regan, whichever invisible man is President at the moment, some guy McRae from a wee Highland League team if memory serves me correctly, and maybe a couple of other "blazers" will be despatched to France to observe proceedings.

Wee Gordon Strachan will pick-up a nice wee close-season earner as a media pundit, not that I grudge the wee man his paid holiday. I am confident he will take the opportunity, when there, to run the rule over our 2018 World Cup qualifiers opponents who are in France.

As for the rest of us, we will just adopt our familiar pose: noses pressed against the window, outside, looking in.

But, that is ahead. What is happening this week? Not a lot in truth. We should, perhaps, have arranged a wee friendly, given us a chance to begin blooding new and exciting young players for the qualifiers to come - except, in Scottish football there are no new and exciting young players emerging.

OK, the Under-21s do have a game against Ukraine, at St Mirren Park, tomorrow night, for which the following squad was named:

Scotland Under-21 squad

Goalkeepers
Ryan Fulton (Liverpool)
Jack Hamilton (Heart of Midlothian)
Liam Kelly (Rangers)

Defenders
Stuart Findlay (Celtic, on loan to Kilmarnock)
Marcus Fraser (Ross County)
Dominic Hyam (Reading)
Donald Love (Manchester United, on loan to Wigan Athletic)
Callum McFadzean (Sheffield United)
Jordan McGhee (Heart of Midlothian)
Callum Paterson (Heart of Midlothian)
Andrew Robertson (Hull City)

Midfielders
Jay Fulton (Swansea City, on loan to Oldham Athletic)
Liam Henderson (Celtic, on loan to Hibernian)
John McGinn (Hibernian)
Craig Slater (Kilmarnock)
John Souttar (Dundee United)

Forwards
Ryan Christie (Celtic, on loan to Inverness Caledonian Thistle)
Jason Cummings (Hibernian)
Billy King (Heart of Midlothian)
Stephen Mallan (St Mirren)
Oliver McBurnie (Swansea City)
Barrie McKay (Rangers)
Sam Nicholson (Heart of Midlothian)

Now, I have to admit, one or two of that group - Callum Paterson, LIam Henderson, Ryan Christie, Jason Cummings and Barrie McKay, for instance, are starting to be noticed in the domestic game. Certainly, Andrew Robertson has already broken into the full Scotland squad, but, can we honestly say any of the above, Robertson excepted, of course, is ready to push for a place in the big team?

Right now, if your caps tally is in double figures, well, you are fairly certain of being named in most, if not every Scotland squad for the net round of tournament qualifying.

We no longer have the depth of quality we had 50 or 40 years ago - and, more importantly, the way Scottish football is currently organised, this situation is unlikely to change.

Craig Brown, this week revealed he had planned to make the playing of younger Scottish players compulsory in the Scottish League, but, this plan was vetoed by the combined might of Celtic and Rangers. Why does this not surprise me?

We are told, repeatedly, that Scottish clubs cannot be forced to field a majority of Scottish-qualified players in their match-day squads. The reason given is that European Law will not allow it.

I have put the following question to various people in Scottish football, none can, or is willing to try to, answer it.

The question: How can Premiership Rugby in Englan bring in a rule whereby 76% of each club's match-day squad must be "England-qualified", yet the Scottish Football Premiership, governed by the same employment law as their English Rugby equivalent cannot?

In the Ladbrokes Premiership, each team can name an 18-man squad, 11 starters, plus seven substitutes, of whom they can use three. If the English Rugby ruling was introduced, this would mean, 14 of the 18 named players would have to be Scottish.

Now, I accept, immediate implementation of the 76% rule would in the short term impact on those clubs, such as Celtic, with a large number of non-Scots, but, if the measure was phased-in, it could be workable.

Yes, it would hurt some of the big clubs, but, not some of the smaller outfits - so, why are they not shouting for it, if only to level the playing field.

Craig Brown, when he tried to get the youngsters playing more, says the reason given was: "It would hurt us in Europe". Given how bad we have become, could fielding a team of young Scots hold us back that much?

Remember how, back when Rangers had delusions of being a force in Europe, particularly back when they lost what was effectively a semi-final against Marseilles, the three-foreigners rule was in use, and the likes of Steven Pressley, Scott NIsbet and Neil Murray gained game time they would never be near today.

The Scottish clubs are, by their short-sightedness, their determination not to trust the kids and their probable fear of offending the Old Firm, hurting Scottish football. It is time this was stopped.

AND another thing. I see MIke Ashley is asking the SFA to explain how Dave King managed to pass their fit and proper person criteria. I have been wondering about this myself.

As I have repeatedly said on here, the whole Rangers saga, ever since David Murray put the club up for sale, has been a long-running soap opera, and, at the same time, a wonderful earner for m'learned friends the lawyers.

I wonder if Donald Finlay ever regrets specialising in criminal law rather than the drier and more-boring commercial side of his profession. With events around Rangers, Fife's finest would surely have been in-line for a huge pay-out, if he had decided to specialise elsewhere.

The notion of Donald Finlay, who is, of course purely a defence advocate, leading for  the prosecution against Craig Whyte, Chuck Green & Co is surely one which would have enabled the Scottish Courts Service to make the public benches all-ticket and charge a fortune for these tickets. What a killing they could have made.