Andy’s Sting In The Tale (23/08/24) “Beverley Humbled”

(Photo:@Homesoffootball)

If you’ve been on the moon you won’t have seen the sickening incident outside Hampden last Saturday.
Beverley, a sprightly 51 old drum owner, and the highly regarded St Johnstone SLO, and fan, was accosted by 4 brave and loyal Rangers fans, physically beaten up and had her Samba Drum stolen and then somehow resold nearby.
It was all on film too in a mix of security and fan cameras.
Polis Scotland and our courts are dealing with the legals with one fan already charged and out on bail, upstanding chap that he is.

Rangers quickly identified and banned the 4 ‘indefinitely’, whatever that really means, but on the Rangers web site this morning there is no mention of what the valiant fans did in the name of their club or indeed what the club have done.
There should be.
Rangers and all clubs should shine the light on shit like this.
And right now is a good time to start.

Also, Hampden is the home of the SFA but the story didn’t make the SFA web site either, and it should have.

So, a week ago, Beverley Mayer  was beaten up by 4 Rangers supporting thugs and had her drum stolen and resold but that is not the reason for the word “Humbled’ in the headline.

What humbled Beverley was the reaction by ordinary fans from all clubs and outside football after the incident went viral.

People were rightly outraged, angry but supportive.
The broad Tartan Army of Scottish fans from all clubs including Rangers don’t go round beating up middle aged women and stealing their wee drums across the world.
And none of us want this stuff in Scottish football at any level.
Here are some quotes from social media.
“Bev is one of the loveliest people and goes above and beyond to make everyone welcome to St Johnstone. This behaviour has no place in our game”.
“There is more that unites us than divides us”.
“It would be good if the Rangers SLO made a public support announcement in favour of the St Johnstone SLO and posted it on the web site”.
There are thousands more messages from fans who want change to stop this kind of thing.
I like the one about the fact that we are all ‘united by football’ rather than divided by colours, birthplace links, family ties and worst of all socio-religious historic nonsense.
There is a solution to bad fan behaviour and it is a mix of good natured self-policing by fans backed by ‘Strict Liability’ with teeth.
It is a disturbing fact that we see dark and unwanted aspects of fans misbehaviour on a weekly basis that has no place in 2024.
And why do our top teams sign up to ‘Strict Liability’ and all it entails to garner their riches from Europe yet seem not to want it at home.
And a final thought.
After the recent riots across England and Northern Ireland we have all witnessed, Sir Keir Starmer personally overseeing a very fast and uber-strict response that has made a strong statement to anyone thinking about violent protest or unacceptable behaviour in support of a cause.
I am certain that it will have a profound  impact on public crowd behaviour going forward. I hope Scottish football and our courts wake up to the cancer that is ‘inherent bad fan misbehaviours’ and learns from Sir Keir.
There is no excuse.
There are so many things in our game that shouldn’t be.
Why do so many of us seem to ignore or pretend they are unimportant?
Why are we not outing them at every opportunity?
For instance at last week’s Hamden game we were all ‘entertained’ by a song book that football would be better without.
So unimportant to our media it isn’t even reported, and our ref’s don’t report it, and our SFA doesn’t ever have to deal with it.
It’s complex yes but it’s also simple.
I genuinely don’t know when some football ‘banter’ becomes racism but I also know what’s wrong.
It is racism.
And always was?
And I’m neither a stupid nor naïve man.

 

Andy’s Sting in the Tale

1. Nice One Andy?
2. Comet Chaos
3. Sponsorship Bollocks
4. Are The Portugese Really Coming
5, Maureen’s Insights
6. Europe and why endless qualifiers are just to keep the big guys income streams streaming

 

1. A 114 Pager in the Public Domain

 

The SFA have just published a 114 pages “Report on the Transitional Phase” written by Chris Docherty, Head of Men’s Elite Strategy, and Andy Gould Chief Football Officer after extensive research inside the game.

It’s a long and detailed read and it identifies depressing statistics of how our game is failing our elite kids from ages 16 till 21 which ia the age group researched.

I can’t hope to analyse it after just two quickish views.

Yes, like all deep enquiries it is probably suffering from finding too many things to do and it doesn’t yet identify the best first move, the one thing that will start to make a difference.
But maybe that will come after the paper is properly discussed and debated and I’m hopeful that will happen.

The MSM has just about reported that the SFA paper exists but it’s not good clickbait so there has been disappointing journo analysis or follow up.
C’est la vie, north of the wall.

Social media has had a few comments though and some think the outcome of it all will be a call (aka a shoe-in) for B Teams in a New Conference League Plan.

I think our inability to develop talent is deeper than a blunt, simplistic, unilateral ‘fix’ like the B Team league nonsense proposed and nearly railroaded last Spring.

And so does this paper because it looks deep and far.

Things beyond its remit too, like our ‘small leagues’ that mean every game is pressurised to avoid relegation or push for promotion, – games for journeymen pros from elsewhere rather than talented Scottish kids.
It also addresses things like the ignorance in some boards that youth policies are profitable and good for results too.

It certainly starts the process of asking, “Where are we now”?  as a good starting point in any planning exercise.

That is a good sign and start.

In time I hope it will be joined with a full review of the entry points at grass roots rather than just the elite end.
And I think it would have been a good thing to have talked in depth to our own Henry McLeish whose two reports have ended up in the long grass and Graeme McDowall who wrote the wonderful book, The System about our failings in kids football .
I’d still recommend widening the digging.

