Scottish Football: The Way forward.

Scottish football has been in what has seemed to be a terminal decline for longer than i can remember. It's a situation that is very disheartening for those of us old enough the remember a time when Scottish clubs and the national team were highly regarding in the footballing world. Nothing shows up this decline more that the fact we've gone from having clubs realistically hoping to reach the later rounds of the European competition.and the national team was trying to work out how to get out the group stages of finals rather than how to get to finals.



The decline can be attributed to many different factors. Some or all of the following. The bosman ruling taking away a potential revenue stream for lower clubs selling their best players on, the amount of money pumped into the premier league in England and the Champions league making it more difficult to compete in Europe, the change of distribution models in Scotland to ensure Rangers and Celtic get most of the money leaving the rest struggling to get by, the taylor report that forced clubs to spend money on their stadiums rather than their squads, the changing attitudes of young people in the country who are now more likely to play football on a computer than on the nearest patch of grass, the lack of nearby patches of grass, the lack of facilities, the rest of Europe doing better at coaching, the number of foreigners brought into the game in the nineties and early noughties.

Whatever the reason, there is a pressing need for this change. One thing has changed for the better of late and that is that the lack of funds in the game has lead to more young scottish players being given a chance and therefore more effort being put into their development. However, how can we, in the words of the Streets, Push things forward?

For me, one thing. Summer football. This would allow out teams to play on better surfaces for a larger proportion of the season. It means that when our clubs go into Europe in mid July, they can compete better because they are already in competitve action and less likely to be caught cold by playing scandinavian sides. It should bring more fans to games as they aren't having to sit freezing their behinds in a blowing wind to watch a punt-fest. The biggest advantage of the move could well be in the amount of money that could be generated by tv money. Channels at the moment have no competitive club football to show in the summer and have to fill their schedules with meaningless and pointless friendlies. If there was a chance to buy up some competitive football to fill the screens in the summer months, i think they'd jump at the chance and they'd pay a decent price for it too. Look how much they put into Rugby's super league at launch just to have some sport to show in the summer?

What about world cups and european chamionships i here you ask? Well at the moment we don't qualify so it's not a problem. When we do qualify though, it wouldn't be that much of a hardship to have a mid season break for the tournaments and it'd give the national team a better chance if players in the peak of fitness at the time of finals, rather than spent from having played a full season.