Andy’s Sting In The Tale (21/03/25) “Three Cheers for Council Telly”  

(Photo:@Homesoffootball)

The equinox has passed, the light is well on the way to being back, and I watched a very good Scotland team outplay a feisty and aggressive Greek side in Piraeus in a very good first half and then hang on a bit.
I’m smiling out loud thinking I was watching along with all of Scotland and not just the affluent households or those with a coded Amazon Firestick.
And now I’m really looking forward to not just the second leg but also the upcoming World Cup battles against a very capable Hellenic side on the up and with good players.
No easy matches here or in Athens.

Step Up Auntie Beeb
The coverage of the actual game, as a game, was fine but I don’t think BBC Scotland had quite enough time to fully capitalise on just what an opportunity this windfall of 14 prime Scotland games is, especially pre and post the match itself.
I think it deserves top billing and a bit of magic dust and spend.
Yes, in a week when we heard that River City was now a casualty of endemic cost cutting we all know the Beeb are under unprecedented financial pressures but they should use the Scotland games as a statement of all that is good in Pacific Quay.

Andy’s Sting in the Tale

1. Pitching In for All
2. The Chairman’s ‘Very Deserved’ Award
3. Fireworks In Glasgow
4. Apologies Begin at Home
5. Whistle Blower Calls it What it is
6. Off Toon Up North

2. Three Scottish Heroes at Hampden

I hope there will be 11 on Sunday but in the meantime, today on the Steps of Hampden, Scottish Hero, Rose Reilly presented the SFSA Chairman’s award, (that’s from me) to two very special people.

It was a very easy call too and I can tell you I was unanimous in my decision.

Ex Paisley MP Gavin Newlands and MSP Gillian Mackay have supported the “Scotland Games Free on TV’ campaign from day one and their efforts have resulted in substantial and growing cross party support in both Westminster and Holyrood.
It’s a movement for the authorities to recognise that international football matches should go on to the protected list.

Yes, by default, AKA a rogue Scandi firm going bust, our games up to the World Cup will now be on BBC but the real battles will be about what comes after.

The SFA quite simply see Scotland games as a source of income and their current default position has been and is to sell them to the highest bidder.
Uefa Central media sales are happy to do that for them and that is the current position and will continue if nothing else happens.
Maybe, after 14 games in a row Auntie Beeb will assess and value the audience delivery and spin off potentials this offers.
Maybe the SFA too will see that the national team on ‘free to air’ expands the size of the whole Scottish football market and not just the sale of dodgy Amazon Fire Sticks to modern day domestic pirates.
The coming problem is now out in the open:
The SFA see our games as a cash cow.
Channel 4 and ITV seem happy to bid enough to secure the England matches but don’t pro-rata their commitment outside of St George’s green and pleasant land.
The BBC will always plead poverty.
Uefa don’t care that 40% of kids in Scotland are in poor households.
Amazon like selling Fire Sticks.

The solution has to be a combination of openness, pragmatism, politics and compromise.

The SFSA won’t let this one go.

3. Nothing to Declare

We had a Glasgow derby last weekend.
From what I’ve been told:
Our taxpayer funded polis using what they called ‘intel’ stopped a substantial group of home supporters well away from the ground and wanted to search them.

4. Empty Apologies?  

“For the avoidance of doubt, if you do not believe in 2025 that absolutely everyone is welcome to follow Rangers, whether at Ibrox or away, then Rangers is not the club for you and you should disassociate yourself with the club immediately.”

The Ibrox board obviously don’t do irony.

But first of all well done, nothing in any of that series of statements that I or any fan can disagree with.
But why respond so efficiently over an incomprehensible wee banner when the song book heard every week goes further and is more racist and discriminatory than the Rangers Ultras risible, badly-composed attempt at world politics?

5. Thank You Stewart Kenny

A new name to me but he was one of the three founders of Paddy Power but left when he saw the harm their business was causing to kids and gambling newbies.
He now regrets his success, not the fact that lots of people can enjoy a bet like him, but that the Gambling Industry targets youngsters using football as a point of entry into their ‘Casinos’ where the real income is made.

In Mr Kenny’s own words gambling has become addictive and online casinos have made the cocktail too strong.

“Changing the odds” https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00291y5

6. A Scotless Victory

The last time Newcastle United picked up real silverware was 1969 when they won the Inter Cities Fairs Cup.
On route to their two legged final victory over Uzpesti Dozsa they also defeated our own Rangers in the semis.
I remember both the second leg live on TV and one of Perth’s finest sons, Bobby Moncur eventually holding the trophy aloft.
Like all top English sides the Toon side back in ’69 had a Scottish spine with Tommy Gibb, skipper Moncur, Jim Scott and Jackie Sinclair also heroes in the black and white shirts.
Guess how many Scots were in the Newcastle side last week?
Not many I hear you think.

The answer is half of bugger all and that says as much about Scottish football as it does about what’s happening south of the wall.

Andy’s Sting is:

A wee personal blog written weekly by a football fan who loves football and what it has done and can do.
In a world where power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely I despair for what the grabbers in football have done to our game.
It keeps getting worser and worser and makes me angry, cynical and sad in equal measures at the same time.

But then I walk round Saughton Park, see an informal kids game, and remember that football belongs to the people, not the suited, self-important tossers in private jets sucking up to the likes of King Donald of Mar-a-Lago, his Russian backers and all the Sportswashing Aspirant Nations attracted by the positive media football generates hoping it can do good for them.

Talking about media, I’m deeply proud that for now that Scotland International games will for now be shown on Free to Air, and happy the ‘The Scottish Football Supporters  Association’ helped organise and fight that good fight.
But no mistake, it is a skirmish victory not a won war.

Joining is free and membership always will be.

Believe it or not in addressing the real issues with the authorities it is a numbers game and like the famous Lord Kitchener WW1 poster “We all need you”, in fact “You need you”, even if you’ve never thought about it before.

Fans need to unite or the first law of Football Power means we get forgotten/ignored and end up losing out.

JJ Cale : Special Edition

My introduction to this genius was probably Eric Clapton’s version of ‘After Midnight’ but at the time I thought it was just a good track on a good Clapton album and thought no more of it.
I remember my pal Tom buying ‘Okie’, probably late ’74 from the very trendy, new-fangled, and cheap, Virgin Record Shop in Great Northern Road in the Granite City.
Hard to believe but it was just the second shop in the soon to grow Virgin empire and it had new-agey staff who called everybody, ‘man’, and aircraft seats to sit down and listen to acts booming out like ‘Gong’ and ‘Quicksilver Messenger Service’.
Okie’s still a really nice album, with a stand out track, Cajun Moon, but it was all good laidback stuff that I still can’t describe, it’s just JJ Cale.
I remember the next album ‘Troubadour’ getting very good reviews in the music press and it became a late night favourite of mine.
This wonderful man became an Andy turntable staple and over the years I accumulated half a dozen albums including ‘Shades’, ‘5’ and ‘Guitar Man’.
I didn’t ever know much about him because he kept a quite unique low profile but he was an ever present in my car so much so that my kids are all now JJ Cale fans.