Socrates MacSporran

Socrates MacSporran
No I am not Chick Young, but I can remember when Scottish football was good

Sunday 29 January 2012

Think Before You Speak - Always Good Advice

KILMARNOCK was reasonably quiet on Saturday night - there were one or two young gentlemen wandering the streets singing the praises of their heroes, but, realistically, we got the expected outcome and Killie will now face either Celtic or Falkirk in the League Cup Final - I post prior to kick-off in the second semi-final.

I expected the Ayrshire Derby to be a tight affair: I actually thought it might take penalties to separate the sides, but always felt, the game was Killie's to lose. To be fair to Kenny Shiels - he has worked wonders at the club and he and his players deserve their final appearance. The boss is trying to get the players to play an old-fashioned Scottish passing game, it doesn't always work as he and the players hope it will, but, to go to Rugby Park these days is to be entertained.

Ayr were, as I expected, well set-up by big Reidy, but, the breaks they needed to offset the difference between a full-time SPL side and a part-time SFL one never came their way. However, they went down with their pride intact.

Now we come to the disappointing bit - Kenny Shiels' post-match comments to BBC Radio Scotland. He is not the first manager to be caught-up in his immediate post-match comments by the adrenilin still coursing through his system. One famously remembers Alex Ferguson and Jim McLean, to name but two, coming out with instant reactions which continue to haunt them.

Perhaps we in the media should adopt a 15-minute or so black-out before we approach managers for post-match quotes - although I don't see that being too-popular with the radio and TV guys, deeply in-thrall as they are to instant reactions.

With that black-out, Mr Shiels might have been saved from himself and his injudicious comments on Ayr's performance. Maybe Ayr did set themselves up not to lose - silly tactics in a match which had to be decided on the day - more likely, Reidy's plan was to offer Killie few chances and be ready to take his own: and what's wrong with this approach when you are the under-dogs?

As my old mother used to say: "If you cannot speak well of someone - say nothing".



WHICH brings me nicely to something which has been bugging me for some time. Back in the old days before the internet and wall-to-wall 24/7 football on TV, only the true fanatics bothered writing to the sports letters pages of the papers. We all knew the saloon bar bores who were experts on all matters football and who had apparently limitless access to managers - but by and large we dismissed them as generally talking through an orifice other than their mouths.

Today, with broadband, twitter and blogs - we are all experts, while the papers now have their on-line boards and forums, which positively encourage debate. This, in many ways is a good thing; although I don't think we are as yet making the best use of modern technology and, in particular, I think the clubs could make more use of the internet for better-defining their relationship with their fans.

But, one down-side of this is the rise of the cyber-warrior - normally viewed as some kind of sad sack, spending all day, every day, debating issues on-line with similarly-afflicted followers of other teams. Nothing wrong with this, except in Scotland, where the age-old differences between followers of Celtic and Rangers, on on-line forums, rapidly descend into rampant whitabootery: "70-years of not signing Catholics" - aye right: "Big Jock knew". "Masonic conspiracy by referees" - come off it - "Compliance officers favouring Celtic at the expense of Rangers".

Maybe, as received wisdom has told us, Rangers have traditionally had most of Scotland's referees in their fan base; but, these days are apparently passed. If so, does the SFA's compliance officer (allegedly) being a Celtic fan move things on?

If it was wrong for Rangers to have friends and allies at court - is it suddenly right for Celtic to now apparently have undue influence?

The schism is apparently growing. Well, from my point of view, it is maybe time some of the men in power at the other clubs grew a pair and stood up to the big two. When push comes to shove, the Old Firm will stick together. Their notion is that they are bigger than the game as a whole, they are bullies and the only way to deal with bullies if to stand up to them.

Now, that is the most-pressing piece of whitabootery in Scottish football today.

Just what are they going to do about it?

Friday 27 January 2012

Better Player Discipline Will Avoid Trial By Television

AS I was saying just yesterday, it's a total lack of discipline which is one of the biggest things wrong with Scottish football today. Instgead of whining about "trial by television", it would, I feel, better help managers such as Messrs Fenlon and McCall, if they instilled some discipline into their players.

If they, the players, didn't make obscene gestures to fans, then they wouldn't bring themselves to the attention of the SFA's Compliance Officer. Simples - like the players.

That said, there is perhaps an element of "trial by television" coming into play. I do not hold TV and radio journalists in high regard - they deal in the instant reaction and immediate opinion, those of us who work in the print or online media - we can take a wee bit of time, reflect on what we pen and (hopefully) give a more-measured response to an incident, or take a more in-depth view of an issue than can our broadcasting bretheren, who must rect immediately.

OK, with modrn technology, their boobs can come back to haunt them, as surely as cuttings services can dig-up our written faux pas years later. But, if our carefully-crafted words end still end up as fish and chip wrappers, theirs dissolve into hot air - not a lot of difference.

As regards "trial by television" - this ought to level the playing field, since, given their greater exposure to the cameras, the Old Firm players' misdemeanours "should" become more apparent than those of the guys who play with the "diddy" teams - unless, of course, some technician forgets to remove the lens cap at half-time.

But, to be fair, the SPL should have an official camera recording every game, same level of coverage for each, and only that camera should be used to determine if, the referee having perhaps missed it, post-match punishment awaits a player. Anything else is unfair - and as the clubs have been saying, but not demanding, for years - all we want is a level playing field.




Thursday 26 January 2012

AS someone who grew-up in football playing: "Ayrshire Junior Rules", I am highly-cynical when it comes to players and managers moaning about fines and suspensions being levied on them after they misbehaved. If we all played to the AJR protocol of: "Nae bluid, nae foul" - we could simply get on with the game and the world would be a better place.

I have also been for ages an advocate of zero tolerance for on-field misdemeanours. The weakness of the principle of a referee and two assistants, as in use today, is that almost all referees are, at heart, football enthusiasts. I know there is a cynical view in Scotland that to even contemplate becoming a referee, you have to have serious personality problems and be extremely anti-social. OK, perhaps the odd referee meets that description, but so-too are a few players and managers, it's life folks. But, in my experience, the vast majority of referees are in it from a deep love of the game and, not being top-drawer players, they have found refereeing a good way of taking their love of the game further than their talent might otherwise allow.

So, referees are often guilty of letting minor dissent and law breaches go unpunished, the players are enboldened and the misbehaviour gets worse. Then, when the poor wee dears are finally brought to heel, they react like the over-grown, spoiled kids most of them are.

Then there are the managers, who scream blue murder if one of their guys is hit illegally or is the victim of unseemly behaviour, but tend not to see their own guys' bad behaviour. "They awe dae it but oor boays" is the managers' default position.

So, when guys like Michael Higdon and Leigh Griffiths step over the line, I have no sympathy for them when they are caught and punished.

That said, there are a lot more, far-more-serious issues on which the SFA adopts a laissez faire attitude. But, I believe they should be congratulated on getting to grips with the smaller issues, so long as they start sorting-out some of the bigger issues as well.

Footballers are, by and large, thick; their general behaviour is terrible, they lack discipline and the clubs seem quite happy to let them behave like neds in shorts. Brighter players, forced to behave in an orderly, disciplined manner, just might be the first step in Scottish football's recovery.



