Sorry Wee Man - You're Not The Answer

SO, it seems we are to get the "Ginger Whinger" as the new Scotland boss - once again, the Tartan Army gets the man it wants, the Hampden "blazers" buy themselves a few months of respite from "friendly fire" and we trundle along in the rut we have struggled along for this entire century.

Nothing against wee Gordon, he was a terrific player with Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and Scotland. He was a very good manager with Celtic, lacking only the Celtic family DNA (being a "Ginger" was seemingly insufficient) or he would have been canonised as a Celtic Great ere now; however, all those trophies weren't enough to make him "one of us" - shame.

However, managing Scotland, where you have to pish with the small cock you've been given, in terms of native-born talent, is not the same as managing a club as big as Celtic. When things went slightly awry at Parkhead he only had the lunatic fringe of the Celtic Family to worry about. When, as they surely will, things go awry with Scotland, the wee man will have the entire country on his back.

Given his reputation as a wee bit of a nippy sweety - perhaps learned at the feet of Scottish football's ultimate nippy sweety - might not Gordon, as he has done before, say: "Sod this for a game of soldiers" and return to the bosom of his buddies in the meja darn sarf?

We can, at least, expect him to enjoy a good working relationship with Billy Stark, which can only be good. However, one area where neither Strachan, Stark, Mark Woete or anyone else with any input into the Mission Impossible of getting Scotland back (even below the salt) at football's top table has any discernible input is in changing the mindsets within Scotland's board rooms.

And, until we clear-out the intelluctually-challenged directors whose lack of vision, common sense or more-importantly, intelligence, to see that Scottish football overall is in a mess, then not even a combination of Sir Alex Ferguson with Jose Mourinho as assistant could get Scotland to a World Cup or European Championship final tournament.

We still produce kids as good as any - but - the system will not let them flourish, and no manager can change the failed system. Only the directors can and the will is not there.

MICHAEL Grant wrote a very good piece in Monday's Herald about the current undeclared war between Celtic and Rangers, then, right on cue, in Tuesday's papers, Charles "Motormouth" Green came out in favour of a 14-14-14 split, as against the seemingly preferred 12-12-18 suggestion of the SPL and SFL for the new-look to Scottish league football.

Yawn, yawn, yawn - talk about weans, prams and toys.

I ALSO note that Richard Scudamore of the English Premiership has come out this week and said there is no chance of Celtic and Rangers, either together or separately, being admitted to the Premiership.

As I have repeatedly said: the two clubs, if they must leave Scotland to fully cash-in on their earning potential, would best be served by lobbying within the ECA, the European Clubs Association, for the speedy formation of a full-scale, NFL-style European League, rather than giving themselves a sore head battering at the closed door in England.

Look at the set-up in the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, MLB and MLS - the big North American professional leagues in American Football, basketball, ice hockey, baseball and "real" football.

The clubs start off playing local conference games, playing down to a big show-down, this can be a seven-game series (basketball, ice hockey and baseball) or a one-off game such as "Superbowl) or the MLS Championship Game.

Extrapolate the American system into Europe - instead of having "conferences" such as the AFL or NFL ones, we have cross-border regional leagues; we then have the knock-out stages of the Champions and Europa Leagues, where in North America they have conference play-offs, leading to the likes of baseball's World Series. It's not that big a leap of the imagination.

Celtic, Rangers - forget England, Europe is the future.

However, if they must get into England, persuade the SFA to give up their independence and rejoin the (English) FA - let's go back to where we were in 1872. At least that's a bit closer to the present day than 1690 - the date a large proportion of the fan base seem to want to be. Although I don't see Alex Salmond, for one Tartan Army member, being too happy.

Old Dogs - Old Tricks

IT IS as the old cliche has long reminded us, impossible to teach an old dog new tricks; thus, Charles Green, a blunt Yorkshireman who seemingly cannot help but continue the ages-old caricature of all men from the broad acres being plain-spoken men, not afraid to speak their mind.

He is also, the more he opens his mind, seeming living proof that a well-balanced Yorkshireman is thus, because he has a chip on both shoulders.

