As My Sainted Mother Warned Me - If You Cannot Say Anything Good About Someone - Say Nothing

AMONG the less-salubrious tags given to the Scottish nation, and excluding such flea-bites as: “Jocks, Sweaties, or Subsidy Junkies”, which are directed at us by the lesser mongrel race south of the Tweed and Solway, are such titles – worn with a nonchalant pride by the lieges it has to be said – as “The last Barbarians in Europe” and “The fightingest people on earth”.

It has to be said – whether it be the old clan wars, or present-day Ayrshire Amateur football (the Ayrshire Junior League has cleaned-up its act, sadly) – when we are not fighting the English, we do a pretty good job of fighting amongst ourselves.

Brendan Rodgers - was it something I said?

OK, to be honest, the contestants were two overgrown kids, from opposite sides of the Irish border, but, yesterday's media sat between Brendan Rodgers and Jon Daly was meat and drink to the stenographers who cover Scottish fitba.

Maybe, in a more grown-up world than Scottish fitba, when asked about the ongoing managerial travails at Tynecastle, Brendan Rodgers would have declined to comment, other than, perhaps, to say: “The internal workings of another club are none of my business”.

Bill Shankly, for instance, never acknowledged the presence of another club on Merseyside – for him the city of Liverpool was represented by two teams – Liverpool and Liverpool reserves.

Shankly - only two teams on Merseyside, and Everton wasn't one of them

Once upon a time, if, for example, one or other of the Old Firm clubs had been in the middle of the situation currently occupying the thoughts of everyone at Tynecastle – the opposing manager would not have been asked his opinion. Boundaries were in place, niceties would have to be observed, dynamite had to remain undisturbed.

Maybe, Rodgers felt: Hearts are of little consequence, I can comment here. Maybe not, I am perhaps doing him a disservice there. But, one thing I strongly suspect, is that the hack who raised the subject perhaps saw the response as good “click-bait”.

You see, it is one of the crosses which, thankfully, I did not have to bear when “on the tools”. We were not required, as today's stenographers increasingly are, to: “build an on-line presence”.

For my part, the best way to build this “on-line presence” should be to say something interesting and thought-provoking; get people to think, this guy has something good to say, I will follow him.

For too-many in the increasingly frantic world of the 21^st century media, it seems the way to get on is to be needlessly provocative, and, if you can provoke managers and players, most of whom remember, are presumed to wear their IQs on their backs – so much the better.

Any way, it was a stupid, needless spat.

ON SATURDAY, at Murrayfield, Mark Dodson, the Chief Executive of the Scottish Rugby Union, outlined plans for a complete overhaul of the club game in Scotland.

I doubt if Stewart Regan could have come-up with plans as radical as Mark Dodson's

Under the plan revealed, Scottish Rugby will have – two full-time professional clubs (as now) – Edinburgh and Glasgow. Below them there will be six new franchises – the so-called “Super Six, semi-professional (i.e. part-time players) clubs, underpinned by a purely amateur club game.

This has allegedly, already put a few noses out of joint among those clubs who still think they are big boys in Scottish rugby. The discussions and arguments will be prolonged and some clubs will gain, while others lose out.

But, the SRU has identified the deficiencies in the game up here and, rather than merely shuffling the deckchairs, while the iceberg hoves into view – they are prepared to try something radical and different.

I have an interest in rugby, and I have my doubts about one or two issues, as planned, but, overall, it's a good plan.

What might Scottish football do in similar circumstances?

Well, let's look at history, since the end of World War II

• 1950s – 16-club top flight, 37 senior clubs in two divisions – qualified for both World Cups in the decade. One club reached the European Cup semi-final.
• 1960s – still 16-club top-flight, 7 senior clubs in two divisions – DNQ for two World Cups and one European Championship, but, one European trophy won and two final appearances.
• 1970s – league system changed midway through decade to 10-club top-flight, underpinned by two divisions – 38 senior clubs. Qualified for two World Cups, DNQ for two European Championships. One European trophy won, one final appearance.
• 1980s – minor tinkering with division sizes, but still a three-division, 38-club senior game. Qualified for two World Cups, DNQ for three European Championships. One European trophy won and one final appearance.
• 1990s – more minor tinkering – now four, ten-club divisions – 40 senior clubs. Qualified for two World Cups out of three and two European Championships out of two. Champions League formed so European performances dip as money starts to shout.
• 2000s – still more minor tinkering, up to 42 senior clubs. World Cup and European Championships qualifying performances and results drop alarmingly – qualifying play-offs at best. European club results, two finals appearances, after dropping down from Champions League to UEFA Cup. Club co-efficient begins to drop alarmingly season by season.

The “brains” within Scottish Rugby have, rightly or wrongly, decided: “We can only sustain eight meaningful clubs, able to offer a standard of rugby which justifies paying their players”. Now, you may not agree with this, and many within Scottish rugby do not.

But, it looks likely that this new format will go through. Aspiring young players in Scotland will know there is a place for their talent. If they are good enough, they will be able to make a living from football. If not, they will still be able to play for their local club.

Is it not perhaps time the SFA looked at a similar system? I dare say Scottish football could sustain a system, with maybe as many as 16 or 20-clubs, paying players to play (a small elite full-time, most part-time), but underpinned by a community club set-up which still allowed talent to flourish and be identified for progression up to the professional game.

Of course, for this system to work properly – there would have to be positive discrimination in favour of Scottish-born and raised, or Scotland-qualified players. No more squads with more non-Scots than Scots in them. But, I reckon such a system might be the saving of the game up here, which has been on an ever-accelerating downward spiral for decades.

It's worth thinking about.