Andy’s Sting in the Tail – 19/07/2024 – Picking up the Baton

We’re currently in the doldrums season and I sometimes wonder how our club-dedicated football journalists fill our back pages without actually saying anything or asking the questions that need asked.
Filling 2 pages with nothing every day is actually a tough gig.

I couldn’t fill 2 pages every day with nothingness and the reality is I never know what to write about when I sit down each Friday.
I just try to cover stuff that I think should get more exposure and healthy discussion and wish the media was more informative and questioning and thought the same way.
There is nothing wrong with healthy discussions around football and we’d be in a better place if that was the norm.
We the SFSA are just a mouthpiece for the fans.
Scottish Fans need a strong trade union.
Otherwise it will be same old same old.

Andy’s Sting in the Tale

 

1. The Threat of a Regulator, North of the Wall
2. Heading for the Play Offs
3. Where’s Steve?
4. Belgian Cities Refuse to Host Israel
5. What is Behind Our American Revolution?
6. Fighting and Racism at the Miami Copa America Final

 

1. Sir Keir Gets It

From discussions the SFSA had with the five main political parties in Scotland and our subsequent debates (all on the record) and presentations in Holyrood, we know there is full cross-party support for either fast and rapid change from within Scottish football or else an inevitable imposition of a Football Regulator for Scottish Football (Scottish football is not good at fast and rapid change from within).
Independent Regulation is happening because football in England and Scotland is riven with short-termism and self-interest and quite simply has ignored and or forgotten the smaller clubs, the lower leagues and, most of all, the common or garden fans and their communities.

This week in the King’s Speech our newish Monarch graciously said, “A Bill will be introduced to establish an independent football regulator to ensure greater sustainability in the game and strengthen protections for fans”. We all knew that both the FA in England and the SFA in Scotland had hoped that the cross-party supported initiative first proposed and fronted by former Tory Sports Minister Tracey Crouch in March 2024 would have fallen on stony ground between the two parliaments.
It didn’t.
At present the plans are just for the English game, but all eyes are on Westminster and everything the Independent Regulator there does and sets out to do will be seen up North and scrutiny of our game will move up several notches.

Maybe even a little TRANSPARENCY.

That is a scary word to some people taking a living out of our game.
(Football in Scotland benefits from significant amounts of public money from Holyrood and Westminster, even if nobody seems to want to publicly add the amount up and audit it all in the open).

To remind you … because there has not been nearly enough coverage of this in our media, the primary purpose of Tracey’s cross-party supported bill was to establish a new independent football regulator (IFR) in English football to “ensure that English football is sustainable and resilient for the benefit of fans and the local communities football clubs serve”. The IFR’s objectives will be focussed on promoting the financial soundness of the whole pyramid of English professional football.

It will also have powers to impose a solution where leagues are unable to reach an agreement on distribution to lower leagues of revenue from televised matches.
So it has teeth.

Labour’s new Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, has been quoted saying, “the creation of a new football regulator is a top priority for me in this job”.

Looking ahead to the fast debate and procession through parliament, sports law expert Gabrielle Armstrong of Pinsent Masons said. “We can expect to see some minor changes to the Bill reflecting two main issues:  increasing fan engagement with the work of the IFR and extending its powers to review arrangements on distribution of broadcast revenue by potentially including so-called ‘parachute payments’ that are made to clubs for a set period after they are relegated to a lower league.”

Public law and legislation expert David Thorneloe,  also of Pinsent Masons, said, “Subject to any changes being made, this Bill is likely to be one that can be swiftly pulled off the shelf and introduced by this government. Given the previous parliamentary scrutiny that was completed before the election, and the broad support the Bill received, it is also likely to move swiftly through its parliamentary stages, so that it becomes law before the end of the 2024-25 football season.”

 

In Scotland, following MSP Ben Macpherson’s debate around our SFSA produced ‘Review of the Game’ a few months ago, there is a ‘Round Table’ scheduled for the 7th of  August and headed by Maree Todd, Sports Minister, among other health based things.
There will be full cognisance of what is now happening at Westminster.
We’ll/you’ll be represented by ex-First Minister Henry McLeish, ex-Dundee chairman, Stuart Murphy, and ex-Dalneigh Dynamos founder, owner and manager, me.

More next week in the run-up.

2. Well Done Scottish Women
Was I the only one grumpy about two things last Tuesday night in the group stage for Euros 2025.

