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Scottish football
living about as far as you can from scotland i would be interested in hearing what scots think about the current state of scottish football.
As i see it the standard of the spl has dropped markedly over the past few seasons with the lack of any sort of progress in europe when seemingly (appart from hearts) playing teams from weeker leagues would bare this thought out.
Is there less money coming in from tv revenue and are attendances down. even the auld firm dont seem to sellout for non derby games.
the scottish national team also seems well behind its old standards.
Is it now time to integrate the scottish leagues (or at least the teams that want to) into the english leagues.
is this the only way to stop the decline.
or could the sfa look to rugby for an answer and look at the example of welsh rugby where the fortunes of the national team has improved by merging many of the teams to make stronger financial and larger fanbase teams. this has enable the welsh club sides to compete at european level
i would like to hear scottish opinions
As i see it the standard of the spl has dropped markedly over the past few seasons with the lack of any sort of progress in europe when seemingly (appart from hearts) playing teams from weeker leagues would bare this thought out.
Is there less money coming in from tv revenue and are attendances down. even the auld firm dont seem to sellout for non derby games.
the scottish national team also seems well behind its old standards.
Is it now time to integrate the scottish leagues (or at least the teams that want to) into the english leagues.
is this the only way to stop the decline.
or could the sfa look to rugby for an answer and look at the example of welsh rugby where the fortunes of the national team has improved by merging many of the teams to make stronger financial and larger fanbase teams. this has enable the welsh club sides to compete at european level
i would like to hear scottish opinions
Comments
I do disagree that its all doom and gloom especially with the national team where I do see some progress being made with some of the younger lads showing a lot of promise and I think Scotland's team still has, an albeit remote chance, of making the Euros'.
As how to resolve the current crisis with the leagues however, I have no ideas on that - as for them becoming incorporated into the English leagues, thats simply never going to happen.
Saying that Dinamo Zagreb got knocked out of the Europa League by Shamrock Rovers.
I remember in the 70's and early 80's Scotland had a great side, better than England imo.
Scottish youth are a generation lost to the ravages of the needle, alcoholism and deep-fried Mars Bars.
Anyone thinking that i am indulging in petty, racial stereotyping should see the documentary film Trainspotting first before firing off an angry broadside.
Such a terrible pity.
we have been in decline for some time, and the main reason is money.
TV pays more to the championship than our premiership,with that in mind no scottish teams can compete with
the wages earned in england.so for any team to attract good quality players would break their banks. when
celtic took robbie keen on loan the chairman had to pay him out of his own pocket. so the standard will not go up until the teams invest in the young players,and raise the standards that way,even then any young player with ANY potential will go south for the money. as far as the national side is concernd we have some really good youngsters coming through, many of which ply their trade in england, and i think with some luck we may be able to qualify again for major competitions.
teams like my own (FALKIRK) can only just get through a season holding on to any young player who is any good. you cant blame them, everyone wants to play against the best and earn as much as they can, so scottish
teams cannot compete for wages so they will only get worse as long as the TV money stays the way it is.
COME ON THE BAIRNS
Scottish football is grim. Very grim.
The decline began when the OF tried to hold Sky to ransom. And then Setanta went bust and the OF tried to bully the rest of us into buying into their vision of world dominination for them. We told them to go F themsleves and they bit their nose off to spite their own face by leaving us all with no TV money just as EPL went BOOOOMMMM! Clever boys.
I also recall reading an article just before Setantagate in one of the broadsheets discussing how the OF might be cutting their own throats. Can't find it via google but oh how prophetic. How they did everything they could to stifle competition. And then complain about lack of competition. The OF stole our players to put on their bench, they bullied the SFA so things went their way regarding ticket sales. Fans from all over Scotland still flocked to either side of the bigot brothers although they had no affinity with the city or whichever colour of christianity's bloodshed they revelled in. So reason no.1's the utter greed of the OF. By the way the OF I refer to is Celtic and Rangers. I refuse to differentiate between them. They're just opposite sides of a very ugly coin.
To be continued (tired/drunk but moreso tired) but I assure you I shed no tears for the three teams beaten. I hate them all and, as a Hibee, Hearts don't even come close to the level of contempt I hold the OF in. You couldn't take them from us could you England? G'an, ye know ye want tae.
Ironically this could help the national team despite the utter ineptness of the SFA. I'll bite my Hibee tongue and say that, in Craig Levein, we have a decent man at the helm. And some of our players are starting to get involved in the EPL because they've actually been allowed to play in our top teams again.
And at grass roots it's still the sport our country loves above all others. I've coached at youth level and the passion's there, believe me. We'll suss this out. We pretty much invented everything so we're not stupid. Just lazy at times.
To be continued.
See minutes silence booed in the name of religeon.
See the huns invasion of Manchester.
