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What Can Be Done To Resolve The Scottish Soccer Crisis

With Scottish teams now unable to make it through to the post-Christmas stages of European competition, following Glasgow Rangers’ defeat to VfB Stuttgart, a national team without a manger after qualifying disappointment and a general consensus that the quality of the SPL is declining dramatically, Walter Townsend looks at what can be done to redeem Scottish football.

The over-riding opinion both within Scotland and throughout the wider confines of Great Britain is that Scottish football simply isn’t what it used to be. The days when Scottish teams used to provide a stiff challenge in Europe would on the face of it appear to be over.

This season Scottish clubs in Europe have endured a torrid time with Celtic and Rangers now both mathematically ruled out of making it past Christmas in any competition, and the remainder of the Scottish contingent wiped out before the end of August. This season included defeats to Welsh and Albanian sides, a team from the Swiss second division, and perhaps most humiliatingly a 1-5 home defeat for the once proud Aberdeen against Sigma Olomouc.

Things are hardly much better on the national scene, after threatening to cause an upset in qualification for Euro 2008 after beating France home and away, optimism abounded that the Scots could at least challenge for a play-off spot for World Cup qualification. However, a defeat in Macedonia in the first game set the tone for a disappointing campaign which saw the Scots finish well off the pace.

With the current economic state of affairs hitting the bank accounts of the clubs hard, and another paltry TV deal signed over the summer, investment in the Scottish game has dwindled significantly.

A barren wasteland?

Yet by no means is Scotland barren when it comes to developing football talent. The record transfer fee received by a Scottish side was broken in August 2008 and then equalled some six months later when Scottish internationals Craig Gordon and Alan Hutton joined Premier League sides for figures around the £9 million mark.
Furthermore Scottish youth football has been flourishing, with the U-19 side performing heroically at the UEFA U-19 Championships in 2006 to reach the finals and qualifying for the FIFA World U-20 Championships in the process. That side included Robert Snodgrass, now catching the eye for the MK Dons and Lee Wallace and Gary Kenneth both of whom have gone on to become regular first team players for their SPL sides.

Last season a relatively unheralded Scottish U-19 side lost only narrowly to their better known English counterparts in the final qualifying match for the UEFA U-19 Championships. England went on to reach the final of that tournament over the summer, indicating that even now, with Scottish football at such a low ebb, there is plenty of potential.

Looking further afield

Many are keen to encourage the SPL to look further afield, and there have been plenty of suggestions that both Celtic and Rangers should try and breakaway to join the English or that some sort of North Atlantic league should be created with other leagues such as the Scandinavian ones and the Dutch Eredivisie.

The reality is that these alternatives are highly unlikely to happen in the near future. Currently the top two in Scotland lag well behind the standard in the Premiership and would be highly likely to suffer immediate relegation.

Meanwhile a North Atlantic league would be logistically impossible to form and with the like of the Dutch and Portuguese leagues flourishing, they have little need to form some sort of partnership with the SPL. Furthermore the failure of the Royal League in Scandinavia indicates there is little public appetite for a regional competition alongside an existing local one, so economically there is no justification for continuing discussions on these lines.

On their own

Therefore, whatever is proposed needs to be viable enough to stand on its own. A look at the Eredivisie, which is burgeoning may be a useful exercise. The Dutch league also went through something of a crisis as performances in Europe tailed off, and whilst a repeat of the European success of Ajax in the mid-nineties still seems a long way off, crowds are increasing and Dutch clubs from outside the top-three are now in a position to mount a viable challenge to the like of PSV and Ajax.

Clubs such as FC Twente, FC Utrecht and SC Heerenveen have flourished thanks to their ability to appeal to supporters from outside the immediate catchment area of their own relatively small town, but still within the overall region. Indeed many of the rapidly improving Dutch clubs could be representatives of their province. This has led to the creation of regional super clubs to the detriment of smaller teams in the same region.

The same process could happen organically in Scotland, but would lead very quickly to the dissolution of many of Scotland’s smaller clubs plying their trade in the Second and Third Divisions, many of whom enjoy a fine tradition and history. Something that would be a big loss to the communities they play in.

Structural change

Another alternative could be an alteration in the SPL rules. Currently a minimum of three players under the age of 21 have to be named in the match-day squad, but there is no restriction on their nationality. The Russian league has recently forced clubs into fielding more national players, with almost immediate improvements in the number of young players available for selection for the national side. Whilst their break-through may have come too soon to help Russia to South Africa next summer for the World Cup, the medium-term future for Russian football looks very rosy if they continue their current development.

A more radical alterative could be to switch to playing in the summer, although it would be a transformation hard to stomach for many traditionalists. However, an identical move has done wonders for the game in Ireland, not only increasing local appetite for the game but also improving Irish performances in European club football. It would not only mean that crucial European qualifying matches would coincide with Scottish teams being ready and match-fit in July and early August, but it could also increase the attractiveness of the league as a cheaper investment alternative to the Premiership.

The current TV deal is meagre by comparison to what the league was able to command in the past, but a switch to the summer game, when there is little domestic football on offer on British TV would encourage media outlets to reconsider their financial apathy to the Scottish game.
Fans and TV viewers may like football that is easy on the eye, but with the traditional British style all but lost in the Premiership, many commentators when assigned to cover the lower English leagues where the game is more direct are often left musing that it may not have been high on quality but it was certainly exciting.

Perhaps though, the most important point is that Scottish football needs to find some unity at club level. For too long Rangers and Celtic have acted above the league, dismissing suggestions that might work for the rest, but not favour them. The Glasgow-pair need to realise that a strong Scottish game would not only enhance the league as a whole, making it a more viable investment opportunity for private and public enterprise, but also give them more options as they look to strengthen their squads as they seek to become the force they once were on a European level. Ultimately a healthy and flourishing Scottish league scene needs Rangers and Celtic, as much as they need a strong SPL.

Whilst it’s doubtful that Scottish football will ever become as influential as it once was, the adoption of just one or a combination of these proposals could at least see SPL teams avoid humiliation in a European context and improve the standard of the Scottish national team.

Posted by Walter Townsend on Wednesday, 25th November 2009

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