Scottish Football

Scottish football needs a wake-up call NOW!

Considering we are not a particularly wealthy or large nation, Scotland has a rich footballing heritage, producing world class players such as Jimmy Johnstone, Archie Gemmil and even in more recent times, English champions Man Utd’s Darren Fletcher. But I am convinced that in the past decade Scottish football has declined in stature. Yes, we have beaten France and Holland, however, even without raising the point that we withstood a bombardment of opposition attacks in doing so, we have failed to qualify for a major tournament since 1998. One may argue that in the past ten years Celtic and Rangers both made it to the Uefa Cup final, but this is no great achievement as the vast majority of the style of football played leading up to this was criticised. Our best teams shouldn’t be aiming as high as competing in the Champions League but surely qualification to the later stages of the champions league and even at that qualifying for the later stages of the inferior Europa league which Celtic have failed to do.

Why Scottish football has become poorer over recent years seems to be the question on most fans’ minds at the moment. Some may argue that the recession is what is causing Scottish Football to fall behind the other nations in terms of stature, but the recession is a worldwide issue which is affecting every nation so this argument is not valid. I would, however, argue that lack of money being invested in Scottish football has been very detrimental to the quality of talent brought into the country and the class of coaching and facilities that can be offered. Compared to English football, there are ‘pennies’ being spent north of the border. This is highlighted by Manchester United selling highly-rated winger Christiano Ronaldo in a deal worth £70 million, and Manchester City having access to unlimited funds to spend on players and other important areas in the club such as facilities and youth development, whereas we’re lucky if a club in Scotland purchases a player for over £3 million, and even at that it is only Rangers or Celtic who can spend that type of money.

The Essay on Baseball History Players League Player

Baseball is North America's oldest and most storied professional team sport. Certainly, there have been numerous moments which are still remembered by baseball fans of all ages many years after they happened. We all remember moments like 'The Catch' in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series and Bill Mazeroski's World Series winning home run in 1960. There are also the players who transcend the ages like ...

Is it the case that there are no Scottish players with raw talent? Not really. It is debatable that the past generation of Scottish players such as Denis Law and Kenny Dalglish are much better than this generation, but we still have several numbers of players playing in the English Premier League which some may argue is the biggest league in the world. You will find players such as Steven Fletcher, Barry Ferguson, Chris Iwelumo and the biggest name of all Manchester United’s holding midfield player Darren Fletcher. You also have the veteran Burnley captain Graham Alexander who is still playing at the top of his game at thirty eight years old and James McFadden who is back in the Premiership and who will always be known for his renowned International goals. Therefore, yes, in the late 20th century we had Denis Law, Kenny Dalglish and many more worldwide known Scottish names but today we still have good Scottish players, even though they do not perform well for their country.

So what is it? Is it the way young players are coached from a young age? Absolutely. Children playing football since they first started walking are being coached in this country to win, and to do anything to win, even if it means lunging into tackles to deliberately hurt the skilful players in the opposition team. As I have experienced playing Sunday league football from the age of ten, teams tend to pick the bigger players who don’t necessarily have a high skill level but are being played to out-muscle the opposition and deliberately hurt the skilful players who cause a threat to goal. This is why our game doesn’t enhance the quality of youngsters with great potential to help Scotland become a great footballing nation again to compare with countries such as Holland, who coach their youngsters to be comfortable on the ball and develop their footballing attributes.

The Term Paper on Analysisng the Print Media Coverage of Birtish Football Players

Analysing the print media coverage of professional football players: British magazines and newspaper coverage of female players and officials in the women’s super league and females in football. Introduction The following research analyses coverage of women’s football and women involved in football in both nationally and locally distributed magazines and newspapers. The focus of the research looks ...

Scottish Football is still relatively high in the world rankings considering the number of countries in the world but if there isn’t change soon it‘s only down from hear I‘m afraid. Money is by far the biggest factor in modern football and the SFA need to find ways to keep the money coming in all year round. It surprises me that the best weather is in the months of June and July but there is literally no football whatsoever in this period. The possibility of summer football should be looked into funding the clubs with more money from TV rights. It goes beyond me why they have the summer break because there is no football whatsoever in Scotland at this particular time when they could have the aspect of a competition which would attract TV contracts benefiting Scottish teams financially.

Furthermore, the SFA should look to bring more sponsorship deals to boost Scottish football, including the club game. The attendances at most SPL matches is also decreasing as ticket prices are increasing, which also affects the numbers at international games. Therefore ticket prices should be lowered and more families attracted to the games by the likes of fun days and family deals. These are measures that could be taken but we are relying on the SFA to do something about it.

Pointing fingers seems to become very common in the Scottish ranks these days, whether its George Peat blaming Chris Iwelumo for Scotland not qualifying for the World Cup play-offs, or Csaba Laszlo blaming the lack of funds for his team not qualifying for Europe. The main point is that not enough effort is being put into coaching youngsters, not always to win, although it is the main part of football, but to use their skills to the best of their ability. If this is achieved, we can look to use players within our own nation rather than bring foreigners in with the little money available who are no where near the standard our footballing nation should be aiming at! Also, to get the best out of coaching our youngsters we need facilities, highly trained coaches and indoor training centres because of the weather but all of these need financial backing which we don’t have in Scotland by our Government. If Scottish football wants to progress the Government needs to invest more money into the SFA and try and help develop other opportunities become available to Scottish football. Maybe we have punched above our weight at certain times and we expect too much from our national side but surely the least we can expect is qualifying for a major tournament now and again, or even avoiding defeat to Macedonia, a side which has only recently formed.

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As A glory hunter I support Middlesbrough.Admittadly not the greatest club in the Premier League.I take any victories and cup excursions with open arms.One such occasion was when they rose to the dizzy heights of the Zenith Data final at Wembley.Having travelled from Germany all night I was more than happy to be drinking in the pubs near the ground.I eventually started to talk to a group of ...