Don’t feel sorry for craving summer football...
THERE’S a standard response from the hard-of-thinking whenever the issue of summer football is raised. Like the worst bar-room boors, the ‘traditionalists’ — people who believe the game went to heck in a handbasket when they outlawed full-on assaults from behind — shake their empty heads and sneer: ‘Oh, not that old argument …’ The intention is to bludgeon everyone into accepting the idiocy that keeps our game locked in the darkness of a perpetual winter. To make anyone proposing change almost feel as if they have to say sorry for going over old ground. Well, take this is as a massive apology, then, to all the dullards who insist on doing things the way they’ve always been done. Because last week’s
Sportsmail revelations about the League Cup shifting to July, before the SPFL leagues kick off, brings the subject back on to the agenda in a big way. There seem to be two arguments against playing in the summer. One is that it puts football in direct competition with so many other sporting events — The Open Championship, Wimbledon, etc. Later this year, domestic football runs straight into the broadcasting behemoth known as the Rugby World Cup. Next year The Ryder Cup is back. Oh, and shifting season might actually avoid a six-week clash with the biggest drain on attendances, the Premier League across the border. The other sticking point is that summer football would clash with the busy holiday period — lowering the potential audience. Yep, that will be why there are no games at Easter. Or during the October week. Or on any Bank Holiday weekend. In short, there are always reasons for people to stay away from Scottish football. Instead of running scared, why not actually do something that might bring more punters in from the cold?