A Dutch solution to a Scottish problem (Part I)

I completely missed every single game of football across the British Isles at the weekend.

I was too busy to turn on the radio for the Scottish games, and I fell asleep somewhere during the Arsenal-Spurs highlights on the Saturday evening. I was awake long enough to see van Persie scoring, but the next thing I remember is being woken by the familiar Match of the Day tune as the credits rolled by. A pity really, because it seems I missed a tremendous weekend of football.

What makes running a blog about football a real pleasure is also its main downfall, namely football over-saturation. The job of the football blogger is to watch the games, to keep up with the news, the views and the gossip in order to provide interesting and up-to-date articles. But as you become immersed in the material, there is a danger that you become a little weary of it all.

For the Scottish football blogger, there's been a lot of material to write about lately. Sadly most of it has been about events off, rather than on, the field. Between the declining standards of the game (exhibit A, Scottish clubs in Europe, seasons 2008/09 and 2009/10), the worrying state of our clubs finances (to wit: Rangers, again, Stirling Albion, Stranraer, Clachnacuddin, Livingston and now Dundee United) and the performances of the National team (World Cup qualification, or lack thereof) your average well adjusted Scottish blogger certainly has their cross to bear.

And despite my best attempts, I just can't get away from it.

This morning, on the way to work, stuck in another one of those endless traffic jams that plague this country, I was listening to the TwoFootedTackle podcast. A round-up of the Champions League was the topic of discussion, and, of course, the very last game discussed was the humiliating 4-1 defeat of Rangers by a little-know Romanian team. Much hilarity ensued, and Scottish football was roundly denounced as being rubbish.

It made me grip the steering wheel tightly while the veins in my temples started throbbing, but they're only expressing their opinion of the game as they see it, i.e. our top clubs performing poorly against a backdrop of on-field folly and off-field financial mismanagement. To be honest, I couldn't help but agree.

Once upon a time, Scottish keepers where the butt of most commentators jokes: now it's Scottish football in its entirety. The eternal optimist in me could argue that it's progress of sorts (and as we all know, there's no such thing as bad publicity), but the constant knocking of the game from all sides is getting wearisome.

It's a little-known fact (until now), but I don't actually live in Scotland any more. I currently live in Holland, far away from the goings on in Alba, a position that allows me a certain degree of objectivity which is, as we all know, an unusual position for any football blogger.

Now, I've no particular interest in Dutch football, but you can take the following paragraph as fact.

Firstly, Dutch football, despite what you may have been lead to believe, is actually not that good. Secondly, most Dutch football clubs, with few exceptions are facing serious financial difficulties; and thirdly, Dutch football is not particularly competitive either, with the winners of the Dutch league coming from one of three teams since 1964, Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord, although there are two notable exceptions, that being AZ Alkmaar, who won in 1981 and 2008.

Like our very own Rangers, AZ Alkmaar may be league champions, but they're not without their problems. They're without a sponsor after the DSB Bank went under in a mountain of debt and dubious business practices. Its chairman Dirk Scheringa pretty much bankrolled the club, providing funds for players and building a swanky new stadium on the outskirts of the town. The club are not said to be in danger but when the debts are being called in, no one is safe; just ask fans of Livingston and Clachnacuddin.

The history of Dutch football is positively littered with teams going out of business, or merging to form new sides. Steve McLaren's FC Twente (currently leading the division) is itself an amalgamation of two endangered clubs in 1965. Roda JC have a hugely complex history of mergers dating back to 1954, while FC Wageningen, SVV Schiedam and SC Amersfoort where short-lived experiments which all ended in failure.

Fc Utrecht, one of Dirk Kuijts' former clubs only came into being in 1970 following a merger of three local teams, and ADO Den Haag (a team more famous for its hooligan element than its football) is the result of the 1996 merger of two local teams and a team from Rotterdam. And there are doubts about whether RKC Waalwijk, who currently occupy bottom spot in the league will survive for much longer given their precarious financial situation.

