A while ago I got into a Twitter discussion with @sfa (otherwise known as The Scottish Football Archive) about the problems, real or perceived, with the game in Scotland.
I forget exactly how the discussion went, but in 140 characters or less it covered all the same well worn topics, namely the dominance of the Old Firm, the lack of talent coming through the ranks, declining attendances, the lack of success of our Scottish clubs in Europe, the lack of success of our national team, the issue of league restructuring, and so on and on.
Like most of the discussions around this topic there was no resolution, other than that we should all be resolved to find a resolution because, frankly, things can't go on as they are now without it ending rather badly.
But about half-way through the conversation I remembered something I read in Graham McColl's excellent book "How A Nation Lost The World Cup", the story of Scotland's disastrous World Cup campaign in Argentina '78.
We all know the story of that now (in)famous campaign: the mass hysteria, the Andy Cameron records, Ally McLeod and his claims to bring back the World Cup, the thousands cheering off the team at Prestwick, that goal, Willie Johnston getting sent home and, after the team took only three points from their three games, the humiliating early-morning return to an empty Prestwick only a few weeks later.
But it was a comment by FIFA president João Havelange that stuck out for me. João, a Brazilian, was genuinely of the belief that Scotland would face Argentina in the final.
Admittedly, João Havelange never played football (he was in Brazil's Water Polo team for the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki), so quite why he came to that conclusion we're not sure. Whether he was won over by the sight of Ally McLeod, complete in Mexican bandit gear selling carpets, or Andy Cameron's appearance in front of a bemused Top Of The Pops audience, or even the drafting in of super-star Rod Stewart to help the campaign, who knows, but for anyone to say that about our Scotland team was simply incredible - and unheard of these days.
While there is some doubt about the validity of Havelange's opinion, we must not lose sight of the fact that Scottish football in those days was held in much higher regard than it is now. Most of the players being considered for, or making up the squad going to Argentina, played for the top clubs of the day.
Nottingham Forest had Burns, Gemmill, Robertson, O'Hare, McGovern. Liverpool had Hansen, Souness and Dalglish, at that moment the greatest striker in Europe. John Wark and George Burley both played for Ipswich, another team that was about to go onto great things. Gordon McQueen and Joe Jordan had both transferred to Manchester United for what where then record-setting fees.
In the 70's, immediately preceding the '78 World Cup, both Celtic and Rangers did well in Europe, winning a Cup each, with Celtic particularly doing well, progressing far in subsequent tournaments.
Thinking about this planted a seed in my mind.
I've made it my mission to understand and document quite how we've gone from being one of the worlds strongest teams, a country that provided the backbones of some of the great English sides of the 70's to the point where we are now: our Premier League sides getting knocked out of Europe by teams from Lichtenstein, an alarming drop in our Uefa national league rankings (we're now sandwiched between Denmark and Bulgaria, and behind such giants as Switzerland and Belgium), teams struggling under the burden of heavy debt and our best players ending up at clubs in the lower half of the English Premier League and the Championship and below.
Notice by the way I don't mention Old Firm dominance, because a quick glance at the list of past winners of the Scottish leagues through the years - either with 10, 16, 18 or even 22-team leagues - will tell you that with the exception of the early 80's, the mid-50's and the late 1890's this has always been the case.
My quest is to find out when and how this decline started, and why it's been allowed to continue unabated. My belief is that if we understand the reasons for the decline in our national game, perhaps we can do something to turn it around again. In other words, we need to learn from the mistakes of the past so that we can build, and grow, and succeed.
Thankfully in this quest, I am not alone.
With the season as good as over, and with Rangers winning the league at a canter and by a country mile, the discussion about the state of the game has come around again. Blogs, forums and tweets abound with suggestions and discussions.
We are all waiting with moist anticipation the outcome of the McLeish report into the state of the Scottish game. We are all hoping that Henry McLeish, former Scotland First Minister and a former East Fife player, will come up with at least some suggestions as to what to do about the mire we find ourselves in.
With no report in sight (it was supposed to have been published at the beginning of the year, but the roaring silence is deafening), several fellow (Scottish) football bloggers, including The Scottish Football Blog, Left Back in the Changing Room and More Than Mind Games have decided to begin writing an alternative to the McLeish report.
Very appropriately, given the upcoming General Election, More Than Mind Games calls this initiative the "The Bloggers Manifesto", a grand title right enough, but the end goal of which is to produce a
"joint document which will be splashed in the hope of influencing the course of events in a real way."
I urge you all to get involved. I certainly plan to add my 2 cents to the conversation. We've often heard about the lessons to be learned from the Dutch set-up, so, living in Holland as I do, this is another angle I'm keen to explore: what can we learn from the Dutch set-up that we can apply to the Scottish game?
If you're a blogger, write about this topic, spread your ideas, give us your opinions and let everyone know. You can submit your articles to me (see the contact page), or to any of the participating blogs.
More info can be found at
» Left Back in the Changing Room
» More Than Mind Games
» The Scottish Football Blog
» Avoiding the Drop
I, and we, look forward to reading what you've got to say.
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