Another gentleman apparently having difficulty learning new tricks is Mr Green's Communications Director, wee James Traynor. Now were James still "Chiefy" Traynor, sports supremo of the Daily Ranger/Daily Rhebel (delete according to whether you are of the Orange or [Irish rather than Yorkshire] Green persuasion), Charlie boy's latest utterances, including his ludicrous threat to take UEFA to the Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg, would be a cracking story.

Cue Traynor, wearing the hat he hung-up in December as Chief Sports Writer at Anderston Quay, blasting Mr Green all over his tabloid pages for coming up with such pish.

But, Traynor is now supposed to be Green's mouthpiece to the world, ensuring that Rangers get the most-sympathetic hearing from the world at large. In that position, why didn't James gag his boss, or, at least tell him, before he went public: "Charlie, this is pish, shut-up or you'll be laughed at by everyone.

In any case, even if he believes he has a case, doesn't Mr Green remember the can of worms the late and unlamented Duff & Duffer opened when they went to court, ignoring in the process SFA protocols.

The body of the Scottish football "kirk" wanted Rangers punished for the excesses of the Murray years and the shambles of the Craig Whyte months. That punishment took the form of banishment to the basement, from which the club must emerge on merit and having served their punishment. Bleating about the unfairness of winning a division then having to win it again is rubbish.

Rangers should win the fourth tier of Scottish football this season. This will take them into the third tier next season. If the 12-12-18 proposals are ratified in time to be implemented come August, they will start off season 2013-14 in the third tier - exactly the same place as they will start if nothing happens.

Rangers, should they win SFL3 and find re-organisation places them in the new unified league set-up's third tier will have moved-up. Mr Green should shut-up and get on with it.

If he truly believes that he has a case for taking his club out of Scottish football, presumably into the English pyramid, then let him fight for that perceived "right" through the proper channels - via UEFA and the Court of Arbitration in Sport in Switzerland. Such a move would be costly and, I believe, in the end futile.

Mr Green missed the boat for moving Rangers to England. He just might have been able to do it had he applied to join Division Two of the Northern League last summer, at the time when he had acquired Rangers from Duff & Duffer, but didn't have SPL or SFL membership.

Back then, as a club with no league to play in, he MIGHT have been able to pull it off; more especially had he perhaps at the same time bought a struggling English club such as Portsmouth then were, moved that club lock, stock and barrel to Glasgow, called it Portsmouth Rangers and put it in the Football League, Division One - the moment he secured SFL membership for his club, that door closed on him.

Mr Green's best plan, as I see it, is to build bridges with the other SFL clubs, demonstrate the folly of these unworkable 12-12-18 plans and push for something better.

Got Any Spare Change Guv? - For This Latest One Beggars Belief

I HAVE maintained, from my very first post in this blog, that only radical thinking and solutions can ever prevent Scottish football from vanishing down the tubes. And this radical thinking MUST come from the top, the "blazerati" within Hampden's corridors of power.

Sadly, I do not detect enough men of vision and radical thought within the ranks of the power brokers; mind you, that said, I never saw the agreement which produced the junior football superleagues and revitalised the true home of football in Scotland - but, it happened, so maybe I am being unduly pessimistic.

It is for the reasons outlined above, that I fear our brave new world of three leagues of 12-12-18 clubs will, like the Scottish Football League's Premier Division, First Division, Second Division plan of 1975 or the Scottish Premier League's breakaway of 1998 failed. Every time Scottish senior football re-organises, it is on the basis of maintaining the same number of clubs as there were when the re-organisation happened.

And the brutal truth, which nobody dare speak, is - WE'VE GOT TOO-MANY SENIOR CLUBS IN SCOTLAND.

We don't need three leagues, to accommodate 42 teams. When the SFL introduced the ten-club Premier Division in 1975, we had 38 clubs, playing in an 18-club First Division and a 20-club Second - and that was seen as a case of too-many clubs.

Fast-forward to 1998-99 and the start of the SPL and their top-ten broke away and rather than fewer clubs, Scottish senior football had more clubs, 40 in all, all seeking a greater share of a shrinking "cake" in terms of gate income.

The only two clubs to have benefitted from these cosmetic changes in numbers of divisions, numbers of clubs per divisions and gate money are Celtic and Rangers, yet, the rest somehow, seduced by the glamour of the Big Two, seem incapable of realising this, so we stumble on.

