A Scotsman's view on the World Cup Draw

Our Road to Rio is Mapped Out


In a ceremony that in keeping with FIFA traditions flirted heavily with farce, Craig Levein was shown the size of his task in guiding the nation to world footballs A list party for the first time in 16 years (yes it really has been that long).

Scotland were drawn out of the hat in Group A, alongside; Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Macedonia and Wales. As per usual with our national side re-action has varied from the wildly over-optimistic, (one punter on the Daily Record website claimed if we didn’t win this group we should hang our heads in shame) to our default, giving up before we’ve started defeatism.

In reality the draw could have been better but it certainly could have been much worse. In previous campaigns we have been paired with at least one so called “superpower”. This time however there is no Spain, or Italy standing in the way of us actually having our own team to support at a major tournament, rather than whoever is taking their turn at beating the English at penalties.

Points gained away from Glasgow look likely to be at premium. And if you’re not of the sunniest of dispositions, it could be argued that we may struggle to pick up anything other than air miles from our travels. Incidentally, with Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro all present in the group, the re-formation of Yugoslavia would not only save on travel costs but would ease fixture congestion greatly, I accept the potential political, and international security ramifications of this move may just outweigh the footballing benefits.

I do not possess the attention span for a long and detailed analysis of each of our opponents, (and I’m guessing neither do you) but here are a few brief thoughts on what we are up against.

Croatia are the top seeds, no-longer the power they once were they are still a technically proficient outfit, with the brilliant Modric pulling the strings and Rangers star Jelavic a familiar face in attack, they will fancy their chances, as the saying goes.

Serbia came out of pot two, and while there were certainly stronger teams in there with them, they are still a strong and experienced side. Manchester United’s Captain Nemanja Vidic is a formidable presence in defence and in Milos Krasic they have an attacking midfielder in the mould of Pavel Nedved who he effectively replaced at Juventus. Unless we somehow conjure up a centre half with even a modicum of aerial ability the giant Zigic may just wreak utter havoc (it is however just as likely that he turns in a performance that makes Chris Iwelumo look like Maradonna).

Belgium is the last team we wanted from pot 3. They can boast a world class defensive unit, consisting of Vermaelen, Vertonghen and Kompany. How these three will cope with Kenny Miller, running around quite quickly but with very little purpose, or James McFadden, dribbling into a corner, losing the ball and then going in the huff, only time will tell. The names Defour, De Bruyne, Hazard and Lukaku may only be familiar to those of us who spend their days playing football manager, (Lukaku on loan was a great bit of business until that bloody update ruined everything!) but by the time the qualifying campaign kicks off they may very well be household names.

Macedonia’s star man is Pandev of Italian giants Internazionale who, while undoubtedly a good player is also a complete headcase. If we are lucky he will have gone on one of his regular strikes by the time we face his side. It is imperative we get the scheduling of this game correct, unlike the last time when we travelled to Skopje, wilted in the heat and succumbed to a 1-0 reverse.

The Welsh national side had to endure the humiliation of being seeded below our old friends the Faroes for this draw, however they were clearly the strongest side in pot 6. The Arsenal midfielder Ramsey captains the side and is a class act, depending on who you ask, Gareth Bale is either one of the very best players in the world, or a man who has made a career out of being able to kick the ball and then run very fast after it, either way, if he can run rings around the Brazilian Maicon then the chances are he will cause Alan Hutton a few problems.

All in all I am cautiously optimistic. Each team looks capable of taking points off the others and if we can turn Hampden into a venue to be feared once again, we may find ourselves in a position to capitalise on slip ups elsewhere. It does concern me however that this group does seem set up for yet another “glorious failure.”

It was a quiet weekend in the SPL, with Celtic competing in the Dublin Super Cup, (where the use of the word Super was stretched to the very limits of credibility) Rangers took advantage with a win in Perth that those with a positive outlook on life would describe as routine, (laboured is probably closer to the truth) nevertheless Ally McCoist will be relieved to get a win under his belt before the crucial 2nd leg of Rangers European tie against Malmo. There were single goal away wins for both Dundee United and Hibs, against Hearts and Inverness respectively, while Kilmarnock and Motherwell played out a relatively entertaining goalless draw.

Two final thought from the World Cup draw. If someone at the English FA could tell their Scottish counterparts what you have to do to be allowed to hand pick your qualifying group then that would be ace. They could hire Berti Vogts as manager and still negotiate their way past that lot! Also I watched the draw unfold on twitter, and the majority of tweets in my feed seemed to be jokes about Ronaldo and his rather rotund appearance. Now there is a picture of Ronnie, during the draw holding up the word ‘Hungary’ that some have used as a rather cruel joke but I refuse to stoop to such depths just for a cheap laugh, and anyway this should not be how we remember O Fenomeno, so I urge you to make a visit to youtube to relive some of his best moments. Enjoy.

