My solution to (some of) Scottish football's problems.

Celtic - European Champions, 1967

As I write this, the champions of Romania are taking on Benfica in the Champions' League, while tomorrow the champions of Cyprus and Belarus will also be in action in Europe's elite club competition. Meanwhile, the champions of Scotland tonight are playing a domestic game against Kilmarnock.

Club football in Scotland is in a terrible state. It seems a long time ago that Rangers and Celtic were anything like a major force in European football yet it was only 3 years ago that Rangers reached the Uefa Cup Final. This season though, Rangers lost to Swedish side Malmo in the Champions League 2nd qualifying round, and went on to lose in the Europa League qualifiers to Maribor of Slovakia. With Scotland's league now ranked 16th in Europe, its second best team no longer qualifies for the Champions' League and yet Celtic also failed to navigate the Europa League qualifiers losing to Switzerland's cup winners FC Sion. However, the Bhoys were lucky when Uefa ruled that Sion broke rules regarding player eligibility and they were given a reprieve into the group stages. On top of that, Edinburgh's Hearts were humbled 5-0 at home to Tottenham while Dundee United were eliminated by Polish opposition.

As tempting as it is to compare the state of football in Scotland with England, I don't think it's fair to judge the Scottish game based on what England has. It's true that the Old Firm no longer posess teams of a Champions' League standard, but any team would struggle in Europe if they found themselves in the SPL. The most obvious, and unfortunately these days, the most important obstacle to the development of the Scottish game is money. To illustrate the stark difference between the SPL and the Premier League, Manchester United earned more than £60 million in TV revenue last season. Blackpool, who finished 19th, received the least, £37 million. On the other hand, Rangers, Celtic, Hearts et al. received just £1 million. It makes you think how Premier League clubs would fare without the TV millions.

Unfortunatly, the Scottish Football Association hinders rather than helps the situation. Many people comment on how dull the SPL is because of the fact that it's only Rangers or Celtic that win the tournament, but I think what's more dull is the fact that only one team gets relegated. In the 2007-8 season Gretna were deducted points and finished the season 27 points behind 11th place Kilmarnock. As a result, for the vast majority of the season there was nothing to play for except Uefa Cup places for any team other than the Old Firm (Motherwell finished 3rd, 26 points behind Rangers). Disturbingly, the SFA thought that a 10 team league would improve the state of football in Scotland. Thankfully, protests by fans, including one by Aberdeen fans during the Scottish Cup semi final at Hampden Park, led to the SFA abandoning that plan.




There are many ideas among Scottish clubs and supporters as to what can be done, and I think the most important thing that can be changed is the timing of the season. Scotland must switch to a summer league. When I lived in Aberdeen, I came to understand Scottish football a lot more than I did before. One thing I realised is that I would not go to Pittodrie on a December night to watch Aberdeen play St. Mirren. It's mind-boggling that Scottish football has been played throughout the winter for so long. Few fans want to see a poor quality match in freezing temperatures. And this isn't freezing as in the north of England, this is North-East Scotland freezing. Many games were called off last season because of frozen pitches which led to fixture congestion. The pitches, if playable at all, contributed to teams struggling to pass the ball (which is enough of a challenge at the best of times for some). In addition to this, with Scotland's best teams having to enter European competition at an ever earlier stage, the likes of Dundee Utd and Hearts are out of Europe before the SPL season even starts. The advantages of summer football are endless:

Poor attendance at Aberdeen's Pittodrie

 Scottish summers are not too hot to play football in. Attendances in proportion to the Scottish population are good but 6 of the SPL's 12 stadiums are less than half full each game this season. I bet far more people would go to Pittodrie or Tannadice on a warm June night than in the middle of January (Further north, you could even save money on floodlights at evening games). That should be reason enough, since surely the purpose of the SPL is to provide football to its supporters. That's not all though. With the English leagues ending in May and Sky Sports struggling to find football to show, more interest would be taken in the SPL by those south of the border and the SFA could demand more money from Sky and ESPN for the broadcasting rights, which would benefit every club. Furthermore, SPL clubs would be at their peak physical condition when European competitions start. The quality of the pitches would be much better in the summer which would lead to more exciting games and possibly better players going to Scotland.


As well as switching to a summer league, which has worked well for Ireland and Scandanavian countries, the SPL must expand to 16 teams with two automatic relegation spots plus relegation playoffs. However, the self-interest of clubs is threatening to scupper this idea because they don't want to lose income by playing Rangers and Celtic at home only once a season. But it does get tiresome playing teams 3/4 times a year and there would be a far more exciting relegation battle to distract us all from the tedium that is Rangers and Celtic's mini-league at the top of the table.

The SPL shouldn't have to compete with the Premier League because with imaginative reform Scotland can produce a 'brand' that can be appealing to football fans, TV companies and sponsers alike. The financial success of the Premier League in England is something even Spain, Germany and Italy's leagues can't match so it's pointless trying to think that Scotland could compete with that. There's still enough passion for football in Scotland to believe that the days when the Old Firm could reach the last 16 of the Champions' League are not gone forever. But it might be a good (or bad) few years until we see Alex Ferguson repeating history by leading out his team in European competition at Pittodrie, or see Barcelona given the chance to improve their poor record against Dundee Utd.

Happier times for Aberdeen, beating Real Madrid in the Cup Winners' Cup Final, 1983