Thankfully, unless the News International/ESPN management send round the 21st century equivalent of Messrs Kray & Co, Enforcers, tooled-up and ready to use their tools, to a future meeting of the FA Premiership executive; Celtic and Rangers are stuck in Scotland until that day in the future when, totally pissed-off with UEFA and FIFA the European Clubs Organisation breaks away to form a European NFL. Then, maybe, since they are, regardless of Celtic's protests to the contrary as a two-club job lot, we will be rid of their imbalancing act and Scottish football can re-form and maybe move forward.

I still see no alternative other than a 24-club Scottish National League; the 24-clubs playing in two, 12-club American-style conferences, with wild-card games and play-downs leading to the top-eight clubs - the top four in each conference, playing -down via European-style two-legged games to an eventual "Superbowl" game to determine the champions, while those clubs which didn't make the top eight or who lost out in the quarter and semi-finals play each other until we have a 1-24 pecking order.

Below that, we should have Regional Leagues, atop a pyramid to include the junior clubs, the Highland, East of Scotland and South of Scotland Leagues. These clubs would, as in England, have entry to the national cup competition, but, again, as in England, would have to play through qualifying rounds.

I would have a cap on the number of players each of the SNL clubs could employ - what's wrong with a Champion's League-style cap at a 25-man pool of players? I would allow them, in fact I would insist, they have an Under-21 player development/academy coaching set-up in place; but, I would insist that, at aged 21, the players be farmed-out to regional league clubs and given until at least the age of 23 to show they might make it, before they could come back into the SNL in an American-style "draft" system - with the team ranked 24th having first pick and so-forth.

I don't say we should abandon the long tail of clubs in the lower reaches of the senior ranks, rather, let them find their own level, sink or swim.

In 1975, when the first attempt at genuine post-war re-organisation was made, the Division Two final table read, in descending order: Falkirk, Queen of the South, Montrose, Hamilton Academical, East Fife, St Mirren, Clydebank, Stirling Albion, Berwick Rangers, East Stirlingshire, Stenhousemuir, Albion Rovers, Raith Rovers, Stranraer, Alloa Athletic, Queen's Park, Brechin City, Meadowbank Thistle, Cowdenbeath, Forfar Athletic.

In 1998, as the Top Ten broke away to form the SPL, the clubs in the bottom half of the senior games were (again in descending order): Division Two: Stranraer, Clydebank, Livingston (formerly Meadowbank), Queen of the South, Inverness CT, East Fife, Forfar Athletic, Clyde, Stenhousemuir, Brechin City.

Division Three: Alloa Athletic, Arbroath, Ross County, East Stirlingshire, Albion Rovers, Berwick Rangers, Queen's Park, Cowdenbeath, Montrose, Dumbarton.

As I write this, the pecking order in the bottom two divisions of the SFL reads (again in descending order) - Second Division: Queen of the South, Alloa Athletic, Brechin City, Forfar Athletic, Arbroath, East Fife, Stenhousemuir, Ayr United, Stranraer, Albion Rovers.

Third Division: Rangers, Queen's Park, Montrose, Peterhead, Elgin City, Berwick Rangers, Annan Athletic, Clyde, East Stirlingshire, Stirling Albion.

There are 30 clubs in the above three lists; 12 clubs - Queen of the South, Montrose, East Fife, Berwick Rangers, East Stirlingshire, Stenhousemuir, Albion Rovers, Stranraer, Alloa Athletic, Queen's Park, Brechin City and Forfar Athletic have featured in all three bottom-half listings. A further five clubs: Clydebank (now Airdrie United following the take-over), Stirling Albion, Meadowbank Thistle (now Livingston), Cowdenbeath and Arbroath featured in two of the three lists; so we can safely say that there is a hard-core of "bottom feeders" in the senior game who are making little or no contribution to Scottish senior football other than by filling a spot in the membership - do they deserve to be allowed to survive in perpetuity whilst the lack of a pyramid system prevents ambitious clubs such as Spartans from coming in to replace them?

Are these "bottom feeders" producing a stream of talented, ambitious young players for clubs higher-up the food chain? So why should they be allowed to continue as "Senior" clubs - to my mind, they do not merit that status.

However, as regional clubs, fostering young talent from their own communities, plus a sprinkling of farmed-out young talent, from a higher status club - they would, I suggest, have a brighter future.