Wednesday 25 January 2012

And Now, The End Is Near, And Now They Face The Final Curtain

ONE of the joys of being 64, semi-retired and a freelance is - I don't have to toe the party line. I can now write what I like and if I fancy submitting it to a newspaper or magazine, while it is still nice to see my piece in print, it doesn't matter whether or not it gets published.

Thus, I don't have to cow-tow to anyone, I can call a spade a fucking shovel if I like and it doesn't matter a jot. Which is why I'm happy to be on the sidelines when it comes to the seemingly endless speculation which is the Rangers' Tax Case.

Some Celtic-minded bloggers and journalists are becoming somewhat agitated at the moment, as the members of the tax tribunal who heard the case of Rangers FC and their EBT's v Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, a case whose outcome is due to enter the public domain within weeks. As far as these gentlemen are concerned, Rangers were always guilty as charged and they are wetting themselves at the prospect of Rangers being invited to find some £49 million to settle when what they see is the inevitable guilty verdict is revealed.

Now a wee glitch or two has developed. There is the wee rumour that Rangers may perhaps be about to win the case - which of course might well be wishful thinking on the part of some members of what is known as the Lap Top Loyal - in addition, there is a fear amongst the Celtic-minded that preparations are being made for a "new" Rangers to be fast-tracked into the SPL, should the existing Rangers be forced into liquidation by HMRC.

We are increasingly being told that: "Rangers are too big to fail"; that club "Cannot be allowed to go under".

Let me tell you this boys - no company is too big to fail, unless they have a lot of friends in government, in which case common sense goes out of the window. Rangers might be a huge club in Scottish terms and still a pretty big one in European or world terms, but, in the eyes of the government, they are small beer and IF the HMRC case goes against them - that club  could fail, and rightly so.

It has been mis-managed for years; this mis-management cannot go on and while it would, for many people, be a crying shame to see Rangers vanish - they are no more immune to the penalties for mis-management than were Third Lanark, Clydebank, Airdrieonians or Gretna.

Professional football is an arm of the entertainment industry - the Alhambra and Empire Theatres used to be the biggest and glossiest in Glasgow, both are now gone. Green's Playhouse was one of the biggest entertainment facilities in Europe - gone too.  John Brown's at Clydebank built the world's two greatest ocean-going liners -gone; Harland and Wolff built the Titanic, the most-iconic ship ever built - shut. Ravenscraig was one of Britain's greatest steel mills - gone. Why should Rangers be different from these other icons?

And, if Rangers does go, will it be bad news for Scottish football? I think not. Other clubs will rise, the trophies will be shared around and the loss of an equally-big, if not bigger, rival across town might be good news for Celtic.

Instead of having to buy foreign to stay upsides, they could try breeding and encouraging young Scots. After all, the greatest Celtic and indeed Scottish club side of all time was 100 per cent Scottish - all 11 players and the manager born within 35 miles of the ground and with only two of these bought-in (OK, three if you count the cost of Bertie Auld being repatriated from Birmingham).

Don't give me the old: "These days are past, it couldn't happen today" argument. It could and should happen today and maybe, without the hindrance of having to beat Rangers, Celtic could settle down and make it happen; or maybe Hearts or Aberdeen.

No, should Rangers go under, don't throw a lifeline, let it go.

Monday 23 January 2012

I have to laugh sometimes at the praise heaped upon today's football team captains. For at least the last 25-years, maybe longer, the position of captain of a football team has been repeatedly undermined by the rise of the coach as God - a phenomenon imported from American Football.

Football captains haven't really been important since the mid-1960s, or at leat the early 1970s. Sure, some captains have, even since then, had a more-significant impact on games than others - but, in all honesty I do not see in today's football, captains of the stature of THE captains of my youth - Billy Wright of England, Danny Blanchflower of Northern Ireland, Johnny Carey of the Republic of Ireland, John Charles of Wales; or the man who to me is The Captain - George Young of Rangers and Scotland.

When Young led Scotland, in the decade from 1948 to 1957, he was more than merely captain - he was in effect player-manager of the national team, which was picked by a selection committee. Occasionally that committee would be headed, or have as a member, a former internationalist or two, George Brown, Rangers director, former Rangers left half and himself a former Scotland captain, had a productive spell as chairman of the selection committee in the mid-fifties; but, mainly the selectors were the usual eclectic mix of butchers, bakers and candle-stick makers from Scotland's smaller clubs.

Selection was erratic, there was no long-term planning and with no team manager, it was left to Young to lay down the game plan and make sure the players stuck to it.

Amazingly, Scotland's record in those days was no worse than today, when we are playing Craig Levein a lot of money, for not great results.

Eric Caldow, himself an outstanding national captain, has told me that Young was magnificent. He could play his own game to a consistently high level, but, he could (and did), at half time, disect the other ten players' first half performances, suggest changes and provide motivation.

But, Young was just one great captain of those times - across the city there was Jock Stein; Hugh Long at Clyde was a great captain, as was Bobby Parker at Hearts, Davie Mitchell then Archie Glen at Aberdeen, Willie Toner, then Frank Beattie at Kilmarnock and while Gordon Smith at Hibs maybe wasn't in these defenders' class as a "sergeant major" figure, Lawrie Reilly has always insisted that the fear of letting Gordon down and of failing to match the standards he set was a great motivating factor for him and the other nine Hibs players.

Later, Dave Mackay was a great captain, as too, surely were Bobby Moore, John Greig and Billy McNeill. Billy Bremner appears on the face of it to be a great captain, but, alas, for me he falls down through his lack of self-control. Willie Miller, Terry Butcher, Graeme Souness, Pat Stanton and Roy Aitken were for me the last great captains - thereafter the men with the armband have been basically ball carriers.

And I include in that rating, Davie Weir, who has now left the Rangers' pay roll. He had the bearing of a traditional Rangers captain; he made much of the talent he was given; he never gave less than 100 per cent - but, for me, givent he nature of the modern game, he could never match-up to Greig, Caldow, Young, Shaw, Simpson and Meiklejohn - his predecessors.  He was sent-off from Ibrox to ringing praise at the weekend, yes, he deserves the praise - but it was, for me, a bit over the top.

But, that's the measure of modern football journalism - I sometimes think the guys writing in the papers today think Scottish football began in the era of Law, Bremner and Dalglish.



I NOTICE Ally McCoist has been getting pelters from the fans as Rangers have stuttered in recent weeks. This Rangers/Celtic thing is all getting a bit too-hysterical these days, with fans, on both sides demanding that their team win every game, nothing less is acceptable.

They may still be paying over the odds for fairly average players, but the fact is, both clubs are nowhere as strong as they once were and the fact that they continue to dominate the SPL is more an indictment of the managerial policies of the boards of the other ten clubs than of any greatness from the two clubs.

I've been saying for years, if the other ten would have more of a go at the Big Two, they would enjoy more success. They have nothing to fear but fear, sadly, this is not a lesson they have learned.

