BILLY BREMNER MEMORIAL JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN
Date: 23rd September 2024
Back in the 1970s, St Johnstone’s final game of the season was, seemingly, always at Muirton Park and always against Morton. Invariably, there was nothing to play for and it was a boring, no-score draw. At the time, the argument was that the 18 team First Division had created a system in which there were too many meaningless games, with not enough jeopardy, especially at the relegation end of the table. The change to a 10-team Premier Division in 1975 was the first in a series of reorganisations that have since created the structure we enjoy today. I use the word ‘enjoy’ advisedly… The desperate, insecure and timid football I’ve watched my team play over the last few seasons has been anything but enjoyable.
It was undoubtedly true that there were many meaningless matches in the old First Division. If that was a problem, it was principally one for the media. Then, as today, they were the eunuchs of Scottish football, deploying massive power without any responsibility, other than their need to sell papers for their owners or generate views or listeners from broadcasting their views. However, that massive power is, in my view, waning…
Changes in the way we consume media have been accelerating. Papers, once the mainstay of the game, are now almost an irrelevance. In my early days (1980s-1990s) in media and advertising, The Scotsman sold about 80,000 copies a day. Today, it’s audited daily circulation is 7,133, and, of course, not everyone who buys it actually reads all the sports pages. The Sunday Post, which once sold over one million copies, now sells only 33,475. The Daily Record, which I recall sold well over half a million copies a day, now sells just under 50,000. Across the UK as a whole, 293 local papers have gone bust since 2005. Some Scottish weekly papers only sell a couple of hundred copies a week today. This decline in Scottish newspaper circulations since the millennium is shown graphically on the chart here and it should make us all take stock and wonder why so much prominence is given to what these publications say. Their circulations and readership do not seem to justify it. Most reasonable people would agree that our newspapers punch way above their weight. The press will tell you that their readership has migrated online, and it has, but that does not alter the fact that the competitive landscape in which football ‘reporting’ exists is changing ever more rapidly. Incidentally, it’s actually less about reporting now and more than ever about creating a crisis out of a drama. Twas ever thus, but it is increasingly so today, to the extent that I find the BBC’s Saturday Sportsound show almost unlistenable at times.
Now none of this actually tackles the biggest problem the media have, which is how they keep up with the aforementioned changing trends in media consumption, especially amongst younger fans. A long-standing friend, who is a very senior industry figure in Scotland, lamented to me the problems his organisation has in attracting eyeballs from Gen Z and those who are coming behind them. Therein lies the problem…
Broadcast media is in danger of going the same way as the press. That’s not to say there are no good journalists: there are, but they are fewer in number and they have new competition from online podcasts, bloggers and vloggers who can reach far more people than many newspaper columnists (the SFSA newsletter is received by far more people than buy The Scotsman!). Most people now get their news from social media, albeit they still trust traditional media more. Broadcast media also compete, using the power of their brand (especially the BBC), but it’s a much more diverse market and fans are often more likely to be found having their prejudices confirmed by their own podcasts rather than seeking a more rounded view from a (supposedly) objective pundit. Unfortunately, it’s said pundits who are increasingly dominating football shows, with their biases sometimes nakedly on show.
Consequently, although they do punch way above their weight, we should not let the media dictate how our game is run. As the fourth estate, their views should be considered, but must not dominate. How we monetise the future is a key issue, not just for the game but for the media themselves. It requires open debate, intelligent, cool thinking and strong leadership. These things exist in places in Scottish football (and the media) just now, despite what some detractors say.
It’s only a few weeks since the SFA published a lengthy paper on the subject of young player and youth development. I doubt many people read it all: at 114 pages it’s quite a slog. One of the key sections deals with the suggestion that Scottish clubs don’t play youngsters because the size of the league militates against it, with managers not wishing to take the risk because the consequence of failure is too high. The report points out that in comparable leagues across Europe, more youngsters are played in the first team and therefore this argument is not necessarily true (see page 69 of the report).
At the heart of all this are the fans. Surveys consistently show that they would, overwhelmingly, prefer a bigger top-flight in Scotland. I suspect many, myself included, believe that with less pressure on managers there would be more opportunities for talented youngsters to come through the ranks. The authors of the report on young players do concede this, noting:
“However, the consistent message we have received from those working at the coal face of Scottish football is that larger league sizes would afford more opportunity for younger players, and also deliver a better product for fans, who – according to our consultations with clubs – are ‘bored and tired’ with playing every team 4 times per season.”
The fly in the ointment in all this is the state of Scottish clubs’ finances. Neil Doncaster has (correctly) recently stated in the past and in a more recent radio interview that a change from the current structure could have potentially dire financial implications for the game. Given that what the broadcasters really want is to feature games in which one half of the Old Firm take part and, especially, four games between Celtic and Rangers every season, this is entirely understandable. The old joke that fans of other clubs get to see their team live on the TV when they play one of the Old Firm is firmly rooted in the commercial reality of the broadcasting industry and its entirely reasonable need to make money. Football needs to make money too…
Yet that does not mean the debate should not take place. It is not beyond the wit of man or woman to come up with ideas that might make a difference. Indeed, since the formation of the Premier League in 1975, we have seen considerable changes in the structure and size (and naming) of the senior leagues in Scotland. Fairly recently, there were proposals to change the size of the top flight as a result of the Covid pandemic. To argue that because the status quo works just now we should never consider change is, to my mind, well, debatable. Suppose the Old Firm eventually manage (as they’ve been trying to do for ages – including petitioning the media to help them) to leave Scottish football and play in the English Premier League or some form of European league? Although it’s unlikely to happen, if it did it would drive the biggest coach and horses through our game’s finances that we have ever experienced. Interestingly, one of the findings of the SFA report into young players noted that other comparable leagues across Europe generate far more money from the sale of young players than we do in Scotland (see chart here, taken from the SFA report). While this would obviously not make up the entire shortfall from ending the current arrangements, it would certainly make a dent in it (and I appreciate that the distribution of that money would depend on the extent to which our clubs could develop young talent, those with the most money being most likely to have success in this way).
If, for some reason, those who argue for a bigger top flight Division in Scotland were successful, there would undoubtedly be major problems with generating money from broadcast media. How we manage that would become a key issue, but, as with the state of the media, it’s not one where the status quo will permanently last. Change happens. Covid happened. It’s how we respond that matters. With Celtic looking likely to dominate Scottish football for the next few seasons at least, in my opinion it’s quite likely that more and more fans will agree that Scottish football is ‘bored and tired.’ As the SFSA has said since its foundation, the most important people in any business are the customers. Fan numbers are high now, but, like 20th century newspaper circulations, that doesn’t mean they’ll be high forever.
Alastair Blair, Director of Operations, SFSA
Posted in: Latest News
Tags: League Reconstruction