BILLY BREMNER MEMORIAL JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN
Date: 16th August 2024
(Photo:@Homesoffootball)
55 very short years ago the biggest ever Rock Festival was exploding across Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, Upper New York State.
It wasn’t called Bethel, or Yasgur’s.
No it was Woodstock and it’s a name we’ve all heard of.
It’s become iconic.
Few know that the festival was scheduled originally to have taken place at Woodstock the small town some 40 miles away but the town said NO, and eventually farmer Max and the natural bowl on his land became an iconic, albeit 11th hour stand- in.
On that Saturday August 16th Scottish football had a full card with 18 clubs playing in our first division and also 18 of the 19 in the second.
Very few of the Scots watching football that day knew anything about the 500,000 ‘music fans’ enjoying 3 days of ‘Peace and Love’ across the pond.
I was at Caley versus Ross County and would have preferred to be in Bethel.
Quite bizarrely Edinburgh’s own Incredible String Band played on that Saturday at 6pm followed by Canned Heat, Grateful Dead, Creedence, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone and finally The Who.
Some gig.
Looking back though is always a good way to regain perspective because we can learn so much from history.
It is a fact that Scottish Football was much stronger back then.
In 69-70 Celtic reached the final of the European Cup (Champions League), and despite being overwhelming favourites lost after extra time to Feyenoord at the San Siro. (Imagine that today, a Scottish team being a recent winner and firm favourites for Europe’s biggest prize?)
That same year Rangers lost out in the 2nd round of the Cup Winners Cup to KS Gornik who reached the final.
(Rangers won just 2 years later)
And Killie and Dunfermline got past Xmas into round 3 of the Inter Cities Fairs Cup.
Top Belgian side Anderlecht only beat the Pars on away goals.
Looking back at the teams and where the players came from.
We had 4 Scots teams playing Scots players.
The players had grown up through schools football, youth leagues, juvenile leagues, junior sides, reserve leagues and more.
Kids then mostly played free and schools were a hotbed producing talent at all levels.
In season 69-70 the inaugural Elgin City Cup for under 14s was won by Inverness Royal at Borough Briggs.
I still have a medal somewhere.
I’ve also been told it hasn’t been contested since the early 1980s when the teachers walked away from Schools football as part of a wages protest.
The teachers were unheralded stalwarts of the game and are sair missed.
They were never replaced.
I really don’t know why.
Seems a no brainer.
A form of self abuse.
The teachers were part of the ‘Free World of Scottish Football’ for kids supported by a huge, dedicated, and mostly volunteer army.
Fast forward to 2024.
Scottish Born Questions
Have a wee guess in your head about what percentage of Scots born players lined up as starters in the SPFL Premiership on a Saturday in March?
Then think how many Scots played for Celtic v Hibs last Sunday?
For Rangers against Dinamo Kyiv on Tuesday?
For Killie against Tromso on Thursday?
And finally St Mirren vs Brann on Thursday?
The Paisley team, and Glasgow giants started with a deeply disturbing ‘couple’ of Scots born players each.
That means eighty two per cent of starting elevens were not eligible to play their way into Steve Clarke’s plans.
Kilmarnock had five Scottish born players.
And in March only thirty one per cent of starters in the Scottish Premiership were Scottish.
Scary and plain wrong.
Yes the Football Globe Has Shrunk, But That is No Excuse
There is no way back ever to 11 Scots in every team like back in the halcyon Woodstock days but our kids game needs a root and branch assessment, strategy and plan or it will continue to underperform and fail.
We know what we used to do worked.
Scotland was a genuine hotbed of talent.
What we are doing today doesn’t deliver and it is hurting every aspect of our game.
End of.
Time to ask Andy’s 3 Business Questions about Grass Roots Football
i) Where are we now?
ii) Where do we want to be?
iii) What is the best way to get there?
Well I’m asking all three.
Andy’s Sting in the Tale
1. Europe 2024
2. Kessock Land Grab Continues?
3. Unfair and Unbalanced
1. Two Disappointing Outcomes
There is no doubt that the referee’s second yellow was a nonsense.
The sending off spoiled the game and made Dynamo overwhelming favourites.
Looking back, of course Rangers were unlucky not to make it through to a very tough last hurdle against Red Bull Saltzburg.
But as a Rangers fan, on the night, I don’t think we ever looked quite good enough.
Yes it’s too early in the season but I think standards in our top league have fallen gradually and sometimes imperceptibly, but fallen they have.
That makes it tough for our clubs.
Speaking to an ex Ranger afterwards here is his ‘tidied up’ unattributed quote. (No bad words)
“Andy, the problem is we struggle to get players to want to play in our Premiership even for big clubs like Rangers. So we’re constantly looking for the diamonds but fighting stronger leagues at every turn”.