2. Comet The Hour, Comet the Headline

The Daily Record splashed out, “Scots Youth Football in Chaos”.
It has a fair degree of truth too.
We’ve known about difficulties for weeks because our Grass Roots wing has been pulling out their hair about the new ‘super-duper’ all ‘bells and whistles’ very expensive computer system, Comet.
It is  supposed to seamlessly manage grass roots football for the SFA.
Let’s just say mistakes have been made on the introduction of what should just have been a posh spreadsheet.
I’m about as technical as any other luddite but have been assured that the system is said to be over-complex to interact with and I’ve been told there were also bugs and unnecessary deadlines that could have been thought through better.

STOP PRESS
And in todays Record there is a story about Wallyford Rose, a kids team which includes 4 players with autism, who have attempted to register in a grass roots league as far back as April and are still not recognised by the South East Regional Youth Football Association.
The Wallyford chairman Darren Knight said after a game this week was then declared void because of red tape that doesn’t work, “The Boys were ecstatic to beat Bonnyrigg Rose then so deflated to be voided by the league because of Comet”.

The Comet computer system doesn’t seemingly recognise the squad of players so the kids cant play.

 

So here’s a plea from me to the SFA.
Allow the football to happen and worry about the spreadsheet later.
Please don’t stop the kids playing.

3. Player Power Might Be The Answer

I was saddened this week to read that Uefa have added ‘beteverybloodydayoftheyear’ or someone like that to their Champions League Sponsorship roster.
Here is their corporate bull justifying the deal with the online bookie who like other revenue harvesters uses a scary level of algorithms to get you to spend more and more with them.
“whilst promoting responsible sports betting practices to protect the integrity of the sport”.
Absolute Bollocks!

No mention of match fixing scandals or players betting against their own teams.
AND.
No mention of suicides amongst 16-25 year old male football fans.If I was a top player, and I never was,  I’d refuse to wear a top emblazoned with a ‘poison’ sponsor and wouldn’t be interviewed in front of their logo.
It’s just a matter of time till someone has the balls to do that.
Football doesn’t need harmful sponsorships just because it is easy money.

4. Why Do Portugese Money Men Want a 3rd Level Club in the North of Scotland?.

The story put about by my club ICT this week is some Portugese Investment ‘Geniuses’ want to buy the entity for £2.5M as part of some kind of master plan.
Alan Savage, interim head honcho, has stopped the immediate threat of administration and therefore protected the current shareholders(-ish), but investors from Portugal, China or Monaco now are in an orderly queue. (Alledgedly)And I’d guess they don’t want the club for the team or the good of the community or access to the English pyramid where the real money is.
But I also know I don’t know what on earth is going on.
If anyone can really tell me and the fans what is really going on I’ll share it in next week’s Sting.In the meantime I’m a confused wee fan from Dalneigh worried about his club, and I don’t mean the fabled Dalneigh Dynamos.

5. Maureen’s Conference Blew Our Alastair Away and No Drums were Stolen

Sottish Women in Sport Conference 2024

(In his own words)
On 21st August, I attended the SW/S conference at the University of West Scotland in Hamilton.
The overall theme of the day was ‘safety’ – or as the conference title put it: Safe & Strong: Women’s Health, Wellbeing & Safety in Sport.

The (very good) thing about the organisation was that the presentations were, a) varied, b) all relevant to the theme, and c) not too long.
– a full list can be seen here – but for me the standouts were: SAHM’s Kirsty Stewart telling us about their digital self-care tool which has been designed by young people for young people’s use; the disabled athletes telling their stories about safety, wellbeing and inclusion; Donald Gillies, MD of Rangers Women FC, talking about online safety and responsibility; and the penultimate session from Marie MacLennan of Kyniska, whose delivery was a tour-de-force of energy and enthusiasm on the subject of creating a sporting world that protects, respects and celebrates its people.

Finally, Stephanie Hilborne, CEO, Women in Sport UK, spoke on the theme of why women’s sport needs male allies.

I’d also turn this around, and say that sometimes men’s sport, and in particular football, needs women allies, if only to make males see things through the eyes of half the population who are increasingly playing the game and supporting clubs the length and breadth of the country.
They suffer challenges, including abuse and misogyny, which need addressed if we really want to advance our sport.

6. What Do Killie and Hearts Have in Common?

I didn’t see either match but just read reports.

Both teams lost goals in the 6th added on minutes after 90, even worse Hearts was an og,
Tough games now at home with Killie probably rank outsiders consigned to seeing £4M slipping away.
And both clubs, in fact all Scottish clubs suffer from the inherent bias in all Uefa football that is cynically designed for the real money to end up with the big clubs in the top 5 leagues.

Am I daft for thinking that if you qualify from your domestic leagues you should qualify with no extra prelim ties?
Anyway, good luck next Thursday guys.

That’s it from me again this week.

Feedback and wee stories always welcome.

Andy

 

Andy’s Album of the week

Hill of Thieves: Cara Dillon

My old prog pals would be shocked by my collection of Cara Dillon, Julie Fowlis and Karen Matheson albums.
But in reality it is just a wee journey, in a journey, back into the roots of the contemporary music that I grew up with.
I first heard Cara as the female vocal guesting on the ‘Man in the Rain’ track on Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells III’ and then she popped up on the theme tune to Billy Connolly’s World Tour of England Wales and Ireland.
Since then I’ve also seen her live a few times at Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall.Her voice is wonderful.
This album is stripped back of all electrification to allow that voice to flourish and it does.

I love the title track, and Fil Fil a Run O, but maybe the best track on the album is ‘The Parting Glass’.

Maybe not, I’m still deliberating because its got so many competitors.