Andy’s Sting In The Tale (22/11/24) “What Have We Learned?”

(Photo:@Homesoffootball)

Steve Clarke and his team over-delivered in our last three games.
He/they deserve real credit.

Each result had its own story, and yes there was some luck and a few bumps along the way but what shone brightly was the way Steve and his backroom team have created real and deep team spirit right through the squad.

Having also watched the English Nations League matches showcased on STV with full ITV production values what we got on a hazy, YouTube, on a failed Scandi broadcaster’s sub-channel was the thinnest of gruels because of the substandard picture quality and the obvious shoestring production budget.

All because of 4 reasons that come to mind.

i) The SFA simply want to squeeze the most money from the national team games rather than achieving the biggest possible audience which grows the game in so many ways. (Hence their decision to cede the media sales, and any blame, to Uefa central) With poverty a reality to more than a quarter of our kids I’d say that is a strategic mistake.

ii) The broadcaster that Uefa picked for us didn’t even have a camera or cameraman in the UK when they pitched and won, and worse than that, their financial model just didn’t work. (Dodgy McAmazon Firesticks and all that).

-iii) Our politicians seem to be too busy throwing mud at each other to unite to share powerful cross-party agreements like all international matches should be on free to air tv (and at commercial rates like ITV are paying the English FA).

-iv) ITV have shown incredible disregard for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales inhabitants by picking and bidding for England and only England.

Anyway back to Steve and Scotland.

I missed the start of the match on Monday night and eventually got in to the channel around the 12th minute.
We were already 1 up but Poland looked at that time to be all over us.
They could all control the ball with one touch and some of us couldn’t and it was for a while one-way traffic and some last-ditch blocking.
But bit by bit our spirit won through.

For me the biggest learning and warning is yes, we are producing some top talent, just not enough of it.

I don’t believe just because Steve has magicked up some good results that it will be happy ever after.

Our game simply needs a long-term vision for how we feed a conveyor belt of the very top players we need.

To do that we need a smart plan that always looks way into the future and it has to becomes a number 1 priority.

It all starts at the grass roots

That’s an area that our game has turned a blind eye to, I guess to avoid expenditure.

That has been a huge myopic failing and own goal.

Guys it all starts with the kids

I can’t think of a smarter thing to do.

Simples, yes but football insiders tell me its biggest problem is substantive. We have a club-controlled game and the clubs fight fort all the money to ‘solve’ their short term needs. (Wages for mercenaries)

Andy’s Sting in the Tale

1. Criminal Financial Management
2. Right Sized?
3. More Infantino Narcissism
4. Historical Confusion Ignorance and Embarrassment
5. Played 9, Won 9, : Goals 39 for 1 Against

1. Over Ambition, Bad Management, and Carpet Bagging

Afterwards, as usual, social media immediately exploded blaming both the SFA and SPFL and their current ‘fit and proper’ policy and club owner and director screening that, to be frank, is like a chocolate fireguard.
I used to think that but now know that criticism is a little unfair.
It is a sometimes forgotten/overlooked fact that clubs are all individual businesses who happen to play football as their business.
None are run by the SFA or SPFL.
As such they are controlled by current government business laws.

Laws that don’t monitor over ambition or bad management till after the event like in Inverness right now.
The trouble is these deep business flaws often combine together.

Two of  Andy’s Pet Football Business Hates

One is the misuse of the word ‘investment’ in place of the word ‘spend ’ i.e. wages with no expectation of return.

The other is the constant quest by everyone for a ‘rich’ owner to ‘take us back to our rightful place’, (fans have over ambition in droves and yes some wealthy benefactors exist but I also remember Brooks Mileson)

Ex ICT player Johnny Hayes first conflates both ‘investment’ and ‘rich owners’ this week in an interview I read in the world-famous Inverness Courier but then his insight comes to the fore and overrides.

Can The SPFL/SFA Do More About Club Sustainability?

Andy says, probably.

The fact that clubs have to be up to date with HMRC and VAT payments in order to play is a good start.
(I’d have a team looking further into this sustainable idea,  Ian, Neil).

Maybe it could become a big part of our future because it protects all the members and the fans.

The programme is Sportscene and the weekly round-up of the SWPL.

Goals and skill galore and a sheer joy to watch.

And November 29th sees our Women take on Finland at Easter Road.
It’s a big game and the first leg of a play-off final for the Euros.
So a huge game and we have a right-good chance.
Good luck all of you..

But back to our SWPFL and pitch sizes.

I now know I love watching women’s games with more space and relatively bigger goals.
It’s not rocket science but dod you know women today are nearer the size of male footballers back in the 1860s.
Since then males have grown 11 cm, are fitter and space is hard to find in Victorian sized pitches.

I googled the history. Goal sizes in football were set in 1863 by the FA at 8 yards wide and 8 feet high and are still the same size today when goalies are from 6 inches to a foot taller.

Pitch size playing areas were also set in 1863 initially at a quite unbelievable max length of 200 yards (183m) and a maximum of 100 yards (91m) wide.
(Imagine a pitch twice the length of Hampden and 25 per cent wider giving a playing surface 133% bigger (double Hampden  and then add an extra third).
Sense prevailed and we now know from places like Bramall Lane that today’s Uefa pitch sizes, length 100-105m (110 Yds) and width 64 – 68 m wide (75yds) was close to where the late Victorians ended and it framed stadia all over the world.

3. Gianni’s Narcissism Knows No Bounds

A good while ago, Sepp Blatter and the Dentsu Advertising network created a club championship, played off in Japan under various names,-  The Intercontinental Cup, the European/South American Cup, The World Club Cup, or the Toyota Cup.
it all ended up in dispute and stopped.
While it ran, I vaguely remember Liverpool being ordered by Mr Blatter to attend and play.

Well please forget it ever happened.
This is because Fifa’s ‘Grandest Fromage’ ever has had a better idea.
No, a better and a NEW idea.

And he claims it’s his original thinking and not just a wee steal from his predecessor.
And to prove it all for all time he now  has his name on the new 24 carat gold trophy, twice in fact in different places.

It’s also all part of the always simmering power struggle between Fifa and Uefa.

Ladies and Gentlemen Boys and Girls I give you-

The Club World Cup Trophy, “Inspired by Fifa President Gianni Infantino”.

A 32-team world cup for the best clubs, with entry by a mix of merit and invitation, so no sporting integrity.
Infantino has already invited Inter Miami to have senor Messi there, ‘because he can’.

I’ll share some of his cloying ‘nagumbi’ from the press briefings.

“The team who lift this trophy will hold the world of club football in their hands. To the players who win it history belongs to you! Let’s take it to the world and celebrate it as we look forward to the start of a new era for football”.

4. Watching, I Was Embarrassed 

Now two brief insights from emails from Celtic fans who are SFSA members.

“My cousin, two generations removed, lived in Derry and volunteered for the Iniskilling Fusiliers in 1914.
He survived the war but died of Spanish flu in the barracks after coming home. These guys don’t represent me or my club”.

5. The Best Results in World Football

Since they were shunned by Uefa, Russia have played friendlies against obviously very friendly countries, Serbia, Belarus, Vietnam, Brunei, Syria, Kyrgyzstan, Iraq, Cameroon and Cuba.

Kyrgyzstan scored a goal but were the only ones.

That’s it for another week.

The Chieftains: Voice of Ages

A  2012 collaboration between the seminal Irish band and some wonderful international artistes including our own Paulo Nutini.