Do Ryanair fly direct to Rio?

Follow @allymonc

SPL the First Weekend

Thoughts from SPL matchday 1

So the first round of SPL fixtures have been completed with a week of July still to go. If you are looking for a detailed analysis of each fixture, player ratings etc. then you’re reading the wrong blog. I will however share some of my thoughts from the first weekend of the SPL.

First things first, at no point did any of the punters attempt to storm the dugout and attack the opposition’s manager, as far as we’re aware no manager/former politician/lawyer received a viable explosive device alongside their gas bill, no-one was forced to resign due to incompetence, dishonesty or for forwarding offensive e-mails. This surely signals a collective enlightenment within Scottish society (either that or the nutters are still in Benidorm stocking up on cheap fags).

In terms of matters on the pitch a few things stood out. Hearts outstanding first half display at Ibrox earned a share of the spoils and turned Rangers Flag Day party into a bit of a damp squib. The limitations within the Rangers squad have been well documented, and Saturdays display will serve as a reminder to new owner, Craig Whyte that the rebuilding of Rangers cannot be done on the cheap. While media coverage is usually focussed on incoming players there is no doubt that ensuring Alan McGregor remains at the club is the most important piece of business McCoist will conduct this summer. The Scotland ‘keeper was once again outstanding, and probably saved his team from a rare Ibrox reverse.

Celtic got off to a satisfying start with a victory at Easter Road over a dogged but limited Hibs. If Neil Lennon can keep star men Beram Kayal and Emiliano Izaguirre out of the clutches of their Premier League suitors, along with the mooted purchase of a new no1 and someone to provide a different option upfront, then the Celtic support will be confident that the Championship flag will be hoisted in the East in 12 months’ time.

Motherwell recorded an impressive win over Inverness and will do well to keep a hold of the talented Jamie Murphy who rounded off a flowing team move to open his account for the season. Also in that game Keith Lasley fired in an early contender for goal of the season only to be outdone by Kilmarnock debutant Rory Mckeown’s stunner against Dundee United.

All in all a relatively positive start to the SPL campaign then. I however have stumbled across an even greater reason for optimism, and it concerns the rather unlikely combination of the Scotland national side and South American silverware.

On Sunday night I settled down to watch the final of the Copa America, this is a tournament where putting the ball in the net has been maybe not expressly forbidden, but at the very least frowned upon, and the main objective for the majority of the teams seemed to be to repeatedly kick the opposition until an actual fight breaks out. Now any Scottish football aficionados will tell you these are qualities naturally present in many who have pulled on the dark blue jersey. Combine this with pitches that would make even the Fir Park groundsman blush and it becomes ever clearer that the Copa America is the natural home of the Scottish national side.

The Copa consists of the ten CONMEBOL sides plus two invitees, one of which is always Mexico. It’s time to start a campaign for that last place in the 2015 tournament. European football is heavy on passing and light on thuggery, our lack of success in international football is not a failing of tactics or technique it is purely a geographical issue. In a competition where the emphasis was on fouls rather than the more traditional goals we would surely excel. The players would bloody love it as well; imagine the money Kenny Miller would save on fake tan! And next to the Paraguayan midfielder Walter Ortigoza, Charlie Adam looks like the poster boy for Slimfast.

If we want to add to our Kirin cup success of 2006 (remember that?) then forget the Euro’s, we’ll still have a punt at the World Cup but the Copa 2015 is the way to go. The campaign starts here.

There is one moment from the weekend’s action that deserves special attention. It involved Dundee United’s mercurial/infuriating/utterly pish (delete as appropriate) attacker Danny Swanson. This young man managed to sum up every facet of his game in about 8 seconds of action. First his attempt at a clipping a free kick over the Kilmarnock wall barely reached shin height (infuriating) he then swept a sublime half volley into the bottom corner from the rebound (brilliant) then during his celebration removed his shirt (not very clever) the next phase of his celebration then involved the internationally accepted, ‘that’s my name’ back to the crowd point at name and number move, however having removed his shirt our Danny was left pointing to the back of his black vest (crowd left either laughing or shaking head in disbelief). I think instead of the murmurs of discontent from the Tannadice faithful the next time Danny’s on field decision ends a promising move, we should all just be thankful he’s managed to get out of bed and find his way to the stadium in time for kick off.

Football’s back and, for now at least I’m bloody delighted.

Follow @allymonc

Scottish 'Fitba Reforms

Radical reforms are needed to revive Scottish football

As Scottish football gears up for another season, with a week still to go before we even reach August, reform is still very much in the air.

Scotland is without a doubt utterly obsessed with its national pastime. More people attend SPL games per head of population than any other league in the world and our footballing capital, Glasgow can boast 3 football specific stadiums with capacities north of 50,000, only Istanbul can match this.