Speaking of learning, McCoist is still learning his job as manager and for me, he would have benefitted from two or three seasons elsewhere, away from the influence of Walter Smith, before succeeding him. I question some of his purchases; I question his Smith-like refusal to trust in his young players, but, I will not write him off as Rangers manager after just over half a season. To do so is silly in the extreme.



THE battle lines are being drawin in my native Ayrshire this week, as the count-down to the Ayr United v Kilmarnock League Cup semi-final gets under way.

On paper, this SHOULD be a win for Killie - but - Ayr has by and large kept their best form for cup ties this season. Brian Reid never gets into the frame when it comes to vacant SPL jobs, but, look at his record at Ayr and he has worked wonders with little or no cash. Mark my words, Ayr could win this one, and if they do, get your money on Mark Roberts bagging the winner.



Saturday 21 January 2012

The Tax Man's Arrival Must Change Rangers' Mind Set

I HAVE deliberately steered clear of the on-going speculation as regards Rangers FC and in particular that club's problems with the tax man. I can, however, say from personal experience that HMRC does tend to go in for grandstanding and posturing when it decides to go after an individual or company; but, once you sit round a table with an individual tax man, they tend to bend over backwards to be fair and are always entirely civil in how they conduct themselves.

This perhaps explains the fog of half-truths, misinformation and speculation which has surrounded the case of HMRC v Rangers FC. It will all come out in the wash and I would never attempt to predict the outcome.

What I will say, and given he appears to be an intensely private person he has perhaps done himself no favours thus far, Craig Whyte really must up his media game. Being head of Rangers isn't like heading-up any other Scottish or British companies and he has not impressed.

If I was Craig Whyte I would have - several months ago - told Ally McCoist: "Rangers are no longer a buying club; you can recruit via Bosmans, you can recruit, in the short-term via Under-23 Scottish players, for preference through sell-on deals with other Scottish clubs - but, your principal means of freshening-up the team will be through getting more out of the young kids we have and ensuring that, in the years ahead Rangers consistently recruit and nurture the top Scottish talent.

"The days are past when Rangers will pay big money for foreign players - the club cannot afford this".

For too-long Rangers have bought their players. They have failed one, perhaps two generations of young, very-often, Rangers-daft Scots. This they can no longer afford to do and if their management is wedded to the concept of: "Buy, buy, buy" then they MUST either adapt or be replaced. There is no alternative in the current state of the national or Scottish football economy.



I return again to the on-going and vexatious question of Team GB's Olympic Games row. Yesterday, within 48-hours of contacting them, FIFA's media team got back to me with the answer to a series of questions which I asked them.

I also put several questions to - the FA - who have asked me to telephone a certain member of their media staff, who will answer my questions; the BOA, FAW and IFA - who have acknowledged my enquiry of six days ago but not yet responded further; and the SFA, who haven't even had the courtesy to acknowledge my enquiry.

As I have said before - the SFA's whole stance on the Olympics issue disturbs me. They could, with one move, halt the BOA's demands for an all-UK side, which they say threatens Scotland's international independence - but for some reason will not.

It's no big thing: simply invoke Article 8/3 of FIFA's statutes as regards governance of the game, and the all-UK team cannot happen. The relevant passage reads as follows:

Fifa statutes - Article 8/3.

Scratch teams consisting of Players not belonging to the same club or Member shall not be permitted to play clubs or teams representing Members or similar teams unless authorisation has been granted by Members concerned and the Confederation on whose territory the match is planned. If the Players belong to clubs or Members from different Confederations, the authorisation of FIFA is required.

"Members" in this instance means individual member countries of FIFA - England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It is therefore down there, in black and white, that if Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales tell England: "You cannot pick our players for the Olympics" - then they cannot.

Given these are FIFA statutes - why is Stewart Regan continuing to insist: "There is nothing we can do to prevent Scottish players from playing in London?"

Friday 20 January 2012

The Battle For the Soul of British Football

THERE IS a good-going argument in progress on the Scotsman's website: www.scotsman.com this morning, on the subject of the BOA's Olympic football team. With Stewart Pearce allegedly saddened and unable to fathom the SFA's stance on the matter. I am sorry to return again to this subject, but, it really is serious and yes, the future of Scotland as an independent footballing nation probably is at stake.

So, who is (as I see it) doing well and who is doing badly out of all this.

The FA is doing well (up to a point to which I will return later) - they control football in this country as far as the Olympics is concerned; they are still the only voice football has on the BOA, so, the FA's blazers will get their plush seats and prawn sandwiches at the Games.

Stewart Pearce and Hope Powell are (for the moment) doing well: they've got the coaching gigs and, in Pearce's case, if the team gets amongst  the medals, he becomes a credible alternative to "Our 'Arry" as Capello's replacement.

David Beckham is doing well: he has all but been guaranteed the captaincy of the Men's squad and, if they get among the medals, as an OBE he will be bumped up to at least CBE, more-likely KB as Sir David Beckham.

The BOA is doing well: they didn't like the "England as Team GB" option agreed by the four FAs, and forced the FA to renage on that and publish a UK-wide long list; this will have repercussions further down the line too.

Any England Under-21 player with a Championship club who shines at the Games will do well; he'll be in the shop window during the transfer window and could get a mega-move out of it.

Who isn't doing well?

The three "Celtic" FA's. They have shown their lack of professionalism by having been unable to force the FA to accept the compromise of the "England as Team GB" option.

They compounded their folly by not pulling-up the BOA; they should have pointed out to that body that FIFA rules prohibit the FA from selecting Northern Irish, Scottish or Welsh players without the permission of the IFA, SFA or FAW. Had they done that when the BOA insisted on an all-UK team, the row would have been defused.

Once the BOA and the FA ignored them, they ought to have been straight on to the Court for Arbitration in Sport in Switzerland - the CAS would surely have found for them.

The FAW and SFA have further compounded their folly by, while refusing to sanction the use of Welsh and Scottish players, happily agreeing to host games in Cardiff and Hampden. That's like going on a diet but refusing to give up chocolate cake.

Those Scottish players who opt to play are risking not doing well. The wilder elements in the Tartan Army will pounce on every mistake made in any post-Olympics matches, while some of the wilder elements within the SFA may well pressurise Craig Levein not to pick them.

In particular, Stephen Fletcher isn't doing well. Should he play in the Olympics, then, probably following Craig Levein's departure, end his Scotland exile - he will get a terrible time from the Tartan Army, unless he scores the winner against England.

Stewart Regan isn't doing well. Some of his pronouncements have been naive and foolish in the extreme. The future of his organisation might be at stake here - he ought to be getting tough with England.

Then, there is where the FA has, I feel, been short-sighted. They seem to be working under the illusion that, should the forces within FIFA who hate the idea of four separate FAs within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and who want - instead of the FA, the FAW, the IFA and the SFA having separate powers - football in this country controlled by a single UKFA: then that new UKFA would simply be the FA, with the other three added-on.

They ought to remember, the four Home Nations are entitled to have one FIFA vice president, that role could go; but, more importantly, almost always, that vice president IS NOT ENGLISH, because the three Celtic FA's gang-up on the English. They got their man in after John MacBeth made his badly-timed press statement about corruption within FIFA - their man was so gash, the other three got rid of him at the first chance.

