SCOTLAND UNITED A 2020 VISION
Date: Friday, 21st Feb 2020The former First Minister and ,indeed, East Fife footballer Henry McLeish launched his review of Scottish Football in 2010.
He said then that self- belief, ambition and confidence are the foundations of a better future for Scottish Football. Instead, today, he fears we are just muddling along. He says the SFA are now decades behind, old fashioned and lacking ambition.
The situation is worse since the moderniser Stewart Regan quit.
He has expressed concern that the authority of the SFA was being further eroded with the Club game winning over country and the Elite Youth strategy becoming a victim of that scenario. He had hoped to see Scotland participate in the final stages of international tournaments since 2010 but this has not happened.
Some argue that Scotland is too small but we are bigger than Belgium and the Netherlands combined, and there are more folk in Fife than in Iceland.
Henry McLeish took a swipe at secretive and dysfunctional institutions and deeply embedded culture, i.e. the bigotry and sectarianism.
He has called for a revolution in how we treat fans, for example, the match day experience (The prices, programme, steak bridies, a tannoy you can comprehend, a comfy seat, Hospitality etc) pointing out that we lag behind West Europe. We do not have enough young people attending matches ( though with the Dunfermline urban population already at 100,000 our successful schools` engagement programme is crucial).
He openly wonders at admission prices in Leagues 1 and 2.
He called for a rebalance of the distribution of power (the indefensible 11-1 majority required to facilitate change), fairer finance( e.g. Championship Clubs only receiving 11.7% of the cake), authority and opportunity.
Finally McLeish outlined three aims.
1) The SFA must be empowered.The SPFL had taken over the Board structure of the SFA which distorts the wider game.The power grab of the Premiership had to be halted. He said Managers come and go but the President, Vice President etc were untouchable despite decades of failure.
2) The SPFL had to work with the Scottish Government over Strict Liability. The Premiership needed to do far more regarding bigotry, sectarianism, racism, homophobia, the living wage, gambling, gender inequality etc
3) Project Brave needed to be made up of Regional Academies though only the Fife Elite remains. Some argue that Performance Schools may be the solution but Henry McLeish countered that the five big Scottish clubs had never produced sufficient Scotland players.He wants to emulate the Scandinavian countries with indoor training centres like Oriam and the use of European coaches.The one big Scotland success story, since McLeish`s blueprint in 2010, has been that of Shelley Kerr and the Women`s Team. He continues to argue that Women`s teams need to be fully integrated in Project Brave.
It is difficult getting the Football Authorities to comment.
JL.
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