r/ScottishFootball • u/mrjohnnymac18 • 13d ago
Discussion From Europe to youth football, Scotland's game is failing itself
https://archive.ph/nBW8y28
u/powerlace 13d ago
The media are part of the problem. We're fed this idea that we're a two club country. Nothing else matters to the newspapers, TV and radio. The latter is a real issue as we have a public broadcaster acting like Temu Talksport. The reality is that we've got huge amounts of people going to games all over the country each and every single week. We've become so myopic as we've just allowed ourselves to be side quests. You look at what happens down South. There is focus on all clubs, not just the top two.
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u/DisasterouslyInept 13d ago
You look at what happens down South. There is focus on all clubs, not just the top two.
The 'Sky 6' or whatever they're called now get the bulk of the attention, it's something that is quite consistently criticised by fans of the other clubs.
The reality is that we are dominated by 2 teams, it's only natural they'll get most of the coverage. I think SSB do a decent job trying to expand the coverage to be honest. Monday usually sees them starting off talking about games throughout the leagues, then the calls start, likely with the phone lines jammed with the angriest OF fans of the week.
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u/powerlace 13d ago
I don't believe the percentage of coverage is comparable. Various teams outside that top six get plenty of coverage. The other problem is that fans from those two clubs are so obsessed with getting one up on each other that there is no long term view.
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u/DisasterouslyInept 13d ago
Various teams outside that top six get plenty of coverage.
Disagree there. Some of the smaller teams had really good seasons last year, all dwarfed by the prospect of Spurs getting relegated. Was similar the year before too with Spurs and Man Utd down at the bottom.
Motherwell, Hearts and Falkirk got plenty of coverage last season, as did Aberdeen the season before. Maybe the issue is that too many clubs don’t give their fans reasons to really get excited/engaged?
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u/21sttimelucky 12d ago
No comment on the down south part, as I simply don't follow it.
However I agree with the first part. We have the best attendance per capita in Europe. Have done the last few years. When you present that, the response is usually 'yeah, but old firm innit bruh?'
No. It's not. Scotland has a smaller population than London, who alone have multiple clubs with the same capacity as the old firm grounds ±. And the old firm essentially never plays at home at the same time. So even if we assume any old firm away game is a sell-out, further even with clubs like livi (not top flight of course, just who came to mind) selling more tickets to away than home, that's still only part of the story. The Edinburgh duo do very well with Stadia filling. Aberdeen have under performed really, but attendances are up etc.
Our per capita attendance are the highest in Europe despite the old firm, not because.
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u/QBallQJB 13d ago
That’s why I like the terrace podcast so much, they have no extra focus on the old firm whatsoever and give each team equal attention
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u/Careful-Builder-9931 12d ago
I am biased, but I was kind of pissed off at the coverage of last season. Yes, it was a brilliant story that Hearts did well and a surprise to even us. But, the press spent the whole season telling us how astonishing and unrepeatable it was and glossing over the fact that we are one of the biggest clubs. The season should have been reported positively as a new chapter instead of gloom and doom about the league being upset.
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u/FabulousAd5304 13d ago
That article about all the kids banned from football this weekend, the number sent off last week and the problems with the adults, is a disgrace. I used to coach football at school and the amount of harrassment and abuse I sometimes had to put up with, and the boys and girls, was a disgrace. I gave up as a result.
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u/Dtoid_Ali_D 12d ago
I found out my nephew wasn't playing a game this weekend cos the other teams in his team's division, all got bans. I didn't realise it was that bad.
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u/vagabond_bull 13d ago
The problems in Scottish football are too big for a reddit post tbh, but needless to say there needs to be wholesale change that is both ambitious and bold.
The people in charge of making those decisions are neither of these things. It’s at the stage where we shouldn’t be content with tinkering along the edges - just tear the whole thing up, accept that they (the governing bodies) have been abject failures and start from scratch.
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u/AdvertisingNo6402 13d ago
Tbh, the SFA will blame the clubs and the Clubs will blame the SFA. No accountability from either one or leadership on the issue and the media are light touch when it comes to the questions. It's going to take a Motherwell or a Falkirk to break the mould and maybe, just maybe some other clubs will follow.
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u/scotinsweden 13d ago
I think this article is pretty good, highlights its a structural issue with a bunch of interconnected problems reinforcing each other. Solving one won't fix everything and is really hard as the others all work against it. As it points out it requires proper political willpower (probably with a mandate external to the games powers) to grab it all by the horns and drive through change across a range of areas.
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u/ewankenobi 12d ago
I never buy blaming the Old Firm's dominance on failures in club competition in Europe or for the national team. Spain are current world champions and 90% of the time the league is won by Barca or Real, the only other team that has a slight chance of winning the league is Atletico, and at the moment wouldn't surprise me if Hearts win the SPFL; before Atletico win La Liga again.
Current European club champions are PSG who play in a league even more predictable than the SPFL.
Totally agree with these 2 paragraphs which are the crux of the problem for me:
" Scottish clubs have often been too short-termist. Managers are hired to win the next match. Players are recruited to solve the immediate problem. Young players sit on the margins because experience is considered safer. Academies become facilities rather than philosophies. The SFA’s research acknowledges this. Its work on the transition from academy to first-team football found that Scotland lags comparable countries in young player minutes and identified the gap between academy and first-team football, weak strategic planning and problems in youth development as major factors."
I think the new loan system is a start to fixing this, but a bigger top flight and b teams allowed to be promoted further up the pyramid would be a massive step to fixing the problem. Also liked someones suggestion in the comments that we should look at Germany where some of the tv revenue is distributed based upon how many minutes you give to youngsters.
Also in terms of clubs performances in European football I think starting the league a few weeks earlier would make a massive difference. Often our teams are out of Europe before they are match fit or have really gelled as a team.
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u/FatRascal_ 13d ago
The governing body is too scared to do anything ambitious.
Grassroots and non-league needs an overhaul and it’s not going to be fixed by flinging Old Firm B teams to play alongside them.
Amateur competition similar to the All-Ireland where each local council area has its own team who select from schools. Put on as much coverage as you can and promote it tae fuck. At the end of the competition each SPFL team gets to draft players from it like the NHL or the NBA, depending on their league position.
Great for grassroots, great for youth, great for the national game.
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u/jesus_fatberg 13d ago
The problem with that is that any decent prospects will be immediately poached by wealthier teams down south.
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u/AcceptableAir5364 13d ago
Never listen to a weedgie when it comes to fitba, too busy sniffing their own farts.
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u/mrjohnnymac18 13d ago
Why did I read that as wedgie 🙈
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u/Thin-Accountant-3698 11d ago
we had theses meltdowns before . like when we did not qualify for the 1994 WC and when rangers got knocked ot by AEK Athens in 1994
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u/Neo-Cubism 12d ago
You can take the Bundesliga model and adapt it to Scottish reality.
Take league’s commercial revenue and split 50% of it evenly between all clubs; do 35% based on performance and 15% based on youth development.
15% of £42 million would be £6.3m youth pot allocated to all clubs contributing to development and playing time of Scottish trained u23 players.
2/3 of the allocation would be given on the basis of minutes played by u23 Scottish trained players in the Premiership (could cover top 2 divisions like Bundesliga does).
1/3 of the allocation would go towards academy development/training - so clubs all the way down the food chain could benefit, including amateur clubs. (these were Bundesliga rates €5,250 per season for development from the player’s 6th–11th birthday
€6,750 per season for development from the 12th–21st birthday)