IF a new UKFA has to be formed, the HQ might well be in London, but I think you would find the top jobs would go to Scotsmen, Northern Irishmen and Welshmen, as pay-back for English arrogance and self-interest, which has kicked-off during the lead-up to these Olympics.

I don't in all honesty see UEFA allowing their four longest-established members to vanish to be replaced by a single new member, who would be another big beast, so loss of independence is highly-unlikely - however, we should never say never.

I feel the real prize for FIFA is to get hold of three of the four places on IFAB, the International Football Associations Board - the body which does little other than tinker with the Laws of the Game.

This is a prize which the Home Nations have, but have neglected. They rarely speak with one voice at IFAB, if they did, they could make a start on sorting-out the mess which is the Laws of the Game as currently promulgated and the way these Laws are interpreted; they could be a genuine force for good in the game.

The FA/BOA stance on the 2012 football squads truly threatens that as yet under-used ability to influence and that is something worth fighting for.

The first battle is for an acceptable compromise to heal the Olympic selection wounds.

Thursday 19 January 2012

A Chance Lost

SO, David Weir is seemingly about to ride off into the Govan sunset, still raging agaist the dying of the light as he attempts to prolong a playing career which has already entitled him to a congratulatory telegram from the Queen, through its great length.

Given that he has left his family living in England throughout his successful sojourn with Rangers, his short-term football future looks likely to be spent in the Football League.

I wish him well, but, it is a pity there is the lack of nous in Scotland, and in particular with the apparently troubled ranks at Rangers, to keep him in the land of his birth.

Weir, of course, was never your normal, run-of-the-mill footballer; the kind who (allegedly) wear their IQs on their back. For a start he is a product of the North American collegiate sporting student system. Therefore, being college-educated, Weir had brains in his head. He was also exposed to the better habits of American collegiate sport.

That does not mean he body-swerved drink, women and the many pitfalls which successfully derail too-many promising sportsmen. But, he came through a system whereby progress on the field had to be matched by progress in the class room. He had to work for his degree and that hard work has continued throughout his career.

I reckon Weir will make a cracking manager, I feel, however, Rangers missed a trick in not finding a role for him as a guide and mentor to the younger players, or by creating him a role which originated in American Football and is now big business in Rugby Union - that of defensive co-ordinator.

Look at Rangers' technical staff: Ally McCoist was the arch-penalty box predator; Kenny McDowall was a terrific front man, continually stretching defences; Ian Durrant had few peers in the midfield battle-field; Jim Stewart was a top-class goalkeeper.

All areas of the team are well-covered, except one - nowhere in the technical staff is there a defensive expert. I accept that football, being more free form that American or Rugby football, isn't as suited to the thought processes of a defensive specialist - but, there are still set pieces to defend, strategies to work out. I feel Weir, kept on as a player-coach with defensive responsibilities, could have made a significant contribution to the future of Rangers FC.



HOWEVER, if you read the ravings of certain cyber-warriors of a green-and-white hue, Rangers don't have a future. The First Tier Tribunal in the case of HMRC v Rangers FC has now concluded taking its evidence, the "judges" are now sifting through the evidence and will in due course - the popular money is on the fact that this will come in late March or early April - deliver its verdict.

Then, Rangers will either be home free, or in administration. I do hope they get off, and not through any love of Rangers. It is simply this, I don't think the police, ambulance services or indeed the NHS could cope with the hordes of suicidal Celtic fans whose reason for living would vanish if Rangers got off. Whilst an equal number of Rangers fans might die laughing, that the forecasts of impending disaster proved had proved false.



AS Davie Weir rides off into the sunset (or not), an other old face re-appears, with Mark McGhee back in management at Bristol Rovers.

I have always felt Bristol is one of those cities in England which could benefit from putting local rivalries to one side and amalgamating its two clubs, who have under-achieved for generations, into one potentially big club.

Bristol Rugby Club was, for many, many years, one of the top teams in England. Of course, they have been in the doldrums more or less since Rugby went professional, but, they will be back in the top flight soon enough. That's not something you can safely say about either City or Rovers, however.

Still, it will be good to see how McGhee gets on in winning his battle for local bragging rights over City, led by Derek McInnes. As usual in a battle between Scots - you under-estimate the Paisley man at your peril and I can see McGhee's side continuing to play second-fiddle to McInnes's.



WELL done Morag Pirie, in being promoted to the Elite grade of women referees. Wee Morag has battled hard for recognition in Scotland and deserves this promotion, as do her male counter-parts. This month seven male Scottish referees have been confirmed as FIFA-listed.

I reckon we now have far more "world-class" referees than we have players, yet still we abuse them - ach, that's fitba.



I SPOTTED an absolute gem from my big mate Shuggie Macdonald, in the Herald this week. Writing about the on-going Olympics row, Shuggie revealed that SFA Honcho Stewart Regan isn't too-bothered about the possible SFA loss of independence, should a proper, all-UK "Team GB" play in London - but he is worried about the possible loss of Scotland's individual place on IFAB.

Since, under the current legislation, we cannot lose our IFB place for so-long as we are an independent football nation, I would have thought the loss of that independence would make the loss of the IFAB place inevitable. So, all his efforts should be geared to staying independent and therefore keeping our IFAB place.

The SFa's conduct of the whole Olympic debacle has been disgraceful. If Craig Levein had managed the national team so-badly, he'd have the entire Tartan Army on his back, yet the SFA's poor display over the Olympics goes relatively unreported.

Nearly 100 years on and the Tartan Army (football version) is like the Tartan Army (the real military version) - Lions led by Donkeys.


Wednesday 18 January 2012

Sic a Parcel o Rogues in a Nation

I AM becoming more and more frustrated at the way the furore over the UK's participation in this year's London Olympics refuses to die down. But, I am becoming even-more frustrated at the way football ties its knickers in a twist over this issue.

On the face of it, it is unacceptable that the UK, the host nation, should not be represented in every event at the four-yearly sports fest. That said, the IOC, the body which runs the Games, has become increasingly greedy in the way it expands the Games, without properly managing this expansion.

IF, as we are led to believe, the Olympic Games is the greatest display of sport on the planet, then surely an Olympic gold medal ought to be THE prize in any sport. Take boxing, in an ideal world, the winner of the Super-heavyweight gold medal in the boxing ring would be seen as THE man - so, at least one of the Klitski brothers should be competing, while, if we was serious in wanting to be seen as the best - David Hyde would be fighting for Team GB: ditto Amir Khan.

But, they will not be there. Likewise, the winner of the tennis gold medal would be THE man, it could even be oor ain Andy Murray, only, he'd rather win Wimbledon (as, even more so - would the UK tennis public wish this for him).

Then we come to football. IN an ideal world we would be seeing ALL the top players - Messi, the great Spanish players, the Brazilian superstars etc, playing. But we will not - in its determination to protect its own World Cup as THE football tournament, FIFA - whose membership of the IOC gives Herr Blatter another opportunity to strut his stuff ont he world's sporting stages - deliberately down-grades the Olympic football tournament.

