MINNOWS ARE HOLDING SPFL BACK, INSISTS STRACHAN

GORDON STRACHAN last night insisted Scottish football needs a bloodletting of lower-league clubs he feels are only pretending to be professional outfits. In a lengthy, withering blast, the former Celtic and Scotland boss insisted reform is needed to save football in this country after the coronavirus crisis. And he feels there are too many sides in League One and League Two who are glorified Junior outfits who need to find their level. ‘If you want to be a professional club, then show it,’ Strachan said. ‘Have fulltime employees, have full-time players, have an academy, do the whole lot. Just don’t play at being a football team and expect us to look after you. When you talk about clubs coming into the league, what are they bringing in? ‘Two hundred people per week to a game? Is that really professional football? The teams in the bottom two leagues at the moment, in general, how many players have they produced over the last 14 years? ‘Nobody’s going to kill a football club but find your level that you play at. Find the level your finances are putting you at. Don’t tell me you’re a professional club when you’re paying people part-time £80-a-week and nobody turns up to your football matches. Don’t tell me that’s professional. What good is that to anyone? What’s that doing for football? ‘If they can’t deal with it financially, they can go and play in the Junior leagues. ‘For maybe 40 or 50 per cent of the clubs in Scotland we call professional, they wouldn’t have the ability to survive in the Conference in England. ‘They’re not professional and we give them a vote like they are, but they’re not professional at all. They’re not even good community clubs at times. ‘Once we come out of this, we have to go: “Who wants to go head over heels on being professional and bring on the game?”. I’m sure if we do it properly, then the product we sell the world can become 100-per-cent better.’ Now technical director at Championship side Dundee, Strachan also wants a ban on artificial surfaces. He told BBC Scotland: ‘You have to give a good product and, if you think that is two teams in the bottom half of the Scottish Premiership on a plastic pitch, you are kidding yourself on. ‘There has to be a rethink on what the product is you are showing the rest of the world. If you have a better product, you will get more sponsors.’