Is It Time For Us To Re-Schedule Our Season For Summer Football And Better Results In Europe?

AS a youth I jumped back and forth between football and rugby. I loved both games. However, as the goalkeeper in what was the best team around, I often felt bored and disengaged, lucky if I saw action more than once of twice a half, while nearly all the action was at the other end.

In rugby, I was constantly involved, also, being in the “A stream” at my school, nearly all my class-mates played rugby, the bulk of the football team were in the C and D streams, I hardly saw them apart from at practice nights.

Back then, in the late 1950s, early 1960s, the season were more defined. In rugby, for instance, you couldn't even play a full practice match before the season officially started, on 1 September, and you could only play sevens after the 30^th of April. Football was not as strictly regulated, but, as a general rule – the big kick-off for senior football was on the second Saturday in August.

Back then, Scottish clubs were a power in Europe. OK, it was a smaller Europe, the likes of Moscow Dynamo or Dynamo Kiev would represent the USSR in the European Cup or the Fairs-Cities or Cup-Winners Cups, as the Europa League then was. You would get maybe Slovan Bratislava in the European Cup and Dukla Prague in the Cup-Winners Cup, as representatives of Czechoslovakia; today, Slovan represents Slovakia, Dukla the Czech Republic.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan etc, maybe, if they were lucky, one of their teams would get to represent the USSR, the football world was smaller.

Ten years ago, Scotland's UEFA club co-efficient placed us ninth in the rankings of European club football, we had two teams in the Champions League. That season 2006-07, Hearts won their first Champions Leagu qualifier, before losing heavily to AEK Athens, while Celtic only lost in the last 16, to AC Milan no less, in extra time. In the UEFA Cup, Rangers also reached the last 16.

The following season, we were ranked fifth in Europe as Rangers reached the UEFA Cup Final, Celtic the last 16 of the Champions League and Aberdeen the last 32 of the UEFA Cup. Then the slide began.

Since that high-water mark of 2008, the best we have managed in European competition was in 2014-15, when, almost entirely thanks to Celtic, we won 7 of the 16 European club games our teams played, today, we are ranked as the 28th-best nation in European club football. That is out of 54 nations – we are in the bottom half of the table.

It is a tribute to the continued resilience of Celtic, that we are even ranked that highly. While Rangers burned then crashed, they have battled on, getting no help from the rest.

Since 2008, Rangers have lost to FBK Kaunus of Lithuania, Falkirk to Vaduz of Liechtenstein, bloody hell, I'd back Auchinleck Talbot to beat them. Scottish teams have lost to teams from places such as Armenia and Kazakhstan which we could not point out on a map. NK Maribor of Slovenia, a team which was only formed in 1960 and comes from a place roughly the size of Paisley, has made a speciality of beating Scottish teams – and, they've got a much-better European record than St Mirren.

Maybe, just maybe, although, Ah hae ma doots; if we put some structure into our season, we could improve Scottish football, and improve our European record.

For a start, if we are going to, as I fear we will in the short term, be condemned to kicking-off our clubs' European campaigns and therefore our seasons before the Glasgow Fair, maybe we should review our season – have a winter break and, like the Scandinavian countries, play summer football. Maybe then our teams would be up to speed for the start of the European campaigns.

We need to do something, and, even though it might seem a good idea to many of us, bombing Hampden while the ”blazers” are all in there in session is a no-no, even though it might take such a move to bring about the needed changes.

We cannot go on, stumbling along as we are.

Bobby Charlton in action on that game in 1966

TODAY is not a day for going near the BBC, as they unashamedly turn back the clock 50-years, to remember when England won the World Cup.

What do you mean, you didn't know they had? I mean, they mention it so-seldom, certainly in recent years as England has become serial under-achievers on football's biggest stages. Whether it be a so-called Golden Generation of players, or highly-rated, highly-paid foreign coaches, the result has always been the same – England missing from the sharp end of either World Cups or European Championships.

So, they hark back to the days of “Alf's Boys” - 1966 and all that.

Now, there were some things to deplore about that World Cup, not least the fact we blew it badly in qualifying, not least when we flung away seemingly-certain Hampden victory against Poland. But, the fact is: any team which contained the best goalkeeper in the world, the best left-back, the best sweeper and the best player “in the hole”, had to have a chance.

If you were picking a World XI at that time, Gordon Banks, Ray Wilson, Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton would all have been in it. So too might Jimmy Greaves, if you could decide between him, Eusebio, Pele and Denis Law for the main striker's role.

OK, so, as every Scot knows, Geoff Hurst only actually scored two goals in the final, but, against that, the free-kick from which West Germany equalised at the end of normal time was never a foul in the history of the game. And, how (on the basis of my enemy's enemy is my friend) you wished the German management had opted to allow the young Franz Beckenbauer to take-on Charlton in midfield, rather than have him try to nullify the great Sir Bobby, things might have been different. It has to be said, Beckenbauer and Charlton rather cancelled each other out over the two hours.

What that game did do, is, it changed the dynamic between Scottish and English football fan. Prior to that game, perhaps on the basis of mutual suffering – through World War II, Korea, Malaysia, Cyprus and National Service, a generation of Scots and English had served side-by-side in the cause of Great Britain. They had suffered under the Union Flag, which they both respected, and they realised, Jock, Geordie, Scouser, Yorkshire Tyke, West Midlands metal basher, Cornishman, even Cockney – they were awe Jock Tamson's bairns the gither.

Then, Jock noticed Nigel and Co celebrating an English win under the Union Flag, suddenly promoting England above Britain, and, something snapped. It would never be the same again.

Prior to 1966, Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney, Tommy Lawton, even Charlton, would, if they pulled off something special at Hampden, receive warm applause from the Scots in a Hampden crowd, or from the travelling Tartan Army at Wembley. After 1966, it was: “Bobby Moore, Superstar, walks like a woman and wears a bra”, the dynamic had changed. Grudging respect turned to hatred – the differences were accentuated, the Scottish cringe began.

And, 50-years later, we want out. But, can we really blame it all on the “Russian” linesman from Azerbaijan?