Under 12-12-18, they will simply bumble along as they have for the last 40-years, as will Scottish football, and we've declined as a football nation in that time.

Yes, it is time for change - but the changes have to far-more radical and far-reaching than has been suggested this week.

Ranting Ranging Raging Charlie

THERE has been a void in my life since wee Davie Leggat's blog 'Leggoland 2" was forced off-line recently, I miss his pro-Rangers, anti-Celtic rants, they were ill-informed, but entertaining. But, yesterday, I think I found where wee Davie, the Bluenose's Bluenose, had taken himself off to. I feel he has a new - and I hope well-paid gig as Charlie Green's speech writer.

Charlie Boy's latest rant - about possibly taking Rangers elsewhere if they are not immediately placed in the new 12-club "Championship" league when the re-drawn senior game kicks off, perhaps in August - is probably his worst example yet of playing to the gallery; or to be precise the claque/rump of that time-dishonoured group the Wee Arra Peepul. This group, the worst examples of Ibrox imperialism are incapable of accepting the reality of their club's present situation, and that reality is, they don't deserve to be in the new 'Championship' on their club's playing record.

If, as we now expect, Rangers win SFL Division III at the end of this season - if there was to be no change in the leagues set-up and the status quo was maintained, when season 2013-2014 kicks off, Rangers will be - on paper - the 32nd-ranked team in Scotland. Now old Charlie Sturrock, my long-dead mathematics teacher at school would quite rightly line me up for four of the best, were I to try to argue that 32nd is one of the top 24 places in any pecking order.

There might be a case for putting Rangers into the 'Championship' IF as with the Greed is Good SPL, ground capacity and facilities become part of the consideration for a place in the two top leagues, the 'Premiership' and 'Championship'; but, as yet we don't know if this will happen. And if having what we might call SPL compliance, then Airdrie, whose New Broomfield (or whatever it is called this week) ground is also SPL-compliant and who are ranked above Rangers in the current pecking order, have greater call on one of the top 24 places. Also, I don't see those hadnful of non-SPL-compliant clubs who are ranked above Rangers being too-happy if they are demoted below them and miss-out on the perceived riches to be had from entertaining the Ibrox hordes in league games.

No, in this instance, my advice is: shut up Charlie, work your way up through the ranks with the perceived "dignity" which Rangers have always shown.

That said - the whole 12-12-18 plan is a joke and a non-starter. It will make not a jot of difference to Scotland's slipping place in world football. We are still heading down the stank at a great rate.  

The Lunnys Are Running The Asylum

I SEE Vincent Lunny, the unqualified, unelected SFA Compliance Officer has decided that Heart's Ryan Stevenson's tackle on Hibs captain James McPake during the recent Edinburgh "Derby" is worthy of a two-game suspension. This is yet another example of my contention that the "lunatics" have well and truly taken over the Hampden "asylum".

 

To go to basics: football doesn't have "rules", it has "laws" (not that that makes much difference); these laws are enforced by the match referee, who, as Law V (i) grandly proclaims: "is the sole judge of fact".

 

Down the 150 years since the Football Association was formed to organise and govern the game in England, through the start of international football in 1872, via the formation of FIFA, there have been literally thousands of instances whereby referees apparently got things wrong - England's third goal in the 1966 World Cup Final; the over-the-line cross and goal in the 1932 FA Cup Final; Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" goal (come on England, the ball "played" him); the unawarded Frank Lampard "goal" in the England v Germany World Cup clash in 2010, (pay-back for 1966 perhaps). All these decisions have stood - in no case has any governing body ruled that because of an apparent refereeing error, the game should be replayed.

 

The view has grown over the years: "Yes, referees, being human, make mistakes, get over it and move on". Now, here we have Mr Lunny, a man with no refereeing qualifications of experience, a man who has never played a single game as a professional footballer, acting as judge and jury in over-ruling referees, in this case Willie Collum, one of Scotland's indeed Europe's, senior officials.

 

I accept, by the way, that Mr Collum has some "form" with regard to controversy. That said, he remains for my money a top official. He may well have had an "off" day in the Edinburgh Derby; perhaps he got this call wrong, but, when he decided to take no action on Stevenson's tackle, that should have been the end of it.

