COMMENT

Recent events have once again put Scottish Football under the microscope. Turbulent times have revealed a game, in need of radical reforms, aimed at transforming its governance; accelerating the modernisation of structures and relationships; reconnecting with the world outside football; giving fans their rightful place; reordering football priorities; developing more trust, confidence and democracy within the game; building a bigger ambition; and changing the institutions, culture and the unequal distribution of power and money within the game, which are preventing progress and maintaining strains and tensions between club and country and the SFA and the SPPFL.

Scottish football is underperforming and underachieving. This needn’t be the natural order of things.

Instead of a closed, exclusive, defensive and insecure game, we need to make a giant leap into a new future which places pride, passion and the search for success above vested interests, limited horizons and the diminishing expectations which are now, sadly, part and parcel of our national psyche.

We need to put rancour behind us, embrace an optimistic outlook and without apology, be inspired by the sentiments of the famous quote from legend Bill Shankly that, “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much more important than that.”

Optimism and faith in a better future go hand in hand.

There is a point of view which rejects this and argues instead that we should abandon the sentiment, nostalgia and memories of a “bygone era”, be realistic, live in the real world and accept the fact that the success or failure of the national side is becoming less and less important. Through this prism, Scottish football would be seen as living within a limited ambition, shackled by the lack of finance and losing support in a society and nation that has moved on, and is no longer consumed or driven by the remarkable achievements of our past and the possibilities that may lie ahead. This is the politics of despair.

The failure to qualify for the World Cup finals in Russia, the unsuccessful and overhyped attempt to secure the national coach of Northern Ireland for the vacant Scottish manager’s job, the handling of the future of the National Stadium at Hampden Park, the resignation of the SFA chief executive and the depressing fact that we are now 20 years on –June 1998 – from qualifying for European Championships and World Cups, have helped reignite once again a debate on the future of Scottish football.

There are, of course, a huge number of other issues which have