It's Time Fitba Entered the 21st Century

THIS IS A BEE which I have had in my bunnet for some time now – but isn't it about time IFAB – The International Football Associations Board – FIFA's ultimate body as regards the Laws of the Game – earned its keep and made those Laws suitable for the game in the 21^st century.

If we take 1863, when the Football Association was formed, as Year Zero for The Beautiful Game, then we've been playing the game for 163 years. In that time, it has changed to such a degree, those Victorian age pioneers who started things off, transported via time travel to watch a top league or international game today would be dumb-struck by what they saw.

The basic concept, they could still understand – the idea of the game being to propel the ball, mainly by foot, downfield to score goals by placing that ball into the appropriate goal. But, I dare say they would struggle to cope with the players' kit, the ball, some of the tactics, certainly the attitude of the players: while I fear the concept of VAR would be beyond them.

Over these 163 years there have been countless instances of what we might call “Shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic” but, no genine case of the game's rulers making a determined effort to introduce Association Football 2:0. I believe that time is now.

Perhaps the biggest talking point in Scottish Fitba at the moment is what some people are calling: “Celtic Time” - the way the defending Champions keep scoring winning or equalising goals in time added-on. Indeed there is even a social media meme which shows the Fourth Official holding up the board indicating how much time added-on will be played, that board reads: “Till Celtic score”.

This is nothing new in the game, it used to be, in England, time added-on was known as: “Fergie Time” due to the number of times Alex Ferguson's Manchester United would pull matches out of the fire after the clock ticked past 90 minutes.

Ninety minutes (to halves of 45 minutes each) has been the official time which a football match lasts, since Victorian days. Perhaps, more than 150 years into the evolution of the game, it is time for change.

The English Premier League takes careful note of statistics. The average top-tier English game, from kick-off to final whistle, lasts on average, 109 minutes; yet, the ball is in play for only 55 minutes. Effectively, for nearly half the time the game lasts, nothing significant is happening.

When you consider how much match tickets, programmes, food and drink in the ground costs, this is barely value for money.

Why not do what is the norm in North American sport and switch to Ball In Play Time? In sports such as American Football or Ice Hockey each game lasts 60 minutes, but, that represents 60 minutes of actual play; when the ball (or puck) goes out of play, or is “dead” or when play is being re-started after a goal, the clock stops and doesn't restart until the referee blows.

Football could also take a hint from other games, wherein when play stops, it has to resume within a certain time. In Rugby Union, for instance, the ball has to be put into a scrum or line out within 30 seconds of the game stopping, while place kickers taking a penalty goal or conversion also have to do so within a set time.

I would reckon, going to ball in play time would necessitate the use of specialist time keepers, perhaps even with a secondary time keeper to adjudicate in the time it might take to restart play. Football at the top level could easily afford this. The introduction of official time keepers would free-up referees from time-keeping to concentrate on actual play.

Why not also taking another cue from Rugby Union. There, when the 80 minutes match time expires, the game does not automatically end until the ball goes dead – introducing this would go some way towards ending the controversies over time added-on.

 

The Diddy Teams Can Entertain Too

SATURDAY was a good day for the (paper) roses, as Neil McCann and Billy Dodds got their first win as the Kilmarnock management team. This was a huge boost to all us worried Rugby Parkers, who had began to fear the tide would never turn. Now – hopefully – it's onwards and upwards in a spring surge.

I watched Hearts demolish Dundee United on TV on Saturday night. I have to say, they played some impressive fitba and thoroughly deserved their win. I couldn't help wondering what Jim McLean might have made of United's display – which was nothing short of disgraceful.

Their first red card was maybe unfortunate, but the second boy deserved to go for sheer stupidity. Clearly a “Dundee Kiss” has nothing like the velocity and sheer anger of the “Glasgow” version; however, he had to go for sheer stupidity. Mind you, had I been the referee, I would have been thinking of a yellow card for the Hearts' player – for “over-acting”.

Good to see age has not mellowed Dave Bowman, who was also red-carded. I have interviewed Dave, and you couldn't meet a nicer fellow, however, when the whistle blows, he still shows how he was deeply immersed in the Jim McLean culture.

FOLLOWING NEARLY a decade on the Paisley Daily Express Sports Desk, during which Love Street became almost a second home to me, I still, a quarter of a century on, have a soft spot for the Buddies.

Watching Saints squander chance after chance at home to Hearts on Tuesday night, I kept waiting for the ten-man visitors to break out and snatch a 1-0 win – that's a movie I have seen too often in the past. Never mind the Superstars – Gerry Baker, Gunni Torfason, Frank McAvennie, Frank McDougall or Frank McAvennie; with merely competent chance-takers such as Basher Lavety or Mark Yardley up front. In fact, I'd have backed the likes of Chris Iwelumo (pictured below) or even Junior Mendes to have had the Buddies home and hosed by half time.