 

In appointing Mr Lunny the SFA, I believe, exceeded their authority. If we accept that there is need for a compliance officer to mentor contentious refereeing decisions and perhaps review decisions made post-match, then hand-down bans, then the appointment of such officers ought to be done through FIFA and IFAB, the International Football Associations Board - the game's supreme law-making body.

 

Here, Scotland does still have clout, with its own place on IFAB. If the SFA is so keen to see compliance officers installed and given real clout, then they ought to table motions at IFAB, to alter the wording of Law V (i), I would suggest they follow Rugby Union's lead and change the wording to: "The referee is the sole judge of fact, as regards events during the duration of the game". This would allow for proper review post-match, again provided the duties and scope of authority of any FA's compliance officer was agreed and set down on paper.

 

Any compliance officer appointed then had to have refereeing qualifications or considerable experience of top-flight football. I am sure, human nature being what it is, we would still have argument and dispute, but, at least the "judges" we were criticising would be experienced men who had earned their right to sit in judgement, not jumped-up articled clerks like Mr Lunny.

 

 

 

IT'S crunch time this week for Terry Butcher, arguably the most-popular Englishman in Scotland. Does he stick with Inverness Caledonian Thistle or return to England to manage Barnsley?

 

Now, in terms of: "where would I rather live, Inverness or Barnsley?" it's a no-brainer, he stays put. There is the small question of a possible crack at European football, should ICT pick-up where they left off when the SPL returns from it's winter shut-down. Add the intrigue of whether, after three "failures", at Coventry, Sunderland and Brentford, Butcher still feels he has to prove himself in his native land; sprinkle-in the bigger budget he will enjoy in the Championship, a far-richer league than the SPL, and Big Tel has some serious thinking to do.

 

Also, he just might feel that, should Ally McCoist fall or be pushed off the platform at Copeland Road subway station, he might have a chance of becoming boss of Rangers - decisions, decisions.

 

I hope he stays in Inverness for the time being. See the romantic story through to the end Tel.

 

 

 

WELL done to the magical Lionel Messi, on winning his fourth straight Balon d'Or. And while you're enjoying your triumph wee man, think how lucky you were not to have been born in Scotland, where you'd have been telt at 12: "Sorry son, you're too wee tae ever be a fitba player".

More Piss From The Men Who Have Pissed On Scottish Football

HERE we go again, the SPL has shut-down for January, so, in an effort to body swerve having to attend games in the backwater of the SFL, the opinion-formers in the mainstream media, in particular the A Team of the Scottish Football Writers Association, the intellectual "fans with lap tops" division of the Tartan ARmy are taking to writing what we in the trade call "opinion pieces".

This will prove difficult for a bunch of ne'er do wells who have, by and large, never had a self-generated opinion in their puffs. Over the week-end we have been told that an agreement is on the way, between the SPL and the SFL, which will foist a three-division 12-12-18 league set-up upon us, perhaps as early as next season. This apparently is the preferred option of those leaders of our game with huge waistlines, even bigger egos and pea-sized brains, the Hampden "blazerati".

So, the men whose inspired leadership, financial genius and football knowledge has led Scotland to hitherto unplumbed depths in international standing and has made Scottish football a standing joke across the football world are being entrusted with digging us out of the hole they got us into in the first place. Haud me back.

The fans don't want the proposed set-up, overwhelmingly they want a two-division set-up, with at least 16 clubs in the top flight. Such a system worked very well for years, but there is no going back to it.

Let's be honest, in the current economic climate, which is likely to continue for a few years, there are only two clubs in Scotland with the fan base to finance full-time football - this was the case in the golden era, post-World War II, when football enjoyed attendances they can only dream about today, it is even more obviously the case today. The rest, instead of struggling to finance over-inflated full-time squads, should be adopting the junior approach, cutting back to tight, small squads - perhaps with a Champions League-stylke cap at 25 players, ideally mostly part-time - the small number of full-timers employed primarily as development officers, going out into the local community to "sell" football. The clubs need to insist the players work harder and are paid less; this is the only way to survive.

Let's be honest too in what we can afford in infrastructure terms. David Longmuir, the SFL Chief Executive, insists Scotland must safeguard the continuation of all 42 clubs. Frankly DAvid, this is bollocks. Most of the clubs in the bottom half of the senior game are literally bottom feeders, they contribute little or nothing to the overall success or continuation of the game here.