Rangers do have European football guaranteed and very welcome revenues coming from the Europa League although the numbers are said to be £20M plus down on what the Champions League would have delivered.
The wee photo below is from near Dunblane Station and shows what fans thought of the ref and the result.
St Mirren fell at their second last hurdle and won’t be playing Astana for what would have been huge un-budgeted revenues.
I thought they were unlucky and looked good until those two late goals.
Killie showed real guts to win in the North of the North of the North and now head over the North Sea to FC Copenhagen on Thursday for a tough two legger. The Danish side are top of their Superliga and last week beat Banik on penalties. (As recently as March they were playing Man City and competing well in the round of 16 in the Champions League).
Killie are outsiders but have nothing to lose.
Good luck Derek.
2. Time to ‘Right Size’ the Club Alan and Open Up to Fan Ownership?
Last week before a trip to Annan ICT fans were told of ‘2 new players’.
It was a cynical attempt to get the focus away from the stark financial realities and the acquisition of the club because of the increased value of the land the stadium sits on.
Freeport and all that.
It didn’t work and the gloom got worse.
Then on Tuesday new hope arrived in the form of ex-chairman Alan Savage.
Fans were told that negotiations with Seventy7 the Monaco pension fund fronted by Ketan Makwana were going to be immediately suspended and there were loud cheers when the CEO, working his notice, abruptly left and was replaced by local hero Charlie Christie.
Alan then told the media he has put in £150,000 to keep the club alive for now and said, he plans to put the club on the market when it is stable.
He also mentioned buyer interest from Portugal and China, as you do.
In the meantime the club are asking for fans to get behind the club and get the tills rolling again.
However in the confusion today fans also heard that there is no money in the Burnetts Biscuit Tin for Duncan to get new players in the transfer window and also that man Ketan Makwana is still saying he wants the club, oops sorry, the land.
This all has a way to go yet.
And everyone I’ve spoken to agrees, the club has a successful future if it right sizes and goes back to what used to make it special.
It should be run for the community and in fan ownership.
A real Inverness United.
Something it always should have been.
And a wee final word to say thanks Johndo, the Immortal Howden Ender for all the laughs and smiles.
Life is too bloody short old friend.
RIP
3. Fans Love Goalfests, But
I couldn’t help
feeling sorry for Spartans, Dundee United, Montrose, Queen’s Park and Aberdeen Women last weekend.
Spartans Women took a sore one but the other four were well and truly thumped showing the gap between the top 5 teams and the rest of our league.
But feeling sorry isn’t enough.
The scores don’t make the winners look good, they just devalue our fledgling league and ask more questions.
One of the critical problems occurring is the top teams steal all the best players from the other sides and this just makes it all even more imbalanced.
You can’t blame the players for wanting to play for the best and richest clubs, or the clubs for getting the best players they can.
What the disparities say is that at this moment our game just isn’t big enough or well enough developed.
And we’re not good at grass roots football.
Our conveyor belt is not working.
We need more and better competition.
A scenario that reminds me of what happened a while ago in rugby when professionalism came in and England and France set up strong leagues and ‘dropped’ the other countries.
However the other ‘weaker’ countries saw the bigger picture potential, banded together and set up an international league that now competes very well.
Our top women’s sides need to play the best opposition and as of now there isn’t enough in Scotland.
I’d wager their problem is replicated in Ireland, and across the North Sea.
Maybe it’s time for big thinking the same way the oval ball people had to and did.
That’s it from me again this week.
Feedback and wee stories always welcome.
Andy’s Album of the week
Woodstock: Various Artistes
I didn’t know much about Woodstock when it happened or even much about the acts who filled the 3 days.
The movie changed that.
It was 1970 and my eldest sister, home from college for Easter, wanted someone to accompany her to see the film at the local Playhouse.
Yes it was rated an X and I was well underage and small but the desk was attended by a pal of my mums and entry wasn’t an issue.
I loved the film.
Split screens, weird and wonderful people and a kind of documentary style that was years ahead of its time.
Truly seminal and impactful.
It introduced me to Santana, Hendrix, Country Joe and their protest song, Crosby Still Nash and Young, Sly and the Family Stone, Joan Baez, Melanie, Ten Years After and an off key virtuoso guitar solo by Alvin Lee, Canned Heat and the fun and madness that was Sha Na Na.
Bands I’d never heard of.
But most of all I saw Roger Daltrey and the Who.
He stole the show. And his performance was ranked by Time Magazine as one of the best ever and I had found my band, for a while.
A birthday was coming up and I got the triple album, it was rare back then because it was so expensive and we had to travel to Chris’s Records in Dingwall to pick it up.
It was the one album I wouldn’t share with anyone and it is still mint today as I play it.
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