If you win it, great, if not, it's not as if it's the World Cup.

I have nothing against the four Home Nations' FAs using the Olympics as a development tournament, giving vital international experience to our best Under-23 players from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

I can understand the opposition of the three "Celtic" FAs to playing as "Team GB"; they rightly fear for their international independence. I can also understand the (English) FA's determination to have "Team GB" involved. It's England's games after all AND, crucially, the English, being programmed from birth to be unable to differentiate between England and the UK will be convinced, if FIFA ever pushes through a single UK FA, they - THE Football Association - would be that body and they would allow the other three in as subordinates.

Aye Right, as the response to that would be from Glasgow.

So, given that the English have given nothing, particularly any say in the management, I'm against a UK-wide "Team GB", but have nothing against England representing "Team GB".

The SFA, the IFA and the FAW had nothing against this, but, the British Olympic Association, the BOA, had to have a UK-wide team. They, of course have no knowledge of or interest in the possible ramifications of this.

That's that out of the way. What I cannot get my head round is, here we are 190 days from kick-off, and with a football close season taking up quite a few of these days, there is still nothing done about getting a representative team ready.

Warm-up games - no. Have they cut the several hundred players on the long list down to a manageable number? No. With the ROI and England both playing in Euro'2012 at the end of this season, an end-of-season tournament between Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Team GB would I feel, have been interesting.

Finally, there is the sheer hypocrisy of oor ain SFA. They wanted nothing to do with Team GB; they don't want Scottish players to make themselves available for it - BUT - they are quite ready to host games at Hampden. They keep telling us: "We cannot prevent Scottish players from playing for Team GB". They can, if they can be bothered to read the FIFA rules.

That's blatantly two-faced - we still have: sic a parcel o rogues in a nation.

Stewart Regan was widely-quoted today in forecasting a back-lash by the Tartan Army against any Scot who plays for Team GB.

I hope the lads in the TA are just as harsh on the two-faced SFA "blazers", their conduct has been less than exemplary.


Monday 16 January 2012

You win nothing with kids - but if you're not winning anyway - why not go with them?

I AM currently working on a couple of books concerning Scottish football history, consequently I am trawling through details of the early days of football in this country - the legendary days when Scotland ruled the world and the "Scotch Professors" were the most-sought-after commodities in the game.

Back them, in the days when the sun never set on the British Empire, while the Widow of Windsor led an almost reclusive life on the Isle of Wight, the High Road to England was the road to riches for so many coal miners from Ayrshire, Fife, Lanarkshire and the Lothians; gallus "Weegies" from the Glasgow, farm boys from Stirlingshire or Angus, or boys from Highland glens.

You could almost say that the expansion of football in England and the Scottish diaspora to feed that expansion's need for talent was little more than stage two of the Highland Clearances. The ambitious, the driven, they left for a better life in the south. The rest stayed behind.
It therefore, goes without saying that, if the elite of Scotland's footballers continually left, the quality of the domestic game was sure to decline. If the cash which the clubs received for these players wasn't properly invested in the future, then the quality of the domestic game was sure to decline. The SFA and the clubs, it has to be said, did well to manage that decline - Scotland's hasn't (metaphorically) plunged over a cliff in the same way as Austria and Hungary has; we've simply gone into a gradual decline, which hasn't yet, but still could, accelerate into a full-blown hurtle to oblivion.

It also goes without saying that, if the best of each generation, as was the case in Scottish football for the first century and more of organised football - some four or five generations, was exported - and aren't we always told its people has been Scotland's finest export - then we are badly diluting the native stock.

Pat Crerand's famous throw-away line from his spell on the 1970 World Cup pundits panel: that the British nations ought to import Pele, Tostao and Gerson from the brilliant Brazilians who won that year, and put them immediately to stud duties, has a resonance today. Is it too late to get Messi, Kaka, Christiano Ronaldo and the likes to do their stuff with some athletic Scottish girls?

If we don't do that - we have to improve our coaching, work harder and have faith in our young players - not recruit Hondurans, Hottentots, Haitians, and other exotic foreigners, at the expense of our own young players.

We have seen, in recent weeks and months, efforts from within the SFA to make the necessary changes. The McLeish Report wasn't universally welcomed; the changes Henry called for haven't been made as quickly as some of us hoped they would be; even some of the changes made have got a few of us on the sidelines concerned; while, of course, some of the backswoodsmen are resisting with all their might.

Friday 13 January 2012

Fanning The Olympic Flames

IT SAYS much about the ineptitude of our football administrators in the United Kingdom that, less than 200 days before the kick off in the Olympic Games football tournament, "Team UK" is totally disorganised.

Speaking as a Scottish nationalist (note the small n), I would far rather support a Scottish Olympic team, but, while I think I might well see one at the 2020 Olympics, I am not holding my breath. The reality is, there will be a Team GB football team in action this year, it apparently will be an all-UK one, and there will be Scots players in it.

I applaud the SFA's stance (thus far) on prefering not to get involved officially, since there could be implications for Scotland's footballing independence - but, their handling of the whole affair has been terrible. That said, the British Olympic Association has been dishonest, self-serving and short-sighted too. None of the administrators from the five parties involved - the four Home Nations' football associations and the BOA - has come out of this well.

But, if they move quickly, the mess can be sorted-out. IFAB, the International Football Associations Board, will meet in Cardiff in March. The high heid yins of the FA, FAW, IFA and SFA will be there, as will Herr Blatter, Monsieur Platini and the movers and shakers of the global game.

Here is an opportunity to get FIFA to make it clear, the independence of the four separate countries is, in football terms, secure. Given the way UEFA in particular has allowed so many "minnows" to enter the various UEFA competitions - San Marino, Andorra, Leichtenstein etc, they, the most-influential bloc within FIFA will not allow four of the oldest members, including one big beast -England, a middle-sized beast with a proud past - Scotland and a couple of long-established small beasts, to disappear and become one huge beats - a potential UKFA.

OK, worst-case scenario, one or maybe two of the four individual UK places on IFAB might have to be ceded to UEFA - but all four FAs would survive.

But, the Home Nations need to present a united front. They need to get together first and have a unified plan of action. The FA, for a start, should swallow its considerable pride and cede authority over the football team at this and future Olympics to a new UK Football Board (note, I say board rather than association) - specifically set-up to operate within the BOA. Olympic football can no longer be, as it has been since 1905 - England's ball game.

With that UKFB set-up, the four can speak with a single voice to FIFA. The three Celtic nations should point-out to England, under FIFA rules, they cannot, even with BOA backing, pick Northern Irish, Scottish or Welsh players for the London team, so, if they want their team in action in London - they had better get the UKFB up and running and onto the BOA.

They must then tell FIFA, we come together only for the Olympics, otherwise, we are four separate countries and we remain thus.

The three Celtic nations, and in particular Scotland, did themselves no favours when they said NO to player participation, but YES to making Hampden available for games.

Given the political realities of probable Scottish independence, this whole Olympic row will only last for this one Olympics, perhaps also, for Brazil 2016 - if Team GB does well - but, it needs sorting out and the IFAB conference in Cardiff is the single occasion on which all parties will be together.