The wee teams have a right to continue, but, they have to, in my view, re-invent themselves as community clubs, playing in regional leagues, with a priority towards making LOCAL boys fit for, if they have the talent, higher things.

We certainly need as many clubs as we can get, we need as many people as possible playing football - what we do not need is a set-up of 42 senior clubs. I still think we should be looking at a maximum of 24 

teams, playing in one national league, of two 12-club conferences of equial standing, trying to qualify for the Scottish title, which could, after the preliminary conference stage of home and away games, 22 fixtures, revert to some sort of Champions League-style knock-out format, playing down to a Scottish Superbowl at Hampden, to find the national champions.

The smaller teams, playing in regional competitions, in a pyramid with the Highland League, EAst of Scotland League and juniors, should be charged with young player development and there should be rugby-style "associate club" agreements between the 24 national league sides and the regional ones.

Then, we might have a chance of seeing Scotland prosper again. But, going to 12-12-18 and the same-old, same-old, with merely hast4en the day when football dies a lingering death in Scotland.

I have seen Scottish football's view of the future - and it will not work.

A Guid New Year Tae Ane an Awe

A Guid New Year to all readers of this blog and apologies for the recent silence; take a hard to beat virus, add the holiday season, sprinkle on a dash of melancholy and, it suddenly becomes hard to find things in Scottish football worth philosophising about.

 

However, new year, new energy, so, here we are again.  There is no disputing, 2012 was a terrible year for the beautiful game in Scotland. Almost every one of the 52 weeks was dominaterd by a single story - the Rangers melt-down and re-birth. Some fans of other clubs, in particular the members of "the Celtic Family" have spent most of the past year screaming from the rooftops that Rangers are dead, they are no more: for their own peace of mind, I wish they would shut-up and forget it. The management may be new, the controlling company ditto, but, Rangers are still very much alive and kicking. There is a clear and continuing timeline between the Gallant Pioneers and the current management; there is still a team, wearing blue shirts, white shorts and red socks playing at Ibrox - get used to it.

 

That said, the hoped-for humility which followed the Murray/Whyte mis-management, the to use HRH the Princess Royal's great phrase - "the Horlicks" which was the Duff and Duffer administration process and the uncertainties of Sevco's take-over, has as yet to emerge from Ra Peepul.

 

Leave: "We'll be back" threats to Arnie and the T101 cyborgs boys; better to say nothing, but to use the years of exile in the SFL to develop a well-oiled machine capable of returning to the top flight in Scotland and storming through that division.

 

I have a feeling that, by the time Rangers get back to the top division, the young players such as Ross Perry, Darren Cole, Chris Hegarty, Barrie McKay, Kyle Hutton and Co, currently enjoying first team exposure denied all but the best of their youthful predecessors, will have become valuable players in a more-Scottish Rangers squad than has been the case since the arrival of Graeme Souness those 27 years ago - and Rangers will be all the better for it.

 

You will note I have not used the letters S or P or L in my description of the top flight into which Rangers will be promoted, perhaps as early as August 2015, because I do not believe the "Greed is Good" league will last that long. Indeed, unless there is a wide-spread outbreak of fiscal good sense in Scottish football between now and 2015, we may well see a return to the old days of full-time squads at Celtic Park and Ibrox and mainly part-time ones elsewhere, whilst there is a real danger that Scottish football will have sunk to the level of the Welsh, Irish or League of Ireland leagues.

 

For too-long we Scots have had an unrealistic, over-inflated sense of our prowess at football and I can see little or no evidence of this changing soon. We may not all be doomed, but it seems like we are to me.

 

Scottish football isn't working, it hasn't been working for years and the biggest shame about all this is, regardless of the self-inflicted disaster which befell Rangers and the warning that ought to have been to the smaller clubs, there seems little desire within Hampden's corridors of power to put things right.

 

My biggest wish for 2013 is a wide-spread outbreak of realism striking Scottish football, coupled with a genuine desire to sort out the mess. If we got that, I'd be a happy old grump.

 

We all know what the Scots do best is fight with the English; and if they haven't got the English to fight - they fight amongst themselves. Today, there is too-much in-fighting, while the big money of Sky and the rest pushes English football at us.

 

Let's turn the tide, starting this year.