Project Brave is yawn of a new age

FIRST up, a confession. This column has tried hard to care about Project Brave. The details of the SFA’s big

idea to revolutionise the way Scotland plays football were formally announced this week. And a plan was duly formed to write a worthy, considered verdict. To read all the statements and lend a sympathetic ear to the clubs frozen out of the elite by cost. The SFA are hell-bent on nationalising youth football and a fat lot of good it’s doing anyone. But every attempt to show a bit of passion for Project Brave finishes up the same way. In total and abject boredom. Like a six-year-old with attention deficit issues, the construction of a Project Bore column starts well enough then ends with a pen being balanced on the end of the nose. Or the cat being chased round the living room. It’s not just me. Mention it in the office and the head of sport’s eyes glaze over. Raise the topic in The Horseshoe Bar and pals would rather pour a pint over their heads than talk about it. It feels at times as if nobody actually cares. Clubs do, of course, and among their ranks there is real concern the SFA have missed the point. Because barely a week goes past without Scotland’s Under-17 team reaching yet another European finals. Four-in-a-row at the last count. But that’s when the problems start. The Under-19s make it to the elite stage of qualification then fall at the final hurdle. The Under-21s had a promising win over Holland in the opening game of their current campaign then slipped to fourth in their group after a 2-0 defeat to Ukraine. Like the senior team, they haven’t troubled a major finals since the 1990s. All of which raises a couple of questions. Is the problem

really the young kids Scotland are producing? Or the fact they reach their 17th birthday and find progress to the first team blocked by a stout wooden door and a manager terrified of losing his job?