However, in the end, Stephen Robertson got the win he desperately needed, even if, in the process, he added oxygen to the Championship hopes of the Bigot Brothers and made life a bit more difficult for my own redemption hopes for Kilmarnock.

ONE ASPECT of Tuesday night's game, which did concern me, was this: St Mirren only had two Scotsmen in their starting line-up, Hearts had four. This means, 72% - nearly three-quarters of the starters in a top-flight Scottish League game were non-Scots.

To my mind, a domestic league which allows this and a national governing body which allows that league to so ignore local talent is guilty of total dereliction of duty. These figures are a disgrace.

In my last wee piece above, I mentioned my near decade covering St Mirren, in that time, for all but a couple of seasons, the Buddies were in the old First Division, now The Championship; yet they still produced the following players for various Scottish age group teams (and apologies if I miss anyone out, I'm working from memory here):

Alan Combe, Derek Scrimgeour, Martin Baker, Chris Kerr, Sergei Baltacha, David McNamee, Burton O'Brien, Jamie Fullarton, Brian Hetherston, Hugh Murray, Steven McGarry, Chris Iwelumo, Ricky Gillies, and David Milne. They still had Basher at that time, plus Norrie McWhirter, perhaps the unluckiest player in Scottish football history in that injuries kept under-mining his undoubted class and talent.

The St Mirren team I covered had a central core of Paisley boys, this had always been the club's way. Today, a genuine Buddie in the squad is a rarity and for all their status as a top division club, I wonder if the home fans are truly happy with this situation.

I'm not having a go at Saints here, they are just one of too-many Scottish clubs who have decided to almost ignore native talent in a vain bid to close the gap on the Big Two. I think this buying in non-Scottish talent is the wrong tactics; what the other clubs should be doing is levelling-up the playing field by insisting on a CBA – a Collective Bargaining Agreement – by the rest getting together to stand up to the Big Two and by insisting on the implementation of Chick Young's Eight Diddies Rule – to pro-actively encourage native talent; then maybe we would be getting somewhere.

 

Scottish Fitba Is Corrupt To The Core

CELTIC GIVE UP A LEAD then have a player red-carded, dropping behind Rangers in the title race and failing to cut into Hearts' lead at the top of the SPL table – cue outrage, a media storm and yet another example of that old chestnut: “Celtic: Never defeated – always cheated”.

The Cellik Man in the next bed to me in the hospital ward had a relapse watching the game, before unleashing a tirade of abuse at VAR Official John Beaton. In this instance, with justification – Auston Trusty was never the last man, it was never a red card. You could chalk it up as yet another in the lengthy litany of “honest mistakes” made by Scottish officials. However, John Beaton has what in legal terms is known as “previous” when it comes to decisions which have cost Celtic.

The High Heid Yins of the game have made a total bollocks of VAR. Rugby Union hasn't got it right, but, their use of Television Match Officials – not least the protacol whereby the exchange between the team on the park and the man in the TV truck is broadcast live to the crowd in big games means, everyone knows the thinking and the process – there are no secrets.

Mind you, even if Football went down the Rugby Union route for clarity, where the Bigot Brothers are concerned, there would still be controversy and claims of nefarious practices.

Scottish Fitba – the basket case that keeps on giving. That said, on Sunday, following events at Tynecastle and Ibrox via the BBC Shortbread website, with Rangers toiling to break down a stubborn Dee defence, I was wondering when the home team would get their penalty.

This duly arrived late in the second half, James Tavernier slotting home his 100^th League goal, before a further two strikes enabled the blue half of Glasgow to overhaul the green half into second place in the table.

THE CURRENT manification of: “I may have mentioned the War, but, I think I got away with it” is probably the Scottish mainstream media's attitude to the suggestion – apparently being driven by Falkirk - that we revert to a 16-club top league.

As I see it, going back to a 16-club top flight, while it has its merits, would be nothing other than shuffling the deck-chairs on the Titanic. I am a fan of the moves which have seen a Scottish Football Pyramid formed, but for all its merits, I feel we should go down the North American road of having one Major and a few Minor Leagues.

We all know, the biggest problem in Scottish Football is – we have two teams who are individually, far less together, bigger than the other 40 “Senior” clubs combined – as long as they have a determination to act together, given the rules governing the game here, they will influence matters unduly. The sooner they can be hived off into an NFL-style European League, or integrated into the English Premiership, the better.

Without the Bigot Brothers, there would be some half a dozen clubs each season fancing their chances of winning the league – and, IF the revamped Scottish League was properly set-up and managed, with a CBA – that's a Combined Business Agreement, an essential part of how the NFL is managed, was in place, so much the better.

