The SFA: The Good And The Bad

Date: 20th May 2021

Yesterday was a great day for Scottish football. 

At long last we finally got to see a men’s national squad being announced to play in a major tournament again. 

The media team and their partners didn’t let us down with a very snazzy video that helped announce which players had made the cut. 

It’s the talk of the nation…

Presenting your Scotland squad for UEFA #EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/TVfBfAyFzo

— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) May 19, 2021

In under twenty-four hours the viewing figures stand at over 400k. 

I am delighted that they used twenty-six different artists to design each selected player. The bit with Jim Leishman buying a fish supper in Anstruther while announcing John McGinn was also top class. 

The video represents everything that The SFA should be: It was professional, easy to understand and inclusive. 

Yet when you look at how the Scottish Football Association has handled the Scottish Cup fiasco, it couldn’t have been further away from that excellently executed announcement video! 

From the get-go (the start of the season), The SFA should have had a few contingencies in place, just in case Hampden wasn’t going to be suitable. I’m pretty sure they’d have known about handing over the keys to UEFA well before April of this year, even if it hadn’t all been confirmed due to Covid. 

There should’ve been a few extra plans in place. One for a final in Glasgow and one for outside of Glasgow if it wasn’t suitable to hold it in that particular city. 

If Aberdeen have offered the use of Pittodrie, then it’s the duty of the SFA to accept that invitation and host at least a few hundred of each team’s support in that stadium. 

We keep hearing that football is nothing without the fans. We all know many a club would’ve probably gone out of bossiness this year had the supporters not backed them by purchasing streams and merchandise. 

This could’ve been a fairytale end to our season, seeing fans inside a stadium enjoying a cup final. It could’ve given the whole nation a big bit of hope for next season, and boy do we need some of that! 

Yet for whatever reason us Scots have had to watch as fans down south have been able to return to their footballing homes. This year’s FA Cup final was special and that’s because Leicester City fans were there to witness their club’s historic moment. 

We used to have thousands upon thousands of fans going to local parks and pitches to see football being played during it’s foundation years. We just need to open up an area, that is free to do so – like a Pittodrie – and those fans will come back and will be thankful. 

I just can’t see why The SFA didn’t try every option to make that a reality for the fans of Hibs and St Johnstone. 

………

A quick note on Steve Clarke’s squad selection. 

I am very excited by our manager and his picks. It’s a breath of fresh air having three talented youngsters in there in David Turnbull, Billy Gilmour and Nathan Patterson. Hopefully they’ll shine in a Scotland jersey, if they get the chance!

Good luck to all those selected, I know you’ll do our nation proud. 

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