Then, with the right result in Cardiff, Stewart Pearce and Hope Powell can get their squads together and organise the warm-up games they will need.

The right Team GB squad would, given England's Euro 2012 commitments, have a strong Scottish and Welsh core, would have broad public backing and could do well. The whole thing so far has been a cock-up which reflects well on nobody. Time to do the British thing, muddle through somehow and win.

The independence of the four international teams is important, but, so too is a good performance as host nation in London. It has been a shambles so far, but, it can still be sorted-out - if the "blazers" get their act together - NOW.

Thursday 12 January 2012

Put a Brick Through that Window

I HATE the January transfer window. When I "were nowt but a lad" as my Four Yorkshiremen friends say, football's transfer market was easy to understand - if a player was available, some club with the money bought him, or otherwise - up to some point a few weeks before the end of the season. Today all the buying, selling and trading is done in two "windows" - end of season - to end of August, and in the month of January.

We are told the transfer market is what keeps football going. Me, I'd like to see the January market abolished. Of course, players will always want to move, clubs will always want to freshen-up their squads, man has become over the millennia a natural trader, but, these days, I reckon, if we banned transfers for cash, football would be better for it.

I always look at North American sport as my model. In  the big sports over there - Americal football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey there is no transfer market which involves the big-name stars moving from club to club for millions of dollars. Sure, they still move, but they, the players, have control of their own destinies. They are their own men - they contract their services to clubs, but are not "owned" by the clubs, as happens over here.

Mind you, the way American sport is organised, with franchises, with the way there is no relegation threat and where clubs can plan for the future is far fairer than the comparatively unregulate state of football in Europe makes far greater sense to me. Amazingly, North America, the home of capitalism and the free market economy has, in the way its professional sport is run, shown more "socialism" and built a flatter playing field than we have this side of the pond.

If, over here, we had a situation whereby the transfer window closed on the eve of the first match and thereafter managers had to manage and clubs had to make do with the squads they then had, we might have a better game. And, if we franchised each league to remove the fear of failure and relegation, we just might start to produce better players, since clubs could not buy their way out of trouble, but would have to make do with what they had. And, if the supposed first picks weren't doing the business, either bring in the kids, or change the manager/coach.



I LOVED HIbs boss Pat Fenlon's comment about the abuse he allegedly received from some Cowdenbeath fans. Mr Fenlon was allegedly shocked to be described as an illegitemate Irishman, rather than, as he was used to as a Linfield player, an illegitemate Orangeman. Of course what Pat maybe didn't grasp is, he was in Fife at the time.

We here in God's County of Ayrshire have our detractors among the sophisticated Weegies of the world, but, as I always say: you come to Ayrshire, put your watch back 100 years - you cannot do that in Fife, over there the watch hasn't been invented yet.



I ADMIRE what Kenny Shiels is trying to do at Kilmarnock. His support for the passing game and his insistence that the team passes is wonderful. That said, if opponents fore-check well, the Killie defence has a collective bout of the skitters, which makes for an interesting game.

I firmly believe Derek Riordan, should he sign for Killie, could flourish in the team's system. And, if the club was to house him in Onthank, series two of "The Scheme" could go global. But, seriously, Killie survived Kris Boyd, McCoist and Durrant and successfully re-habilitated Andy McLaren. It's a no-brainer, come to Killie Deeksie son.

Tuesday 10 January 2012

The Curse of: Interesting Times

I HAVE never "got" big business or high finance, which is why I write about sport; had I known my way around a balance sheet or a share prospectus better, I might have had a well-paid job, made my pile and been retired years ago. I prefer the simpler life of writing about sport.

So, when it comes to the current apparent malaise around Rangers FC, I try not to pontificate or put forward opinions. That said, if I was a Rangers' fan, I'd be worried, very worried, by current events.

Sir David Murray has,  somehow, swanned off into the sunset, leaving Craig Whyte to soak up all the flak which is currently flying around this Scottish institution. However, the fact is: Rangers' current travails are mostly of Murray's making. SDM is the son of a gambler; his late father had a good-going business, covering various fields of business, but he lost it all through his addiction to slow horses.

His son made an even bigger pile and for a time seemed untouchable in Scottish business. He had the confidence of the money men in Edinburgh financial circles and could apparently do no wrong. Now, his star has dimmed - his reputation is tarnished.

I for one am not surprised. I watched Murray the Younger's rise in basketball. For a time he could do no wrong apparently as he recruited Americans and Scots-Americans to keep Murray International Metals (MIM) ahead of the field and in an effort to make them a force in the game in Europe.

Certainly, MIM won a couple of invitation tournaments, but genuine European success, as measured by success in basketball's equivalents of the Champions League or the Europa League eluded him. He took MIM into a genuine British League, only to be pipped for the silverware there by, of all clubs, Rangers BC. He then bought Rangers FC and its basketball younger brother, shut down the basketball operation and concentrated on the football one.

MIM became Livingston Bulls, which collapsed through a lack of investment and, more-crucially, the lack of a youth policy. They could no longer afford the big-money imports, so they became just another team and folded.

He started a Scottish tabloid Sunday newspaper, the Sunday Scot, recruited some big money, big ego journalists - it failed, he closed it.

We can now see a pattern emerging. For as long as Murray flung money at Rangers, they were pre-eminent in Scotland, but, as with basketball, his sporting model in football was unsustainable.

He got out of basketball and left others to pick up the mess. Now, he has done the same in football. Sir David Murray is now, to some of us, as much of a failed gambler as his father was.

Now we come to Craig Whyte. I know nothing of him, but, I do have a friend in the rugby world who worked for Mr Whyte in his days in plant hire and security. My friend does not have a good word for him and is very resentful of the time his innocent period as one of Whyte's underlings involved him with the police.

"I wouldn't trust Craig Whyte as far as I could throw him", is my mate's assessment. OK, that is just one man's view, coloured by unfortunate association.

That said, Whyte's first nine months or so as "The Man" at Ibrox have hardly been a case of hitting the ground running and producing a Kennedy-style first spell of action and improvement. Since he took over, Rangers have lurched from crisis to crisis, embarrassing headline to embarrassing headline.

Yet, for all this, even with an on-going tax case which, let's not beat about the bush, could yet finish-off the club, Rangers are hot on the heels of Celtic in the annual two-horse race for the SPL title. What does the fact that such a troubled club can still be competing for the big prize say about the rest of Scottish football, by the way?

I couldn't for the life of me see what Whyte saw in Rangers. Nobody can make money out of Scottish football in the present climate. If the club was to be allowed to fail - it is doubtful that, in the current economic climate, a short-term or even medium-term killing could be made from demolishing Ibrox and developing the site.

I can only conclude that Whyte is either, a Rangers' fan (btw my mate who worked for him insists he is a Motherwell fan), who has allowed his heart to over-rule his business head, and has become enchanted by the idea of owning Rangers; or, he is a patsy, put in there to take the flak.

Honestly, I am none too bothered on either score. Rangers are not too big to fail and maybe, if the biggest club went to the wall, the others would stop, think, and put Scottish football's many wrongs to right, or follow Rangers into history.