Combine this level of fanaticism, with the crucial role played by our “wee” nation during footballs infant years, (“football came from Scotland” is the Tartan Army’s retort to football’s coming home) and logically we should have a thriving, absorbing spectacle that is the envy of more populous nations.

The reality though is quite different. The national side which used to compete regularly (if not successfully) at World and European competitions, has not been to a major tournament since France ’98, a whole generation of tartan army foot soldiers have been denied the opportunity to spend two weeks semi-naked, and vomiting while simultaneously trying to convince any passing Dutch/Swedish female fans to join them in the city centre fountain they have claimed in the name of the Kingdom of Fife tartan army. In terms of club football, our UEFA co-efficient is not only low, but is heading toward the, you’d be as well not bothering level, alongside the other Celtic leagues.

Now UEFA and FIFA statistics on team performance should be taken with a pinch of salt (England are apparently the 4^th best international side in the world!) and to be honest what I find more damming is I cannot remember the last time I heard someone (excluding SFA/SPL employees) saying something positive about Scottish football.

No wonder then that reform is Scottish football’s “buzzword”.  Our former First Minister and (more impressively?) ex East Fife player, Henry McLeish, was recently charged with conducting a review into Scottish football and coming up with a series of recommendations aimed at returning some of our past glories. The first part of the review focussed on youth development and raised many pertinent issues, some which are beginning to be acted upon (the appointment of the Dutchman Mark Votte as SFA performance director is in particular a step in the right direction). In the second phase of the review Mr McLeish focussed on the ‘here and now’, this is where the arguments have started, and the media spotlight has shone brightest.

A lot of what is said in this second part of the report makes sense. The re-introduction of a winter break would be welcomed by most, and a reduction in the number of administrative bodies is long overdue.  What has really piqued the interest of fans up and down the country though, is the proposals referring to league re-construction.

Two leagues of ten, SPL1 and SPL2, a league of fourteen, a league of sixteen, relegation playoffs, championship playoffs, split, no split. Throw this combination of words and numbers together in any way you see fit and what you get will probably match one of the ideas debated by Scottish Footballs governing bodies. McLeish’s report favoured an SPL1 and 2 each with 10 teams where playoffs to decide relegation/promotion would be utilised. At the time of writing this seems to have been rejected (although to be honest it’s bloody hard to keep up).

The plan to save our national game seems to involve little more than adjusting a number somewhere between ten and the mid-teens. Numbers are important in this debate however, namely 5.2million (Scotland’s population) and forty two (the number of League clubs in Scotland). Put bluntly there are too many clubs competing for the attention (and cash) of a small and dwindling audience. Scottish football is being weighted down by clubs that really have no business being part of the league set-up.

There are far too many clubs who are allowed to cling onto existence purely because they are football clubs. There financial results make them unviable as businesses and they do very little to enthuse their supports (the most recent average attendance figures for div3 I could find showed under 500 passed through the gates per game). The problem is that these clubs can do no more than ‘tread water’, occasionally a ‘sugar daddy’ will come along, plough in some funds and the club will have its moment in the sun only to fall spectacularly back to earth, remember both Livingston and Gretna have represented Scotland in European competition in recent years, Gretna no longer exist and Livingston are in the midst of a long slog through the divisions. Most clubs in Scotland have nothing to play for and there is nothing to encourage them to strive for anything beyond the status-quo.

We should be discussing a top division of 16 teams with a 30 game season, a second division of 10 teams with a play-off system between the two leagues. The lower leagues could be regionalised (as McLeish proposes) but they should be run in summer months when the top two leagues are dormant, Celtic and Rangers should be encouraged to enter their reserve teams in these regional leagues (Celtic in one, Rangers in the other, swapping every year). Attendances, revenue and ambition would all increase for those at the bottom of the footballing pyramid, combine this with a play-off system between the winners of the two regional divisions (Celtic and Rangers B teams would not be allowed to win promotion) and the bottom placed second division side and almost every club would have something to play for, and a more importantly a reason to improve.

Alongside these proposals we should be trying to make SPL TV a viable alternative to Sky and ESPN and the ‘pocket change’ TV deal we were forced into. Clubs that are failing should be left to die or even more controversially encouraged to merge, this is undoubtedly unpopular but surely one thriving club is better for an area than one mediocre and one on its knees? (The city of Dundee I’m looking at you).

Scottish football must be streamlined, incompetence should not be tolerated and equally innovation must be encouraged, and rewarded. We can no longer afford to carry the deadweight that is dragging the game down. It is time for difficult decisions to be made, without pandering to sentimentality.

Once the current proposals are debated and watered down they will amount to no more than re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Scotland’s population is the most obese in Europe (must be all those ‘Killie pies and East End Park bridies) and our national game is similarly overburdened, it’s time for a crash diet.

Follow @allymonc