Even with the Bigot Brothers involved, a revamp might work, but I would suggest we would need to have certain changes in-place: stadium infrastructure, pitch protection, stadium capacity and seating. If 16 clubs could meet the agreed criteria, great, but we ought perhaps to be looking at a maximum of 20 clubs to begin with.

Ideally, we could go further down the North American organisation road, by having two conferences: for me the DALGLISH and LAW Conferences have a nice ring.

And finally – any changes to the roganisation of the Scottish Leagues MUST include introduction of Charles Young Esq's suggestion: “The Eight Diddies Rule” whereby, each team must have eight Scotland-Qualified players on the field at all times. We have to pro-actively advance the cause of home-grown players.

FINALLY – I am indifferent to Celtic FC, I don't care who beats them domestically. I am pissed off by their victim attitude and their “Never defeated – always cheated” whining.

That said, the decision not to rescind Auston Trusty's red card is nothing short of disgraceful and demonstrates that the High Heid Yins of our game couldnae run a menauge.

 

A New Giant Is In Football Valhalla

THIS HAS BEEN a mixed week for Fitba here in God's County. Delight at the return to home turf of one of our own, Wee Billy Dodds, who has joined Kilmarnock as Assistant to new Manager Neil McCann, but despair at the passing, aged 88, of the Legend that was Willie Knox – arguably the greatest Manager in the History of Junior Football, a level of the Beautiful Game which we hold dear here in Ayrshire.

Willie was a Schoolboy Internationalist, going on to play for several clubs, nost-notably Raith Rovers and Barrow, where he was praised for his attitude by no less a figure than Sir Matt Busby. However, if he never really hit the heights as a player, once he turned to coaching and managing, he found his true forte.

It is one of Scottish Fitba's great myths that Talbot could barely win a corner before Knox arrived in 1977. The terrible days of constant defeat were already behind them and Jamesie Kirkland had already started to turn things around, when he was replaced by Knox, but, the new gaffer definitely took the team to a new level and with on-field success came off field improvements and over his 16-year tenure in the Beechwood Park hot seat, Knox saw the club grow massively in stature.

The trophies began to arrive, in all, Knox guided Talbot to no less than 43 league and cup successes during his managerial tenure. The initial break-through came in the West of Scotland Cup, which took up near-permanent residence in the Beechwood clubhouse; however, the big one, the Holy Grail, The Scottish Junior Cup proved elusive, until that great Hampden afternoon, in 1986, when Talbot put the mighty Pollok to the swordL: raging back from two goals down to bring the magnificent trophy back to Auchinleck for the first time since 1949.

If you've won a trophy, the best thing to do is defend it, which Talbot duly did, beating Kilbirnie at Rugby Park, to make it two in a row. History now beckoned and a third straight final, against Petershill offered Knox and his squad immortality – they would not spurn the opportunity, making it a Threepeat and history.

A couple of fallow seasons in the Scottish followed, but, in 1991 at Brockville,

Talbot were again dominant, seeing off Newtongrange Star, before a fifth win in seven years, perhaps the most-satisfying, since it was over near-neighbours Glenafton Athletic, further enhanced the legend of Willie Knox.

Fitba folklore tells us all managerial reigns end in failure and after some internal politicking in the committee room, Knox left Talbot, He had later spells in-charge at Cumnock and Irvine Meadow, but the magic wasn't there.

Willie Knox recruited good players to the club, he managed them brilliantly and if he wasn't a great tactician, he was up there in the Ferguson/Shankly class as a man manager and motivator; getting extra out of comparatively ordinary players, while at the same time having one or two in his dressing room who were, in Junior Football terms, exceptional. He demanded excellence and success and he got it.

In retirement from management, he was always a welcome guest at Talbot games, while he took great enjoyment from his involvement with his grandson's boys club team in Kilmarnock. He also played his part in the Ayrshire Football Memories Club, particularly on the afternoon when he wound-up the great Eric Caldow to unprecedented levels of anger, by reminding him of a game in the 1950s in which Knox's Raith Rovers had stuck five goals on Rangers. I don't think Eric ever fully believed Willie about that one.

In 1989 he was awarded the BEM – British Empire Medal – to mark his managerial successes and I know for a fact, the new High Heid Yins of the Scottish Football Hall of Fame are intent on getting Willie Knox into that august body just as soon as they can.

Scottish Junior Football has lost a Giant.

IF IT IS well done thou good and faithful servant of the game. When it comes to Knoxie, it's Good Luck to another Ayrshire Footballing Great, with Billy Dodds' appointment as Assistant Manager of Kilmarnock.

Neil McCann of course has the big job at Rugby Park, but he will lean heavily on his old club mate in the remainder of the season. Killie have got themselves into a major pickle and it will take eerything McCann and Dodds can bring to the job to get them away from the basement fo the league.

I wish the pair well.