WELL - I never saw that one coming, but, it appears the "blazers" on Hampden's sixth floor do occasionally lift their snouts from the feeding trough to consider the well-being, both present and future, of Scottish Football.
This has brought forth changes to the format of the League Cup, the unloved third child of the game up here; and not before time. It is a case of "back to the future", with the return of group games, weeding out the chaff, before knock-out rounds eventually produce a winner.
Of course, when the League Cup was introduced at the end of World War II, there were groups, which worked well for a time, before everyone became bored and indifferent.
Now they are back, but, with a wee twist - penalty shoot-outs in the event of a draw after 90 minutes. I applaud these efforts to breathe new life into a somewhat moribund competition, however, in this instance, I don't think the powers-that-be have gone far enough.
As things stand, the League Cup does not currently have European competition in the following season as an additional incentive for the winners. Therefore, it can be used for experimentation.
I would, for instance, have classified the League Cup as a "Development" competition, with clubs forced to select a majority of Scottish players in their team. Why not, since they are going back to an old system, go back to another former system - the "three foreigners" rule, whereby at least eight players on the park at any one time had to be Scottish.
Straight away, you even-up the playing field, between those Premiership clubs who can afford non-Scots, and their lesser bretheren who cannot.
Also, since the initial phases are in groups, and the SFA has embraced "bonus points" by allocating an extra point to any team which wins the penalty shoot-out at the end of a drawn game; why not take a leaf out of rugby's book and also award a bonus point for scoring four or more goals.
And, while we are at it, how about another rugby innovation - the "losing bonus point", whereby a club which finishes one goal behind in a high-scoring game (say 4-3, 5-4 or similar) gets a bonus point.
These changes might just encourage attacking football, which is what the public wants to see.
THE other big BTTF announcement concerned the return of the mid-season break. Again, I welcome this, in principle; of course, what will happen is - the bigger clubs will swan-off to Italy, Portugal or Spain after Christmas each year, the lesser lights will stay at home to struggle through training in mid-winter Scotland.
Oh, and while the big boys are abroad they will no doubt try to fit-in a wee friendly or two, which doesn't exactly help the notion of a break for the players. Still, a couple of winter weeks in the sun will be a nice wee number for those fitba writers lucky enough to be sent over to cover events.
AN unfortunate anniversary for Scottish international football passed almost without notice this week. Monday was the 50th anniversary of Scotland losing 0-3 to Italy in a crucial World Cup qualifier in Naples.
This game, now remembered mainly as the "Ron Yeats game", because the giant Liverpool centre-half wore the Scotland number nine strip, was, I like to think, the beginning of the end for the dominance of the SFA's Selection Committee.
Jock Stein was acting-manager for the trip, but, it should be remembered, he did not pick the squad, that was still down to the selectors. I refuse to believe Big Jock would not have the final say as to the team which took the field, but, he could only select from the squad the wise men of Park Gardens, as they then were, gave him.
Scotland's build-up wasn't helped by other events. Jim Baxter was injured and, to replace him, the selectors called-up Billy Stevenson of Liverpool, a player who, ironically, had seen his Rangers career ended by the arrival of 'Slim Jim' from Raith Rovers.
Efforts were made to have some of the Anglo-Scots rested on the Saturday before the game, but Stevenson's manager, Willie Shankly, and Matt Busby at Manchester United refused to heed the SFA's pleas and, Stevenson was injured and denied his Scotland debut - he never did win a full cap - while the iconic Denis Law was also injured on the Saturday.
Up here, Willie Henderson of Rangers also picked-up an injury and was out of the Naples trip, and, a disastrous outing for Kilmarnock against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu saw goalkeeper Bobby Ferguson, who had come in for the injured and vastly-experienced Bill Brown of Tottenham considered too mentally fragile for the Italian Job. This meant a recall from the international wilderness for Burnley's Adam Blacklaw and the final XI which Stein cobbled together showed five personnel and three positional changes from the team which had thrashed Wales 4-1 at Hampden just two weeks earlier, and contained just six survivors from the team which had beaten Italy in the first game, at Hampden.
The Scotland team contained just one player, skipper John Greig, whose caps tally was in double figures and, hard though they fought, once the Italians went in front, Scotland were never going to win, although two late Italian goals rather slewed the result.
It took a wee while for the necessary changes to the international team to be implemented, but, within 18-months, Scotland had a new manager, Bobby Brown, who did pick the squad and the final team - the power of the committee had been broken.
This change was a long time coming, but, the disastrous outing to Naples certainly helped hasten that change, for which we should be grateful.
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