Enough Is Enough

I AM but one of several voices, crying in the wilderness, but, surely, after our abject half hour of surrender in Moscow last night, the cry MUST come up from the majority within the body of the Scottish Fitba Kirk: “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.”

Stephen Clarke is a good manager – he surely proved that at Kilmarnock. But, as I have been saying for years, even the best managers would struggle to operate within the flawed system which is Scottish Football.

Steve Clarke - not the first Scotland boss to be undermind

by the flawed system that is Scottish Football

I never differentiate between The World Cup and The European Championships, when it comes to the qualifying rounds, we face the a selection from the same 53 potential opponents regardless – we only face fresh challenges if we actually get through to the World Cup Finals.

The fact is, in my lifetime (I was three when we first entered the World Cup) I have seen us go from international Premiership-class contenders, to League One strugglers. We are, if you like, the Clyde of international football.

Back in 1950, after we failed, by one goal, to qualify for the World Cup Finals, FIFA then offered us a “wild card' entry – which, in their wisdom, the SFA rejected. This was the inglorious start to an inglorious series of SFA fuck-ups where big international tournaments were concerned:

• 1954 World Cup – Carry On Up The Alps, as the SFA drops a whole host of experienced caps after a pre-tournament spanking from England; order the wrong strips; then see the part-time manager resign midway through the tournament.
• 1958 World Cup – They send Tommy Docherty and Archie Robertson to scout the Paraguayans, then ignore their report.
• 1962 World Cup – Baxter and Crerand fall-out over a water bottle between full-time and extra time in a play-off in Brussels, we lose to the eventual runners-up and fail to qualify.
• 1964 European Championships – The SFA decides: “We're no playin',” and does not enter. Then Scotland goes to Madrid and beats eventual champions Spain 6-2, A bad case of what might have been.
• 1966 World Cup – Scottish managers in England refuse to rest key players, and we have to send a below-strength team to the crucial final game in Italy. Mind you, conceding two goals to Poland in the last five minutes of a game at Hampden might go down as something of an “own goal.”
• 1968 European Champions – We beat World Champions England to go top of the table, then lose to a one-man show from George Best in Belfast, and fail to qualify.

You see a pattern beginning to develop. It's almost as if the SFA Council sat down at the start of each qualifying campaign and asked: “Right lads, how can we mess it up this time?”

In the 1970s and 1980s we became serial World Cup qualifiers, going to five straight final tournaments. However, squads, including as players or managers, 45 of the current 116 inductees into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame, failed to qualify for the five European Championship tournaments in the same period.

If a squad containing the likes of Bremner, Dalglish, Souness, Jordan, Miller and McLeish, and managed by Jock Stein, could fail dismally to qualify for the European Championships, what's the use in getting annoyed at the present-day squad?

But, enough history – where do we go from here?

Clearly, the present governance model for Scottish football is not working. Now, the Scottish Rugby Union gets a bad press about their management of that game, but, to be fair to the guys running things at BT Murrayfield, they are not afraid to try things.

Right now, former Scotland winger, billionaire oil man Sir Bill Gammell is conducting a review of the SRU's governance (the way the game is run). Can you honestly see the SFA allowing a billionaire former player (assuming they could find one) to conduct an exercise in their game? No, me neither – the butchers, bakers and candle-stick makers who mis-manage our clubs don't need to hear from an outsider, how badly they are doing – fine they ken.

So, short of an organised grass-roots fan-led rebellion, which aint gonna happen, I think we may be stuck in this rut for a while.

Here's what I would do:

• Cut the number of “senior” clubs; 42 is at least 22 too many.
• Cut the number of divisions in our national league – we don't need more than two.
• Bring back “the eight diddies” or “three foreigners” rule, to encourage the clubs to bring through home-grown talent.
• Encourage this young talent, form an Under-23, B or Futures squad, to bridge the gap between the Under-20/21 teams and the full team.
• Make the Old Firm understand – THE team in Scotland is the national side, not either of you. You are no more important than any other club.
• Somehow, divest ourselves of this: “Here's tae us, wha's like us” attitude when it comes to football. We haven't been really good for at least 40 years, probably longer.

We cannot stagger on as we have been doing. Something needs to change, and quickly. However, as yet, I do not detect the willingness to accept and adopt real change being abroad yet.

Who knows, maybe if we lose to San Marino, things might change.

Naw, we couldnae, could we?