The first was that STV, yes Scottish TV were showing the Sweden v England fixture in full glory live, clashing with our game.
(The same STV who used to be a real player in Scottish football, but now do so little for our game).
We Scots had the live, but comparatively shoestring, BBC Alba, Gaelic commentary and all.

As a package, great in itself because it was on free to air TV, but Firhill looked empty and it was all done on a level 1 budget that is fine for championship games on a wet Friday.

The real point though is the empty stadium for effectively what was the deciding match on a fine and balmy summer’s evening.

I have no issue with the decision that led to our women playing at Firhill.
But I do think the ‘connect with fans’, rationale that was clumsily press-released out to cover what was really a climbdown from Hampden and was and is a poor excuse for our gross commercial underperformance.
Surely someone at the SFA has the commercial skills to plan and deliver a sell-out and noisy crowd at a time when women’s football is booming all over the world?

Firhill can hold circa 10,000. The SFA have, for their own reasons, not so far released the crowd figure but I’ve been told it was less than 3,000.
Why did someone not make it a priority to fill the ground to support our team even if it was with free tickets to kids from Scottish Grassroots Clubs.
I see that as a good investment.Winning the group means we were seeded in today’s draw and thus in what some overpaid genius at Uefa called Path 2.
Our first challenge out of the glass ball is against Hungary, away first, in a two-legged tie between October 23 and 29.
If/when we win we will then face Montenegro or Finland, at home first, between 27th November and 3rd December.
Here are the current rankings of our mini-draw quartet. (Scotland 23, Finland 26, Hungary 43, and Montenegro 85.
It could have been worse because Sweden and Belgium were in the play-offs too but nothing is ever quite easy enough.
I hope the SFA promote these games and deliver capacity crowds.They have 3 months to get their arses in gear.
Maybe not.
I think they are so used to the Tartan Army just coming that they have forgotten how to sell or build a crowd.

 

3. It’s Easier to Find ‘Wally’ Than Steve

Spain deserved to win.
Just think what we’d have thought if we were runners up, like our neighbours.
Gareth after eight years of incredible success has had enough of the media-driven bile and walked away with his head held high.
In the meantime Steve, in whom we trust, has been as hard to Spot as Wally at the Pyramids.
I’d ask on behalf of all the fans.
“Why the silence and invisibility guys?’
We have a tough Nations League group and a world cup imminent.
In last week’s Sting I said that our game had let Steve down because it is not producing the conveyor belt of the right level of talent we need.
Total agreement seems to be the reply.
Heather Dewar, the incisive sports journalist, was on GMS this week and I’ll quote just two of her sentences.
“We are just not producing good enough players.
We need to look at Grassroots”.

I’d agree and let me share a wonderful posting, sent to me, written by the Tartan Army’s Billy McClure.

i) Why does our main league have only 35% of Scots in it?
ii) Why are our main clubs not producing more players from academies?
iii) Where is our new generation coming from?
iv) Is our coaching system fit for purpose?
v) Why do young people have to pay to access football pitches and play?
vi) Do we have enough indoor facilities?
vii) Where are the next generation of Scottish coaches and what are their football philosophies?

All stuff straight out of Sting.
He then says, “I don’t know the answers but I do know that watching other international teams opens your eyes to what we are.”
Well said Billy, says I.

Scottish football needs a full review and reset because we will only ever be as strong as our foundations and the game has evolved into a place where it doesn’t prioritise grassroots and seems happy buying and fielding a constant stream of not born in Scotland mercenaries for the short term results our clubs are fixated on.

4.  Neen! (Pronounced Nain),
Non!
And Both Belgian for NO!

That’s what the Belgian cities with big enough stadia have said to Belgium’s home game versus Israel in September.
Brussels ‘King Baudouin Stadium’ was first to say Neen because of the inevitable protests and this week several others said, Neen!, aka “Thanks but no thanks”.
The RBFA, Royal Belgian FA, have now accepted the match will be played abroad and their red tops think it will be played in Hungary.
In the meantime pressure was said to be building on Fifa to suspend Israel even before what’s called an ‘Extraordinary’ meeting takes place.
But in true Fifa compromised style they have postponed any decision till after the Olympics.
Politics at Fifa  is a dirty business.
‘Fairsquare’, a human rights group, had submitted a detailed report to Fifa saying it has ‘Multiple grounds to suspend or expel the IFA under articles 72.1, 4.1, 14.1 and 15(c) and article 2.1 of Fifa statutes.
‘Eko’ a social justice non-profit org had said, “Israel has violated the internationally recognised rights of Palestinians according to Article 3. It discriminates against Palestinians on the basis of race, origin and birth in direct contravention of Article 4. Its conduct undermines Fifa’s humanitarian objectives  in Article 5.1b.Sometimes football has to do the right thing.
The calls for Fifa action will not go away.

