Scottish Sport’s minister Joe Fitzpatrick is probably somewhat busy at the moment. Covid 19 after all has had a huge impact on not just football but all levels of sport in Scotland, from the grass roots to the amateur game to the higher echelons of professional sport.
Men women and children in sport have all been impacted from job losses to a simple inability to play the sport they love due to restrictions imposed. Supporters as we know too well have been unable to attend games even now.
Yet when it comes to football, those down south are taking part in a planned review of the beautiful game and Scotland would do well to consider the timing as ideal for their own root and branch analysis of Scottish football.
It has been called the summer of discontent in Scottish football and you’d be hard pushed to find a single football supporter with a passion for the game who is happy with the way our national sport is governed, or indeed that their voice as a supporter, customer, call it what you will is being heard. Many in fact would believe it is being actively ignored.
From a personal point of view I’ve found this summer’s handling of the Covid 19 situation, the processes, votes and self-centred nature to be cringeworthy. Yet what has probably been more worrying was the lack of input afforded to two particular groups, the players and the supporters.
Shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray MP has already this week called for Scottish football to be added to the remit of the review taking place in England. Murray a Hearts fan, obviously feels that would make sense, but with sport a devolved matter for the Scottish Parliament I certainly wouldn’t entertain such a notion.
Scottish football would be an afterthought in that review and we need to focus clearly on improving the game north of the border for Scottish football supporters. A review of football governance should be considered and now seems the perfect opportunity. As football finds its own way to a new normal within societal change, now would be a good time to involve the much ignored stakeholders in the game to find solutions to both new and historical issues impacting the game.
When league reconstruction was being debated amongst the 42 member clubs, the players were not asked their opinion nor were the supporters. It could be argued there was no time, that may even have been true as well as convenient at the time. A review now would allow the views of supporters and players to be heard.
The players were bound to have had their own ideas. Indeed the Scottish PFA took it upon themselves to poll their members on the reconstruction debate, but there was no formal request from the SPFL. The poll was done independently by Fraser Wishart. Fans of the game were not even afforded that.
What is clear is that even basic administrative tasks such as the ballot to end the season were handled in a way that whether legal or not was certainly mismanaged. As a result confidence amongst those watching from the stands has been genuinely eroded.
After the SPFL’s controversial ballot to end the season, relegated clubs Hearts and Partick Thistle launched legal action to overturn their demotions.
Before that Rangers called for an independent investigation into the SPFL’s actions surrounding the ballot, but a majority of clubs voted against their proposal.
If you go back further to 2012 then you can see Scottish football’s handling of the demise of the original Rangers and the replacing in the professional game of a new club in its place handled dreadfully. It was there the seeds of this disastrous summer were sown and if we don’t address it now it can only continue one way. Those in charge have shown themselves incapable for too long. This summer should be a time for change.
Speaking this week Ian Murray had some interesting figures when he talked of a recent poll of supporters (as reported by the BBC):
“The Scottish Football Supporters Association have been pretty clear recently,” he said.
“They had a survey that showed 84% of fans didn’t think that they were being heard, and 87% said they felt listening to fans more would make our game better.
“This Covid crisis has shone a very bright light on the governance of Scottish football.
“It doesn’t matter if you cut yourself and you bleed red, green, blue – or in my case – maroon; all of these issues are exactly the same.”
Those figures are worrying and although not in agreement with Murray’s call to piggyback on a review of the English game, such negative supporter opinions need to be addressed.
My own views on Celtic’s involvement with Scottish football have evolved as we’ve witnessed the cack-handed governing of Scottish football this season.
Until recently I’d always believed that Celtic as a Scottish club should remain in this country and influence the game from within. Yet what became clear was a clear self-centred approach from clubs looking after themselves.
Add to that a voting structure that seems deliberately designed to avoid any change, encourage genuine debate or fresh ideas and I’d started to feel Celtic were now being held back by the environment and the politics of Scottish football. As such I wished Celtic to lobby interested partners outside our current parameters and examine the viability of plying our trade outside Scotland.
This review taking place in English football shows that down south there is a realisation that change is needed and quickly.
Scotland would do well to follow suit and seek an independent review involving the Scottish Government and all the stakeholders in the Scottish game from grass roots to the top level professional echelons of the game.
Trust in those who run Scottish football is fractured and that needs to be rebuilt. It’s not going to happen from within the game itself, it needs to be addressed with open dialogue overseen by an independent review. Both players and supporters have valid views and ideas that have been ignored to date. It’s time to remedy that situation to avoid history repeating.
If Scottish football beats the same old drum going forward, it would be no surprise to see Celtic taking matters into their own hands and looking for a new environment to play in.
A review of the game in Scotland might allow the governing and marketing of Scottish football to improve. It may even give confidence to Celtic that there is scope for our club to have our ambitions realised at home rather than seeking out alternatives to their current environment.
English football is setting an example. It is one Scotland would do well to consider for its own survival.
Niall J
