In its heyday Scottish football produced world class footballers and challenged the might of Europe in the continent’s top club competitions during the 1960s, 1970s and to a lesser extent the 1980s. Now, says guest author Andy Muirhead, Scottish football is at a crossroads and decisions must be made.
No longer can our clubs compete in Europe to the standard that the fans demand, no longer are we producing players of the stature like Davie Cooper, Denis Law, Billy Bremner, Kenny Dalglish, Jimmy Johnstone or Jim Baxter. Our game now relies heavily on foreign imports, while our youngsters are forced out to lower league clubs or out of the game altogether. And with the lack of quality on the pitch, the standard of our game has suffered significantly.
The Old Firm has dominated the game for over 30 years now, with only Aberdeen and Dundee United breaking the Glasgow sides’ monopoly on our game and, because of their dominance, the competitive nature of the Scottish game at its highest level has disappeared. Yes the Old Firm lose games through the season, and they don’t always win the domestic cup competitions, but in the league their consistency and the failure of the other SPL clubs to consistently perform - not only against the Old Firm - but also the clubs around them lead to their sustained presence at the top of the game.
On top of all that, the following and the revenue that the Glasgow giants command help them achieve such long term dominance. But can the Old Firm be blamed for the state of the game, given that they have brought the likes of Henrik Larsson, Brian Laudrup, Paul Gascoigne and Lubo Moravcik to Scotland?
Then comes the financial factor. The Scottish game does not have the pulling power of the Spanish, Italian, German or English leagues, and the money thrown at the English game in particular has our clubs’ chairmen and chief executives salivating with the thought of their wallets filled to the brim with cash.
But despite knowing full well that the game must reach a wider audience, the SPL clubs except the Old Firm and Aberdeen voted for a massive financial package offered by Setanta Sports, worth around £100 million. So the clubs went for the money rather than a significant amount of money from Sky Sports - not to mention the exposure that the game could achieve from the satellite company - and they paid the price for their greed.
Setanta soon went bust and, with no TV revenue expected, the SPL ran cap in hand to Sky and ESPN, who duly obliged but at a far lower financial package than they had offered only a few months earlier.
That was the moment reality struck. Our game and our clubs were in trouble. Clubs investing in foreign imports - paying above the odds on wages trying to compete with their English counterparts in the Premier League and the Championship – now looked at their balance sheets and panicked. Cuts had to be made, prices had to increase and it was the fans that were to feel the brunt of the changes. Ticket prices for games such as St. Mirren against Motherwell increased to the level of a European match ticket a few years earlier at Celtic Park or Ibrox.
The clubs continued to cut costs, all the while trying to make as much profit as possible. They even added a few more millilitres of water into the soft drinks at the food kiosks to make the syrup last longer - the cuts were becoming that ridiculous.
Next to be cut was wages. Playing squads were dramatically culled. Before, clubs could fall back on a squad of around 25 players, but now they had to settle for a squad of around 18 players, if they were lucky. Youngsters who dreamed of a football career saw their dreams crushed with the demise of the SPL Reserve League.
The downfall of the Reserve League and reduction of playing squads has had a negative impact on the senior game both domestically and in Europe. Players recovering from injury or not managing to play regular first team football now have no fallback to maintain their levels of match fitness or even regain fitness lost through several weeks or months out.
The reduction of the playing squad also meant a reduction of the wage bill and a limit on what the clubs can spend on wages, so much so that the majority of SPL clubs cannot compete with the likes of League One and League Two clubs in England. Even the Old Firm see their own players and potential signing targets choose Championship sides, because the wages on offer in England’s second tier are at a higher level than at Parkhead or Ibrox. The majority of players do not care for trophies or titles, as long as they make a fast buck. They even shirk away from clubs who participate in Europe year in and year out for clubs in the Premier League and Championship, again because of money. And you wonder why the Scottish game is on its knees.
Former First Minister Henry McLeish was tasked by the SFA to look into our game and come up with proposals on how to turn around our fortunes both on and off the park, and one of the proposals was for league reconstruction. Instead of having an SPL, First, Second and Third Division, McLeish proposed two leagues of ten teams with the possibility of the two lower leagues being regionalised.
According to Neil Doncaster, the SPL Chief Executive, it made sense financially. However money will not help our game get back on its feet on its own. But Doncaster seems to think so, as do several SPL Chairmen, and that is why the proposal of a ten team league is so tempting to those chairmen and chief executives who are only interested in money and balance sheets. The same people responsible for choosing the Setanta deal, which ultimately pushed our game over the edge.
Despite McLeish claiming that he took on board opinions from every aspect of the footballing fraternity in Scotland and abroad, including the fans, the proposal for a ten team league has been met with significant criticism from the fans and certain circles within our game.
According to a survey conducted by Supporters Direct, 88% of 5,000 fans were against a reduction to a ten team league. 77% of those asked were in favour of an increase to a 16 or 18 team league, but Neil Doncaster claims this is not feasible – all because the clubs would lose two games against the Old Firm and therefore lose a significant amount of money.
Doncaster claimed that reducing the league to ten teams would allow for a more even spread of revenue and also claims that it would increase the excitement and standard of the game. This is wishful thinking on the part of Doncaster and those who back the proposal, and is a costly gamble, one which the Scottish game could ill afford.
But rather than trying to reconstruct the league to help clubs make more money through TV and ticket revenues, the priority should be to attract the fans back to the game and that entails increasing the competitive nature of the game and make entry into games more affordable to the masses. However, at the moment Joe Bloggs and son spend close to £100 per game – a cost that includes ticket prices as well as transport to and from games.
There is also the notion of all-seater stadiums; yes they are safe and secure, but why have a 10,000-seater stadium at your disposal when you struggle to fill half of it? The potential re-introduction of a standing section would help attendances, but it would not solve our game’s problems on its own.
One thing is clear though: a ten team league is not wanted by the fans and the governing bodies prefer to listen to the suits at boardroom level up and down the country. Maybe its time the power brokers of the Scottish game listened to the fans. We are the life blood of the game and, as Jock Stein once said, “Without the fans, football is nothing!”
Andy Muirhead is the editor of Scotzine.
Tags: Scottish Premier League
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