Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
So before we jump in with both feet we should perhaps look for positives. There is one obvious one: our stadiums are clean, safe and family friendly. No crumbling walkways, outdoor toilets or baton wielding policemen. Secondly and perhaps most surprisingly is that the SPL is the 8th best supported league in Europe; albeit the big two do distort the picture to a huge extent. An average of 13,920 people watched the SPL last season which drops to an average of 7,397 without the Glasgow Two's home games considered. As a comparison, average attendance without Old Firm was 8,125 in 2002/2003 and 8,650 in 2006/2007 without Rangers and Celtic's home games considered.
So people do watch our football: especially if you adjust the figures for our small population. These are the equivalent figures for some countries our size elsewhere in Europe:
Croatia – 2,025
Denmark – 8,313
Finland – 2,389
Norway – 8,956
Slovakia – 2,417
Also our UEFA seeding for club football is 13th, ahead of Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Serbia, Sweden, Poland and Norway. Many are richer countries, and some more populous.
But what is wrong? Here is where things get interesting. When I first suggested this project on FF it was complaints I received and not praise. Here are a few examples:
1 “The big problem with football today - and Scottish football in particular - is money. Because we are operating along business lines we end up with monopolies such as us and them. We need a radical rethink. My suggestion is that we need to increase competition and the only way to do this is to create an even playing field financially. Of course this will be painful for the bigger clubs such as us but eventually we will all be winners.”
2 “The domestic game in Scotland has really struggled in the last decade. The Scottish Premier League has suffered as a consequence of Old Firm domination and no team outside the Glasgow duo has won the Premier Division in over 20 years. It's a telling statistics that pretty much sums up the demise of the Scottish game. The days of four teams chasing a league title are long gone and already this season after 3 matches the Old Firm have a lead on the rest of the clubs. The lack of competition has a huge effect on other aspects of Scottish Football. Fans aren't interested in paying money to watch a product which is highly predictable.”
3 “As I watched the Scotland game the other night, I was truly stunned at just how bad we have become at doing the basics. The country will always have the passionate following, whether that is good or bad is debatable and perhaps for another argument, and it will always have the players who never give up, an admirable trait none the less. What we don’t seem to have is the ability to do the simple basics correctly. Our lowly ranked opponents Liechtenstein were able to come to Glasgow and look composed on the ball, knock it about and run into space to receive the pass. Scotland got the ball and struggled to make a basic 5 yard pass. Time and time again the final ball was rushed and certain players thought they were Maradona and could beat the whole team by themselves. Our opponents looked comfortable and I struggle to remember the last time our country or even our European representatives looked similar. “
And Yorkshire Blue gave us this sobering list:
- “No winter shutdown. We need this back, our country is freezing in winter and because of this we have fans and clubs losing money due to postponed matches. We also have pitches in a poor state.
- Stadium capacity regulations. I understand our grounds have to be safe but there is no need to penalise clubs who cannot command 6,000 seated supporters on a regular basis. Ambitious clubs have lost a lot of money and lost years on building teams because of this rule.
- The under 21 rule. This is flawed as it doesn’t develop Scottish youngsters; it also holds clubs back from fielding their best players thus damaging the prospects of late bloomers or fringe players that are 22/23.
- The Split. This is ridiculous; so many problems have evolved because of this idea and it should be banished forever.
- Too few teams. The game as a whole is suffering because only 12 clubs benefit from TV and other revenue that comes into the SPL.
- One relegation place. This is squeezing the competition out of the First Division and restricting revenue among more clubs.
- Too many rounds of matches. Playing each other 4 times a season is unhealthy; it dilutes the importance of each and every match and makes the product as a whole unattractive. Simple marketing, supply & demand.
- Severe lack of crowds and atmosphere at matches due to prices and regulations.
So we have problems. These were just a sample of what we received. You will have more thoughts of your own. In essence the problem as we have described in Parts 1 and 2 has led to a vicious cycle:
1. Lack of street football and technical coaching leads to a trickle of genuine talent
2. Clubs stuff teams with mediocre players or over-priced foreigners in vain attempt to keep up some level of competition
3. Kids find it harder to get a game as a result and drift away from football altogether
4. Clubs struggle to pay these foreigners and rack up debts; partly due to wage pressure from our huge, voracious and wealthy neighbours down south
5. Clubs save money (in the short term only) by targeting coaching, scouting and youth football for cuts
6. Trickle of players slows down further
7. The few kids emerging are products of a more regimented and basic development and favour grit, strength and stamina
8. Product struggles to retain its income from advertising and TV not helped by lower crowds and a poor perception
9. Fans drift from poor product – this ‘perceived’ poor product. They see a lack of glamour and compare unfavourably to the wall to wall TV flooding into our homes from Sky, Eurosport and ESPN
10. Clubs raise prices to stem losses and try and pay wage bill
11. More fans drift off
You get the picture. There is more to it of course: an unhealthy nation, modern distractions etc, but this seems to show what has happened since we tried to revamp the league through the SPL experiment. Maybe we’re unlucky? Squeezed by England and saturation coverage of football on TV, to maintain standards our clubs must pay wages they can’t afford just to compete with nPower League 1 or League 2; and the option of replacing these local lads with cheaper foreigners gets harder due to a lack of money for scouting. We haven’t even touched on pitches, facilities, weather or Health & Safety and its drive to chase any atmosphere from the stadiums.
So it is 2010 and we’re at a crossroads. Football is still the national game but less people are playing it, watching it and funding it and the perception from far too many people is of a product in decline. The Commonwealth Games of 2014 could see a host nation slaughtered on the track as small crowds sit eating burgers and chips watching on from the stands. Apathy and sloth are not confined to football.
How do we get kids back learning to play the proper way? Get people back into the stadiums? Make the stadiums more atmospheric and therefore tempt back advertisers and TV schedulers? 38,000 watched Scotland v Liechtenstein – the will is there. And people do have ideas…and that is where we are going next.