In terms of attendance, looking at figures from last season, the average attendance of both top divisions, the SPL and the Eredivisie, are roughly similar, with 19,827 and 20,359 respectively.

And, like Scottish football, the teams in the divisions immediately below the First Division (let's call them 'Juniors' to make the comparison easier) have for years not been able to get themselves promoted into the Senior leagues due to the glass ceiling we see in our very own Third division (although two teams have managed to get into the First division, but only after a lengthy application and granting of a license).

That glass ceiling is about to disappear this season, but it's a change not welcomed by all.

You see, the Dutch Junior leagues are comprised of two separate competitions, the Saturday and the Sunday Leagues, each containing three sub-divisions. The idea is that the winner of the Saturday and Sunday leagues play a deciding game to see which one gets promotion. The problem however seems to be that some of the teams in both divisions have expressed doubts about even wanting to promoted if they win the league, because their charters prevent them from playing on Saturdays or Sundays.

This is because the Saturday clubs are by and large protestant clubs, who were not allowed to play on Sunday, while the Sunday clubs are generally Catholic and working class clubs, whose players had to work on Saturday and therefore could only play on Sunday.

Although this practice pretty much ended by the 1960s and 1970s, the clubs and the league have maintained this division to this day.

So, you're probably wondering by now what in the hell all this has to do with Scottish football. Well, the answer is this: the Scottish league and the Dutch league are really not all that different.

The Dutch league is often held up as a shining example of how football in small countries (like Scotland) could work. But turn over the stone and you'll find the same creepy-crawlies. Yet there are no lengthy editorials about crises in the Dutch game, no blogs that I'm aware of bemoaning the state of Dutch football, and no foreign podcasts laughing at Dutch football.

So what's different?

Well, I'm afraid I don't really know, but perhaps the following might help to explain.

I live in a town roughly the size of Livingston. Within the boundaries of the town, there are 10 football clubs, each with a membership (either playing or contributing) of approximately 800. Per club, there are two senior teams and, depending on the club, anywhere from 10 to 16 teams for boys and girls from the ages of 4 to 16. Every team has two coaches, some clubs feature mixed teams, and parents are encouraged to follow refereeing and coaching courses.

The pitches (the average number of pitches per club in the locality is 4) are re-laid every year, the club houses are grand and enormous and many have dual-functions, for example as school nursery during the day, clubhouse by night.

All this applies as much to football as it does to the local hockey clubs (the Dutch national hockey teams are one of the most successful teams in the world, having won the Hockey World Cup three times, the Champions Trophy eight times and the Summer Olympics twice) and, to a slightly lesser extent, the local volleyball clubs.

Perhaps the difference is the level of involvement from the local community. Many of the clubs receive funds from the local council, supplemented by a income from member subscriptions, sponsorship and voluntary contributions (not just financial, but also in time freely given).

Maybe where Dutch football is different, and where it really succeeds is at the grass-roots level: a small number clubs that lay the foundation for the success of the talented players coming through the ranks, the fostering of home grown talent, nurtured from a young age by well-funded, well organised and well supported clubs.

In Jim Spence's blog on the BBC website today, he's calling for Scottish football to get "help from the banks - and it should be given".

He's wrong in that assertion.

The last people that Scottish football should turn to for help are the banks.  As long as our football clubs remain largely commercial entities with a greater responsibility to the banks and shareholders than to their supporters and their communities, Scottish football will fail. It will fail because business is by nature not sentimental. It cares little for the needs of the fans, the local community, or the glorious history of a club.

Where Scottish football needs to follow the example of the Dutch leagues is at the grass-roots level. The future of Scottish football lies not in the hands of the banks, but in the ownership of the local clubs by the supporters and the communities.

Jim Spence and Henry McLeish would do well to pay a visit to Holland to see how things should be run. But the key is not in visiting Ajax or PSV, but rather to visit any of the local clubs near where I live, be it hockey, volleyball or even football.

They're more than welcome to come and stay at my house. It'll save some money.