OFFSET YOUR WORLD CUP TRAVEL WITH GREENERTRAVEL
Date: 2nd July 2026
The Scottish Football Supporters Association (SFSA), which brings together tens of thousands of fans and affiliate organisations from across the game, has pledged to use the debate around the national men’s team’s performance at the 2026 World Cup to focus on “the real, structural changes” Scotland needs to succeed in the future.
SFSA’s chair, John Maclean, said: “While public and media attention is naturally focussed on the team’s disappointing performance and who the next manager will be, longer term issues that require attention are around meaningfully reforming our national game – and that requires a fundamental rebuild from the grassroots upwards.
“We highlighted the key issues in our ground-breaking 2023 report Rebuilding Scottish Football, the first ever fan-led review in the long and proud history of our game. It drew its content from experts and stakeholders, looking at our game from every angle, led to a Holyrood debate, and was instrumental in the creation of a working group on the future of the game hosted by the Scottish Government.
“But the reality is that planning for real and meaningful change appears to be nowhere in sight.
Funding for youth football remains limited, revenue is deeply skewed towards the SPFL, supporters voices continue to be overlooked, and genuine independent scrutiny of the governance, finance and conduct of the game, a subject requiring further conversation, is seemingly not up for debate.
“These are among the deep structural changes needed to make Scottish football fit for the future, and move our national team from qualifying for international competitions to thriving in them.”
The SFSA is planning to revise and reissue its Rebuilding Scottish Football report this summer, and will begin this weekend by highlighting key issues and questions online. We feel that every voice, and especially the voices of the marvellous travelling support, needs to be heard.
The 2023 report argues that football in Scotland currently lacks a unified vision and that vested interests are undermining investment in the development of a broader and hopefully a more successful national game. It emphasises rebuilding the sport from the bottom up, ensuring football is affordable, culturally vital, and broadly accessible to the Scottish public.
“It’s important that the current World Cup conversation doesn’t allow the need for real change across Scottish football to sink back into the sand,” says SFSA chair John Maclean. “We intend to ensure that doesn’t happen, and that the voices of supporters, who pay for the game week-in and week-out, are not ignored.”
For further comment
contact John MacLean on 07739 883622
or Simon Barrow on 07850 120413
Posted in: Latest News, Review of the Game
Tags: Fan Led Review, grassroots, Hampden Park, Scotland, Scottish fans, Scottish football, scottish government, SFA, SFSA, SPFL, World Cup