Former First Minister calls on authorities to realign focus
HENRY McLeish has called for the SFA to be re-established as the ‘dominant force and authority in Scottish football’, and for the major clubs to work more towards the ‘common good’ if the game is to recover at both a national and international level.
The former First Minister – the author of a Scottish Football Review in 2010 that made sweeping recommendations he believes have not been implemented – claims the country has descended into one of ‘diminishing football expectations’ after two decades without the men’s national team qualifying for a major tournament.
Without a recovery in sight, he sets out his fears for the game and possible solutions in a new book entitled ‘Scottish Football: Requiem or Renaissance?’, which is launched today at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
The Labour politician and former Leeds United and East Fife footballer claims that a weakened SFA, in conjunction with an increasingly powerful club game, has led to a continuing lack of success for the national team and a system of governance that is currently ‘not fit for purpose’.
And, reserving much of his exasperation for the way youth development is going under Project Brave, he wants an inquiry into what has gone wrong with the way young talent is being nurtured – and ignored – under the newlyimplemented system.
In a wide-ranging publication that he completed watching this summer’s World Cup in Russia, his arguments touch on all aspects of Scottish football and a game that McLeish fears is currently ‘going nowhere’.
However, the 70-year-old believes the answers to a ‘renaissance’ are at hand if there is a willingness to work together for change, particularly within the ‘big five’ clubs of Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs.
He said: “There are key things I think we have to do to get the game looking forward.
“First of all, we need to re-establish the SFA as the dominant authority and force in the game, less under the control of the Scottish Premiership and SPFL and more independent to take