We live in interesting times, of that there is no doubt.

Saturday 7 January 2012

Well Done the Third Team

IN over 30 years of covering football, by far the best call I ever saw made by a match official was at a Scottish Junior Cup tie between Arthurlie and Hill o' Beath, at Dunterlie; the tie, a replay, was poised at 1-1 with seconds to go, when the visitors from Fife forced a corner.

The ball came over, up went the players and the ball finished up in midfield; however, I thought, from my vantage point behind that goal, I had seen it fisted there by a 'Lie defender, as did one or two of the H-O-B players. Then, the linesman who had been back at half-way and right in front of the Arthurlie technical area was spotted with his flag raised. The referee, a young boy named Willie Collum who was, to my mind at the time, barely out of nappies, went across, conferred with the linesman and gave the penalty, which H-O-B converted to win the game.

Cue outrage from the 'Lie fans, backroom staff and committee, until one of their defenders admitted, he had indeed fisted the ball away. That decision showed the positive nature of events when the three officials work as a team - which doesn't always happen.  I haven't seen too-many examples of such team work, ever, but there was a terrific one this afternoon at Dens Park, when a Dundee "goal" was rightly chalked-off for offside, on the say-so, not of the referee, or the in-line assistant, but either the other assistant or the fourth referee - the two officials who had the best view of events.

We are quick to criticise, often too-quick, Scottish referees, when they get it wrong, but this call, like that long-ago one at Dunterlie, shows that, when Scottish referees get it right - they are as good as any.  I've tried refereeing, it's a hard job, which is why I am loath to criticise football's third team - because without them, the other two could not function.



WELL done the 'Bot. Being from that part of God's County, I have been encouraged from the cradle to despise and abhor Auchinleck Talbot - but, credit where it is due. To hold Hearts to a single-goal defeat was a wonderful performance, which will have done wonders for the standing of Junior football and hopefully brought closer the day when we have a proper working pyramid in Scottish football.

I have been saying to other football writers for years now - the juniors is a better grade of football than you think - results such as today's at Tynecastle back that up.

It is time we had real competition at a lower level in Scotland. Why should some teams be "senior" for ever when they contribute nothing to the senior game - open the doors, let the fresh air of ambitious clubs from the Junior, Highland and East of Scotland Leagues have their chance to replace some of the dead wood in the lower ranks of the SFL.

Friday 6 January 2012

Have an 'Eart Guv

MORE than half a century ago, when I first got into senior football, Hearts were a team to admire. Under manager Tommy Walker, for a spell of just over a decade they were the team to watch in Scotland. Sure, Rangers won more trophies than any other club in that period, but, aside from that brief two or three year period when Jim Baxter's magic held Scotland in thrall, if you wanted sexy football and goals, you watched Hearts.

The "Terrible Trio" of Alfie Conn Senr., "King" Willie Bauld and the under-rated Jimmy Wardhaugh set the standard, only to be eclipsed by that force of nature called Dave Mackay, but the likes of goalkeeper Gordon Marshall Senr., full back Bobby Kirk, left half John Cumming - who but for the presence alongside him of Mackay would have been judged "exceptional", the youthful Alex Young, Ian Crawford and Jimmy Murray - the scorer of Scotland's first goal in the World Cup finals were superb players in their own right and well-nigh unstoppable as a team.

The 132 goals Hearts scored in winning the league in 1958 tells you all you need to know about the attacking football Walker espoused - Hell, they even "stole" the supernova that was Gordon Smith from rivals Hibs to help them win the league in 1960: mind you, that was a more-defensive team - they only scored 102 goals in that campaign.

But Kilmarnock arrived at Tynecastle one Saturday afternoon in 1965, ground-out the 2-0 win they needed to pip Hearts for the title and with a certain Mr Stein working his magic at Barrowfield, the Hearts flower wilted and was cut back. Sure, there have been brief flourishes in the years since, but in the past 45 years or so, Hearts have mainly been - just another diddy club, living off the Old Firm's left-overs.

Long-suffering Gorgie guys perhaps thought Vladimir Romanov was the answer to their prayers, a mega-rich saviour who would provide the cash to allow them to slug it out with the big two in Scotland and gain a reputation as if not a megaclub such as Real Madrid or Barcelona, the Milan duo, Bayern Munich or England's Big Five, then as an upper class European club, capable of regular appearances in the knock-out stages of the two big club competitions.

Today, these hopes are in tatters - the promise of European successes merely empty words and there is genuine concern for the future of what ought to be, the Number Three club in Scotland at the very least.

Those of us who are Hearts admirers, or who care for Scottish football HAVE to be concerned at recent events around Gorgie. Forward though we canna see - we can only guess and fear. But, I genuinely believe Hearts could soon be history.

Look at the facts, the club's debts are conservatively estimated to be somewhere upwards of £50 million; the average home attendance is somewhere in the region of 12,000 fans; there is no money in Scottish football, very little cash other than gate money; Romanov has alienated a lot of people around Edinburgh who might, for whatever reason, be expected to ride to Hearts' rescue.

The owner has announced that he will no longer underwrite the costs, which way exceed the income. Hearts have lived beyond their means for years and it has to stop. It is difficult, nay impossible, to envisage some other dyed-in-the-wool Hearts-loving multi-millionaire turning up in Kaunus in the near future, waving a sufficiently-large cheque to take over the club; then having the additional cash available to tear down and rebuild the main stand, or to find and fund a new ground more-suited to top-flight football in the 21st century. I don't see a Hearts equivalent of Sir Tom Farmer out there.

Romanov may well close the club and sit on the Tynecastle site until it can be re-developed for housing, or a supermarket or offices. He might, as he has threatened, let the highly-paid players go, suffer the losses and let Hearts continue, with young players and free transfer men, stumbling along at the level of a Dundee, or Falkirk, or Partick Thistle. Who knows, but whatever happens, some long, hard years lie ahead for the Gorgie faithful.

But, just maybe, somebody with the good of Hearts at heart, can put together a plan which will allow fresh management, with a means of, over time, easing Romanov away from the club and see Hearts returned to local management and to a position whereby they can go toe-to-toe with the Old Firm. Football has always offered a place for romantics - who all too often quickly become realists once they understand the madness of the game's economics and politics.

Is there an elder statesman out there, with the contacts and the vision to rescue Hearts? Over to you George Foulkes.

Thursday 5 January 2012

SO - Lee McCulloch has lost his appeal against his two-game suspension which followed his red card against St Mirren, yet another incident which has perked-up the already boiling pot of passion which is Scottish football.

The referee saw the incident between McCulloch and Carey, decided McCulloch had to go - he went; fair enough say I. The referee is the sole judge of fact, we must accept his decision.

But, it is at this point that football's justice and disciplinary system lets the game down. When McCulloch struck Carey, it was during the jostling match which nowadays preceeds the arrival of the ball into the penalty area from a set piece.

Imagine, if you can, what would have happened had their coming-together happened outwith football. Let's say McCulloch and Carey were in a late night taxi queue, it was cold and maybe drizzling; a taxi arrives, McCulloch moves towards it and Carey grabs him from behind, so McCulloch hits him, Carey goes down, but, instead of a football referee - a policeman arrives on the scene and arrests McCulloch, who is taken to the nearest police station and charged.

