Does elite sport even matter to them now?
94-page plan but zero on Euros at Hampden or Lions at Murrayfield
APASSING mention. In 94 close-typed pages and 40-something minutes at the lectern, that was sport’s entire allocation of comment, care and concern.
Nothing about, potentially, two of the most prestigious spectator events ever to be staged in Scotland.
Euro 2020? Zero. The planned British and Irish Lions Test at Murrayfield? Zilch.
Not a word about the potential impact on professional teams and organisations at the very top of their respective pyramids. Nary a thought given to Scottish football’s lower leagues, clearly.
Just a notification that 12 to 17-year-olds should hopefully be free to resume non-contact outdoor sport in a matter of weeks.
Honestly? That’s a brilliant bit of news for anyone with an interest in the health — physical and emotional — of our younger generation.
But, at one point yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon explained that the most pertinent question we’ll all have to ask ourselves in the coming months is: ‘What matters most?’
Without putting mere games alongside the reopening of schools or allowing visits to care homes, there is another question many have been asking of this government for a very long time now: ‘Does elite-level sport matter at all?’
When Gregor Townsend led Scotland to a famous victory at Twickenham earlier this month, Sturgeon was happy to Tweet out her congratulations, declaring: ‘The Calcutta Cup is coming home!’ Likewise, for someone who admits to having absolutely no interest in football, she did her duty by joining in the celebrations when Steve Clarke’s men qualified for the European Championship finals. But it’s clearly asking too much to expect the First Minister (below) — or, indeed, anyone in the Scottish Government — to address a couple of the most pressing issues concerning the nation’s two most popular spectator sports. Giving football its place at the head of the queue, nothing we heard yesterday leaves anyone — tournament organisers, the SFA or the average Tartan Army foot soldier — any wiser about the implications for those Euro 2020 (delayed) fixtures due to take place at Hampden in June. As UEFA’s March 5 deadline for a decision on hosting rights looms large, what do you think Aleksander Ceferin and his chums in Nyon will make of the ‘no comment’ approach taken by Holyrood? UEFA president Ceferin has made it clear that his first choice is to see games played in front of spectators. So, while European football’s governing body is currently sticking to its wildly ambitious plan to stage the tournament in 12 different host cities, there have been louder and louder whispers about a change to the format.
Given a choice between a Continent-wide event in empty stadia or a fan-friendly festival of football with a slightly smaller footprint, well, it’s not much of a contest.
So Scotland v the Czech Republic, and Scotland v Croatia, at Hampden on June 14 and 22, respectively? Don’t hold your breath.
Maybe you’ll have more luck with England v Scotland at Wembley in the middle fixture of that European Championships group. Maybe.
Having waited since the summer of 1998 to see our men’s national team back at a major finals, the prospect of Scotland’s most committed supporters being forced to watch these three huge fixtures — wherever they might be played — from the discomfort of their front rooms definitely rankles.
And that’s despite the knowledge that, when it comes to building a moral argument in favour of relaxation, football certainly hasn’t helped itself. Repeatedly.
The absolute shambles surrounding the SFA lending match officials to Greece at the height of a global pandemic, with entirely predictable results, is merely the latest in a long line of brainless breaches by the beautiful game.
Talk about an avoidable crisis. One that isn’t likely to engender great feelings of goodwill at Holyrood, when the national association next go looking for favours.
Leaving aside the question of whether all of football should be subjected to collective punishment for the offences of a few, you can definitely argue against other sports being caught in the backlash of restrictions.
Scottish Rugby can certainly feel aggrieved, should the different approach taken north of the Border scupper its chances of hosting a truly unique occasion.
The Lions Test against Japan on June 26, currently pencilled in for Murrayfield, offers fans the chance to see the British and Irish select in action on a rare ‘home tour’ forced by pandemic restrictions. If organisers find that spectators are allowed to attend events in England but not Scotland, however, why wouldn’t they simply take that fixture a couple of hundred miles south, in search of something approaching a proper big-game atmosphere? A Scottish Government who view sport as either an inconvenience, a source of societal ills or an easy photo op, depending on code and circumstance, probably wouldn’t be too unhappy with that. Not that they’d ever say as much. Not that they ever say much about anything relating to sport. Jason Leitch’s residency on Radio Scotland’s famously petty and ill-informed call-in, the very definition of paying minimal lip service to a subject, seems to be about their limit.
Holyrood sees sport as an inconvenience, a source of societal ills or an easy photo op