SCOTLAND .. and BRAZIL 2014 Consistent failure, under a variety of (generally, poor and low grade) bosses should persuade MOST people to accept the FACT that Scotland`s football decline is a LONG-TERM problem due to SFA mis-management. There are NO IDENTIFIABLE SHORT-TERM ISSUES in our game ... As the time approaches for BRAZIL, people will certainly have to recognise that we are in a six team group ... and have to IMPROVE SUBSTANTIALLY to make any impression. While this remains highly unlikely because of the failure to tackle underlying long-term decline and dreadful organisation of the scottish game, it is important that the blame is placed fairly and squarely where it belongs ... NOT on managers or players .. but with Governments and SFA, who should be doing something about it. But, if media, citizens and clubs don`t demand action, what pressure exists for change ? The future is bleak ... How we did in UEFA 2012 Croatia 7 1 2 18- 7 22 (F2) Belgium 4 3 3 21-15 15 (A3) Serbia 4 3 3 13-12 15 (C3) Scotland 3 2 3 9-10 11 (I 3) Wales 3 0 5 6-10 9 (G4) Macedonia 2 2 6 8-14 8 (B5) SCOTLAND RECORD - the downward spiral. Modern Scotland 20-CH- match spreads Period W D L F A Pts GD 1961-69 11 4 5 38 - 29 37 + 9 1969-75 9 4 7 29 - 20 31 + 9 1976-82 10 4 6 32 - 24 34 + 8 1982-85 7 6 7 31 - 26 27 + 5 1985-89 8 6 6 21 - 19 30 + 2 1989-93 7 6 7 24 - 22 27 + 2 1993-96 11 5 3 31 - 10 38 + 21 1996-99 10 5 5 28 - 19 35 + 9 1999-03 11 5 4 29 - 16 38 + 13 2003-07 10 3 7 26 - 20 33 + 6 2007-10 9 3 8 20 - 26 30 - 6 Scotland`s 20 championship match goals deficit is the clearest positive confirmation of continued decline in spite of what the rubbish team manager and other `excuse` merchants at SFA are saying. Credible researchers and `Pyramid` campaigners associate this steady decline to the rise of more and more associations, which are, generally, better organised than SFA. Principally, the lack of a reasonable club system (equivalent to Norway, Sweden, Denmark and other European competitor nations .... see the FIFA comparison page) is considered the most likely cause of consistently poorer talent production. According to SFA - since Roxburgh and Brown - the cause is `kids not playing in the street`, which, presumably, only affected Scotland (?) , or, other countries were better organised to deal with it if such nonsense was ever actually relevant in the first place. How, may we ask, do Spanish and German players have such a good touch, pass and movement ? Do they play in the street ? Also, it wouldn`t have explained the decline from 1920 - 1960 ..... ? Over the half-century, from 1961-2010, Scotland did not enter France (1960) and Spain (1962), whilst the Home championship doubled for Italy (1968). The team qualified for finals of Germany (74), Argentina (78), Spain (82), Mexico (86), Italy (90), Sweden (92), England (96) and France (98), since when they have not qualified for six consecutive finals competitions. Again, this latter statistic is wholly consistent with the `organisational` theory of persistent decline.On the other hand, there was a `baby boom` in the post-war period which meant a huge rise in the number of young people by 1980, after which population declined consistently until a recent influx of East Europeans. We estimate decline is due to all these factors, but mostly to the fact that SFA is not organised enough to deal with fluctuation in social conditions, finances or competition. Experience from abroad shows that it requires a consistently well-organised CLUB SYSTEM and universally applied resources and standards .. which no-one here is yet ready to install (.. or countenance ?) .. |
RECENT SCOTLAND MANAGERS - CHAMPIONSHIP RECORD MANAGER P W D L F A Pts Craig Brown 8 5 2 1 14- 3 17 Alex McLeish 8 5 0 3 12- 9 15 Walter Smith 8 4 2 2 14- 5 14 Berti Vogts 8 4 2 2 12- 8 14 Jock Stein 8 4 1 3 14-10 13 Andy Roxburgh 8 3 3 2 7 - 5 12 Craig Levein 8 3 2 3 9-10 11 George Burley 8 3 1 4 6 -11 10 CHAMPIONSHIP SCORERS since Jock Stein`s death (10.09.85) 175 goals (caps - all matches) 3 - Darren Fletcher, Neil McCann, Colin Hendry, Gary McAllister, John McGinlay, Scott Booth, Billy McKinlay, Richard Gough, Christian Dailly 2 - Steven Naismith, John Robertson (HEA), Stephen McManus, Barry Ferguson, Steven Fletcher, Gary O`Connor, Colin Cameron, Allan Johnston, Eoin Jess, Craig Burley, David Hopkin, Brian McClair, Gordon Strachan. 1 - Scott Brown, Ross McCormack, Kirk Broadfoot, Lee McCulloch, Sean Maloney, Craig Beattie, Gary Caldwell, Paul Hartley, Steven Thompson, Paul Dickov, Lee Wilkie, Gary Naysmith, Paul Lambert, Dougie Freedman, David Weir, Matt Elliot, Gary McSwegan, Paul Ritchie, Tom Boyd, Darren Jackson, Colin Calderwood, Duncan Shearer, Stuart McCall, Gary Mackay, Frank McAvennie, Craig Mackail-Smith, David Goodwillie The following stats are are only updated annually in December .................. COMPETITIVE HISTORY POINTS the last 25 matches (to end 2011) give a more telling picture : Friendly 12 6 0 6 14-15 Craig Levein, thus, is not part of the solution .. but a new part of our problem. |