In the real world McCulloch has been accused of an alleged assault; but he remains innocent, until his guilt is proved in a court of law. In football, however, the minute the red card was brandished, McCulloch was guilty. In the real world, the police and procurator fiscal would be required to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, to a panel of justices of the peace, a sheriff, a sheriff and jury or a senior judge and jury (dependant on the severity of the assault) that he was indeed guilty as charged.

In the real world, McCulloch would have had the opportunity to bring forward cctv evidence - similar to the Sky Sports footage widely shown after his red carding, while his lawyer had the chance to argue his case.

Certainly, Rangers had that opportunity when the offence was dealt with by the SFA's disciplinary system, but, their protocols fall some way short of the standards expected in the real world.

Have, if you can get hold of the clips, another look at the incident. It is clear that Carey grabbed McCulloch first - there is also a presumption that, having been hit on the back side of his head, behind his left ear, Carey fell to the ground clutching his face. It could be argued that he was guilty of the original foul which kicked-off the incident and that, by going down clutching his face - Cartey was guilty of a degree of simulation. McCulloch will sit out two games for his crime, Carey escaped penalty for his two crimes. Is this justice?

Take another somilar incident, from the Manchester City v Liverpool game earlier this week. When Yaya Toure rose to head home one of the City goals, a Liverpool defender could clearly be seen, with both hands round another City player, preventing him from getting up to the cross which Toure met. City got the goal, but maybe the 'Pool defender should have been at least yellow-carded. Mind you, you see similar bouts of wrestling whenever a free kick or corner is delivered into a penalty area in every game, the same old jostling, pushing and wrestling goes on; and as these unpunished incidents continue football becomes ever less a gentleman's game - it is now a ruffians' game, played by ruffians.

We need a zero tolerance approach to policing the game. We need, at the top level, a new protocol, whereby whilst the referee is still the sole judge of fact (as far as the duration of play is concerned) - where there is television coverage, this may be reviewed post match by a review body, whose memebrs have the power to cite players who got away with fouls and to call them to taks; who may have a reviewing brief as regards referees' decisions and the power to decide that the yellow card given should have been a red, or red-yellow; who can call-up and discipline managers for comments made before, during and after matches.

That way, we would still punish the guys who go too far, as McCulloch did; but the guys who caused the bother, such as Carey, would no longer be getting away with things and hopefully, we would have a better game.

The International Football Associations Board, IFAB, meets next in March, in Cardiff. This is the body which makes new laws and reviews existing ones. Much is made of the fact that the four United Kingdom football associations each has a seat on IFAB. To my mind, they do very little with the power this gives them. If the UK associations really are, as they like to think themselves - the guardians of the game's soul, I would suggest they get together before hand, adopt a common pose and use their block vote to push through this zero tolerance approach to football's disciplinary ills - before it is too late.

Then, they just might justify their positions on IFAB.


Wednesday 4 January 2012

IN RECENT months I have let this blog slide, partially because I have begun to despair of Scottish football and the state it has got itself into; but also, because I have been working hard on a series of books which I hope to have published in the near future. However, I have kept abreast of football developments via our much-maligned media and through my secret shame - a devotion to the Rumour Mill on The Scotsman.

For those of you unaware of the Rumour Mill, this is the natural home of the one issue obsessives from both sides of the Old Firm divide. Here, if a single Rangers fan posts that, to his certain knowledge, the world is more or less round - then within minutes a Celtic fan will post that this is bunkum, the world is not roundish, but square, and painted green and white in any case. Then, off the go - tit-for-tat, ad infinitum. Here too you will find the Rangers fan who only posts on Celtic issues, and his mirror image from the other side, who only ever posts on Rangers issues. If this is where we are at, in this 140th year of organised football in Scotland then - We're awe doomed, doomed ah tell ye.

The formation of the SPL, the Greed is Good league, has done nothing other than make the age-old tribal battle between the Old Firm, even more tribal; and this isn't healthy for the game, or the two clubs. If I have a wish for 2012, it is that decency and common sense will prevail and we will return to the days of honest rivalry, friendly banter and good competition - what we are seeing today, particularly on the internet, just aint healthy.



THE MORE I see of Craig Whyte's reign at Ibrox - the more I worry. Let's be honest here, Sir David Murray doesn't have a good record in sports management. He nearly ruined Scottish basketball through his stewardship of MIM then Livingston Bulls - where his model was unsustainable. He brought the same management model to Rangers - where it was equally unsustainable, and in both cases, he walked away, having spent a fortune for little return. He never attained the true European respect for MIM which he desired and 2008 not withstanding, his European record with Rangers was disgraceful.

Murray was an entrepreneur - he craved success, adulation and a high public profile. In the end he was forced to sell for £1, a club whose single shares at one time commanded a price tag of upwards of £10 PER SHARE. If that is not failure and mis-management, what is?

Murray has now sold the club to Craig Whyte - a Venture Capitalist. As I have explained before, VCs are the diametric opposite of entrepreneurs, they operate in the shadows, despise publicity and are in it for the money they can make, rather than public acclaim.

For these reasons, Whyte's purchase of Rangers doesn't make sense. If we take him at his word and he was a Rangers' fan in his younger, poorer days - although one mutual friend assures me he (Whyte) only ever claimed allegiance to Motherwell - then, perhaps he does have a dream of taking the club forward. If he's only in it for the money - I don't see where it will come from, since nobody with any sense would try to make a pile out of the game up here.

Classic VC behaviour would have been to have sold-on the club's few saleable playing assets: McGregor, Jelavic, Naismith, Davis - and go with the young boys. But that modus would demand an experienced manager, with a track record in developing and enjoying success with young players. Walter Smith never fitted that bill, Ally McCoist doesn't. Indeed, perhaps only Sir Alex Ferguson does, and there is no way he will ever manage Rangers.

The club's current travails - inconsistency, turgid football, comes as no surprise. If he really wants long-term success, he (Whyte) would perhaps be as well telling McCoist: "We sell our big earners, we get rid of the dead wood and we go with the kids". After half a season in the SPL, they will either be ready for next season, or can be jettisoned and replaced for next season.

McCoist's early days as a manager have not been exactly stimulating for the fans - perhaps in more-sensible time, he would have been able to rebuild for the long term, the fans might have accepted a few seasons in Celtic's shadow, with the promise of better days to come. In today's over-heated atmosphere, where Rangers HAVE to beat Celtic (and vice versa) with no other challengers on the horizon, that isn't going to happen.

These are difficult times for Rangers, for Celtic and for Scottish football.

How are times hard for us? I can hear the Celtic fans asking.

Simple - Rangers, without being in any way as good as Rangers teams of yore, have won the last three SPL titles. If, in their current state of disarray, they make it four-in-a-row, what does that say about Celtic? If they don't, and Celtic win the SPL - the feat in no way, given the paucity of opposition, makes them anything like worthy successors to the Lisbon Lions. Aye, we live in hard and difficult times.