5. “I Don’t Get It”

It was the famous line from one of my favourite films, Big.
It’s when Josh, played by Tom Hanks has been bombarded with marketing/establishment crap about a new toy and genuinely says it doesn’t make sense to him.
And he was, and is right.
This week we heard that the former Grand Fromage at Netflix is abandoning his attempt to buy into Motherwell.
The fans would have said no in a vote because it would have diluted their holding.
And fair enough.
It is a matter of record that we now have substantial American ownerships of Hibs, St Johnstone, Dundee, Dundee United and at least one other club lower down the leagues.
In addition the gossip in Inverness suggests that there is American interest with a figure of £2M quoted/leaked.
And Aberdeen born Dave Cormack is firmly based out of Atlanta.

I’ve had a few members write to me asking if I know why this has all happened and I genuinely don’t.

I do know that as Ron Gordon once said he bought Hibs because of ’value’.
I can see rich men seeing the value of land around stadia and elsewhere but don’t get the kissing of the badges conversions.
Buying land as part of business deals delivers real value though, just ask the team who grew Stagecoach from a one bus operating newbie out of Perth.

So the gold-rush has to be because Americans think that our clubs and their land assets are cheap.
The buyers know Scotland is not a route into the riches of the English game but it could be a good spot to have a development club subsidiary that is sellable in the future.

I honestly don’t know.

But for now I’m more agin than for.

6.  When Miami Kicked Off After Full Time

The record will show that Argentina won the Copa America last Monday in a 1-0 victory over Columbia at the home of the Miami Dolphins which is due to be a world cup venue in just 2 years.
There was fall out and stuff, and the discussions will be about:

Thousands of ticketless fans trying to rush the security, raising real security issues and holding the game up by 82 minutes.

 

Fans climbed over gates and barriers and the scenes were described as ‘chaotic’.

The Columbian vice president, Ramon Jesuruns, a Fifa Council member, was arrested for fighting with security guards backed up by his son. He was bailed for $2000.

Then the victorious Argentina Team sang songs which questioned the African heritage of France’s black and mixed race players in a sing-song on the bus to Miami Airport.
A video posted on Instagram by Chelsea’s Argentine midfielder Enzo Fernandez (idiot) has been widely viewed on X, showing Argentina players appearing to question the African heritage of France’s black and mixed-race players.
One of Fernandez’s Chelsea teammates, France defender Wesley Fofana, then re-posted the video on his social media accounts Tuesday, calling it “uninhibited racism”.

That led to the  French FA filing a complaint with FIFA over “racist and discriminatory remarks” while Fernandez, who is under investigation, has himself issued a lengthy apology.

All embarrassing, all stupid and all plain wrong.

It all led to the under-secretary for Sports in the Argentina government, Julio Garro, asking for Snr Messi to apologise on behalf of the team and then getting summarily sacked from his post for doing so.

 

That’s it from me again this week.

Enjoy the Amazon Firestick League Cup this weekend if your team has a game.

 

Feedback and wee stories always welcome.

NOTE: “Sting” is the personal views of our chair and does not necessarily reflect the corporate position of  the SFSA on every issue discussed.

Andy’s Album of the week

The Hissing Of Summer Lawns: Joni Mitchell

I remember this album was said to be experimental and looking back it is quite different to her ‘Blue’ masterpiece although not so much as its immediate predecessor ‘Court and Spark’.

All very personal stuff and quite deep.
But wonderful.
This album is Joni fighting back against her frustration at the male establishment, big time.

I remember the NME and Melody Maker thinking the album was over- ambitious and that she was trying too hard but I already had my copy and disagreed vehemently with their jumped up journos.
Harry’s House/Centrepiece was and is just the most wonderful track.

Her poetic insight, “Yellow schools of taxi fishes” stuck with me and on my first trip to New York I laughed out loud at her quite unique metaphor because she had encapsulated it perfectly.

I have this alum on vinyl, cassette, disc and on my car’s data disc and I remember a BBC2 show around the time of the launch which showcased her and I wish it was on iplayer

She also played the Playhouse in the 90s and was understated and excellent.

I’m a real fan of Joni Anderson from Fort Macleod.