I guess I have two points:
1) The money side of the game. I actually believe there is enough money in Scottish football for it to function extremely well. I done a bit of research into this and found that over the last 20 years the Old Firm have spent around £321m on transfer fees alone. Of this only around £41m has been spent in Scotland – only £2m a year. It would be interesting to get a figure for the amount of money that has went out of the Scottish game by all teams, including transfers, signing-on fees, agents, etc and compare that with the amount of money invested in youth. Like it or not, the Old Firm are Scottish football (at least in the sense of influence and power) and if Scottish football is broke then its is the Old Firm’s own fault.

2) Focus. With all the reviews of our game and the coverage in the media, the one thing that keep’s coming up is money. While money is important, I just worry that the focus is on how to make the Scottish game wealthy and not how to improve the quality of Scottish players. Take the English league for example. It is the wealthiest league in the world but are the English players the best in the world? I still think that despite their quality, the English players are still short in technique compared to a lot of other nations. We need to make sure any changes are to improve quality.

SPL (12 clubs): 15,530
Dutch League (18 clubs): 19,789

One major difference however is the hooliganism, which is rife around Eredivisie matches. I am trying to see as many Scottish grounds as I can by public transport, something I would not recommend doing in the Netherlands, especially not as an away fan. I love the laid back atmosphere at Scottish games in any of the four top divisions (including the SPL) and have hardly ever seen any scuffles, I can recall an incident outside St Mirren Park when Celtic were over and one after Hibs-Rangers.

Rob

SB

You are spot on about the ownership issues surrounding this. Do you think the proposed addoption of the “spanish model” of club ownership by Rangers will be a first step?

The point, somewhat clumsily made is that Scottish footie needs to be re-built. But when you build a house, you don’t start with the roof, you start with the foundations, and this is where the Dutch system wins out for me.

Dutch football is going through a lot of change, but the difference between here and Scotland is that the Dutch FA are not afraid to make changes when needed to fix what’s wrong – something the Scottish (and the English FA) could learn from.

Eventually the right formula will be found for prolonged success, but whatever that solution is, it requires solid foundations, and that is where the Dutch will have a head start. So, it’s at the grass-roots that the rebirth of Scottish football will start.

We instinctively think of the Ajax’s of this world as the model Scottish football should emulate, the formula for success. The instructive parallel however, lies somewhere altogether different.

it can’t hurt to establish and fortify a sense of community around a club – it’s certainly a better cultural code than trying to act like big, less-personal businesses, but a bigger population (16 M to 5M), more usable land and different approach to space and community (give Brilliant Orange a go – probably even more significant for someone in teh thick of it) all point to a Dutch advantage.

And yet they’re STILL in the same boat as the Scottish.

To me it looks like more n d more Scottish teams have to give up th ghost and become part-time outfits. Anything less than Premiership football should be legislated as part time leagues. Perhaps clubs could supplement playing salaries by encouraging coaching courses and working with the community to bring football back to the kids, who seem to be flocking away from the sport in Scotland.

SB