See the little Scotlander hatred of a country that mostly has nothing against us.
See Buckie swilling neds invading English towns.
I love Scotland, I think it's one of the most beautiful countries in the world. I think the majority of our people are salt of the earth. But I couldn't blame England for not wanting this.
And besides, we'd have to invite the &%$@s back ;-)
:-) That's only us Hibees, BM, that's only us Hibees. Scottish football is grim. Very grim. The decline began when the OF tried to hold Sky to ransom. And then Setanta went bust and the OF tried to bully the rest of us into buying into their vision of world dominination for them. We told them to go F themsleves and they bit their nose off to spite their own face by leaving us all with no TV money just as EPL went BOOOOMMMM! Clever boys. I also recall reading an article just before Setantagate in one of the broadsheets discussing how the OF might be cutting their own throats. Can't find it via google but oh how prophetic. How they did everything they could to stifle competition. And then complain about lack of competition. The OF stole our players to put on their bench, they bullied the SFA so things went their way regarding ticket sales. Fans from all over Scotland still flocked to either side of the bigot brothers although they had no affinity with the city or whichever colour of christianity's bloodshed they revelled in. So reason no.1's the utter greed of the OF. By the way the OF I refer to is Celtic and Rangers. I refuse to differentiate between them. They're just opposite sides of a very ugly coin. To be continued (tired/drunk but moreso tired) but I assure you I shed no tears for the three teams beaten. I hate them all and, as a Hibee, Hearts don't even come close to the level of contempt I hold the OF in. You couldn't take them from us could you England? G'an, ye know ye want tae. Ironically this could help the national team despite the utter ineptness of the SFA. I'll bite my Hibee tongue and say that, in Craig Levein, we have a decent man at the helm. And some of our players are starting to get involved in the EPL because they've actually been allowed to play in our top teams again. And at grass roots it's still the sport our country loves above all others. I've coached at youth level and the passion's there, believe me. We'll suss this out. We pretty much invented everything so we're not stupid. Just lazy at times. To be continued.
Posted by bandini
I look forward to this, interesting stuff.
A few things. Firstly i don't mind if the Glasgow 2 want to join the english league, Welsh teams do. I think they would struggle tho but it may improve their economies IF they can stay in the prem ? I'm not certain they could.
Secondly the impact of Sky and the money involved in football at the top pretty much guarantees a European super league at some point in the future. It's not just Scotland that struggle look at Spain. Their teams appear to be in financial meltdown. The Euro's decline certainly a major factor too.
Finally i was somewhat surprised at your involvement in football coaching. What was your favoured formation 0-0-10 ? If they score 40 we'll score 41. I can picture you on the sidelines screaming, " *%#&ING ATTACK " !!!! over and over lol. It inspired me to pen your personalised football chant, hope you like it
Bandini whoooaaaaaa
Bandini whoooaaaaaa
He comes from Edinburgh
He'll *%#&ing murder ya
In a drunken rage
With the meat cleaver of his mind
You have extraordinary gifts.
This forum is lucky to have a genuine poet.
further to my last post, at the last meeting of the league they wanted to reduce the size of the league to 10 teams,thus ensuring that the old firm would meet all the other teams at least 2xhome and away.This would give the rest of the teams a capacity crowd 4x in a season.and these games would be shown on TV.
No disrespect to any supporters of the other teams but, the only other games that would be shown may be
hearts/hibs aberdeen/dundee utd.At no point did the SFA think about developing or game or how to improve our younger players JUST MONEY AND ONLY MONEY.As a football lover, i support any scottish team in europe
this includes the old firm, this is because if they do well the international side can only get better and ,we then get higher placings in FIFA.The old firm want to join the english premiership or any european league that may come about however,at the moment they just are not good enough,because of money,they cant attract real quality players, and to do so would break their banks.Its a catch 22, no cash to invest cant get the players,
poor quality players cant generate the cash from european games.Gone are the days when scotland qualified for every world cup (and came home on the first flight) BUT AT LEAST WE QUALIFIED.
RIP SCOTTISH FOOTBALL
2nd point. I dunno. I have no idea how that interacts I'm afraid. Not a clue.
lol at last point. Like the chant. I was only born in Edinburgh and lived there my first few months, my real roots are somewhat more Northern. Why the surprise at me coaching kids? Haven't you read Dos and his beautiful passage regarding kids? :-) My son was 7 when I started and in the four years I did it I won everything, but that's of no importance. Seriously the happiest I've ever felt. To give something to a child is the greatest achievement a human can have. And so many people better than me have done it for years. Hats of to all of those never recognised saints.
But yes, my tactics were pass, pass, pass, pass, attack. I applied for the Chelsea job on the back of it. The fools never listened. ;-)
Seriously, thanks. I sincerely appreciate it.
Kudos to you for taste too :-)