London Scottish could be boon for football

IMAGINE there was an SFA-backed club playing in the English domestic game, to be used as a platform for upand-coming Scots in danger of withering on the vine in a dying local environment. OK, nobody of stature or influence in the corridors of power is suggesting anything of the sort. More’s the pity. But the excitement in rugby circles about the new linkup between English Championship club London Scottish and the SRU might spark a few radical thoughts among those charged with reversing the downward trend in talent development in Scottish football. Picture a Scots-only club with an Athletic Bilbao-style signing policy, earning its share of the huge English broadcasting pot, paying transfer fees to teams ‘back home’ in order to buy their brightest young stars — and even selling them on for a profit, as the market dictates. Yes, it’s way out there. Fraught with objections and obstacles. Certainly unlikely to feature in Gordon Strachan’s blueprint for the future of our game. But there’s a point to even half-seriously suggesting anything so wildly off-thewall. Namely, to underline just how crucial it is for the ‘traditionalists’ — those who laugh at even minor changes such as tinkering with the league calendar, unaware that they’re chortling all the way down the drain — to abandon some preconceived ideas. This notion that football can learn nothing from other sports must be punctured. That is particularly true as Strachan and Co, on the brink of publishing their report, attempt to revitalise a national game in crisis at almost every level. It is to be hoped that those with the power have looked at examples of how successful sports in other nations have turned nationwide problems into local issues. There is much to be learned from the traditional structure of Irish rugby, starting from the schools up. Reinvigorating schools football here would be a start, surely. There isn’t one answer to all of the problems besetting Scottish football, of course but it would be nice to see at least some evidence of revolutionary thinking.