Andy’s Sting In The Tale (14.06.24) “Being there…” – Scottish Football Supporters Association – SFSA

Date: 14th June 2024

(Photo:Football Scotland)

… And Wanting to Stay,  Parts 1 and 2

D Day has come for Scotland.
The Tartan Army have taken over Munich and whatever the results we deliver it feels good to have Scotland at the top table.
Yes we played in the last Euros-Lite in the UK, post Covid, but this is a real tournament, with real fans.
It’s been such a long, long time since Colin from Keith led our boys out on to the Parc de France proudly in their McEwan’s tartan kilts just after their arrival at the stadium.

As this week has progressed football has united our wee country and smiles have broken out all round.
Quite a welcome respite from the bitterness we see and hear around our General Election from our forever-divided and terminally-angry political parties.
Steve, ‘In whom we trust’, has come across well, the players look resolved and united and despite being the rabbits in our group according to Fifa world rankings we’re no mugs.

I personally don’t buy into the growing over-optimism that happens every time.
Anyone can do well in the pre-tournament pundits prognostics.
Deep down I have a worry about the centre of our defence and I know we’re up against technically better teams.
But we’ll be fine.

And we’ll do fine and it’s a great journey to be on together.

National Treasures

The Tartan Army are truly a credit to our nation.
We’re all part of this inclusive movement and looking at the vast array and variety of retro replica tops you can see that you don’t have to shell out £75 every time at JD Sports to be part of it.

You don’t need a top or even a tartan scarf to make your heart sing out loud and be enlisted for life.
Tartan Army is an attitude rather than a rig-out.

And over the years the Tartan Army has evolved and is now an eclectic mix of dads, lads, Mums, daughters, youngsters, oldsters, hangers on and more, united in supporting Scotland both at the venues and also at home.
It’s a joyous movement celebrating a journey we all know will fail.
Scottish football has many elephants in its room.
For instance.
You wouldn’t believe the Scottish fans in Munich and those of us at home come from the same country that hosts what we know as the Glasgow Derby with all its nonsensical baggage.
How can football fans from the same place be so different?
Phil Goodlad of BBC Radio described the feeling in Munich yesterday as being like Christmas Eve and I get that.
I get the magic, the waiting and the anticipation.
One of his guests later said the whole crowd experience out there by a self-policing and friendly and supportive assembly was much more like a rugby international and for me that is because we are there to enjoy the football and the event, no matter the result.

Here are a couple of quotes from non-Tartan Army folks in Munich, one a local and one a misplaced Italian family who’d booked a weekend there without realising there was also a football event taking place.

Jens Muller, a 67 year old ‘Munchner’ said this morning, “I’ve never seen anything like it. Munich is a great football city and we are all used to travelling supporters but the scale of this with Scotland is incredible- so many people and so few problems”.
And misplaced Italian tourist, Leonardo Piccione who booked the wrong place at the wrong time said, “I love it. The only problem is we can’t find anywhere for coffee or lunch”.

National Heroes Abound

Too many glorious, sometimes foolhardy stories to mention like young Craig Ferguson who left ticketless, walked there arrived to a hero’s welcome and finally got an offer of a ticket when he arrived.
It took him 41 days and along the way he has raised over £50K for Brothers in Arms, a Men’s Health Charity.

Or young footballer Ethan Walker  from Ellon who fought back from a shattered right scapula, a fractured skull, and swelling and bleeding in the brain to cycle there with his doctor.

And David Little who wanted to take a photo of himself in front of a street sign bearing the name of each of Steve Clarke’s 26 man squad. Seemingly all but two were available on the mainland. McGinn and McTominay.
To cover off John McGinn David had to go to Newry in Norn Irn. And McTominay was and is a dead end for now.

The Record picked the story up and journalist Rory Cassidy spoke with me and then wrote,

“Andy, of the Scottish Football Supporters Association, said: “It’s a pity this didn’t come up before the BBC leaders debate or we could have discussed it.

“We’d have got cross-party support for a ‘McGinn Way’, in Clydebank and a ‘McTominay Street’ in Helensburgh and there should be signs all over both saying, ‘Ball Games’… not just ‘allowed’ but ‘mandatory’.

There are so many more stories, and so many memories.
I’ll be watching at home tonight and that brings me to a real issue.

All Scottish Games Should Be Free to Air

It was reassuring today to hear all the Political parties now coming out united for a very pleasant change and supporting all Scottish International matches to be shown on Free to Air.

One man has played a huge role in this movement.

Credit to Gavin Newlands.

Gavin is the MP in the very tight, upcoming Paisley and Renfrewshire North seat.
Gavin was a key player in first identifying that it was a fact that only 7% of fans and only something like 5 out of 60 countries, in Uefa had to pay to watch their national side (and yes, we were one of them).

Gavin then built genuine cross-party support for bringing about a happier solution and was backed to the hilt by many politicians from all parties including Gillian Mackay of the Greens.
I am not political and actually don’t like what it has all become, but I back cross-party action to change things that are wrong and if you are voting in the Paisley and Renfrewshire North seat I can say that Gavin is a big friend to football and for that alone he would have my vote every time.

Wanting to stay Part 1

Match Review

I write Sting on Friday’s and this will be out before the match kicks off.
For those who don’t get Sting early I’ll leave a blank space to talk about what we will have all shared and what happens next.

BLANK SPACE For Andy’s Match report

Andy’s Sting in the Tale

1. Shame on You SPFL et al
2. Liam Delivers
3. 12 Years on
4. How Do We Make it a Habit?

1. Money Wins in the Men’s Game

In our last ‘State of the Nation’ fan survey we touched on many subjects asking you the fans simple binary yes/no questions to get a snapshot of what fans really think about the issues.
It’s the kind of stuff that never gets asked by either the SPFL or SFA, probably because it’s easier for them to operate without the ‘burden’ of knowing what fans want especially when it comes to change.
With the ultra-low key announcement of the new SPFL Men’s 4 league sponsorship with a betting organisation buried somewhere this week in the run up to the Euros I revisited the research about the very real damage gambling does.
It is important to know that we asked the original question as part of a group of 49 to give insight into views and attitudes at the time and we didn’t provide further information or try to influence the responses in any way.

Question 12 was
Do you approve of gambling sponsorship in Scottish football?
Yes 32.1%
No 54.7%
Unsure 13.2%

So from that recent survey we can be certain that the majority of fans, without even all of them knowing the full facts are already against the idea of ‘Gambling’ being involved in any way in our game.

What Would Some Gambling Knowledge Have Done to Our Fans’ Response?

You’ll read below that the SPFL (Men) were and remain well aware of the damage that ‘Gambling’ does because they have metamorphosed a cynical shield with an organisation called EPIC.
And accordingly with their shiny bright but useless shield they have still chosen to accept William Hill’s offer because if truth be told they were struggling to find wholesome sponsors.

Before you make your mind up either way about whether Scottish Football should be courting ‘Gambling Monies’, here are some hard facts about gambling in Scotland from government web sites.

– Gambling impacts negatively across society in Scotland to the tune of £60M per annum affecting mental health, finances, relationships, and leads to homelessness, crime and at the end of the road up to 40 suicides.

– Persons with personality traits including restless, easily bored, extremely hard working, very competitive and psychiatric disorders are 17 times more likely to develop gambling problems.

– The Scottish Public Health Observatory says 18,000 adults in Scotland are problem gamblers, 68,000 more are at risk of problems, and that 1 in 16 adults in Scotland is at risk.

– Furthermore “On a moral basis professional athletes and their clubs should not be used as mobile billboards sportswashing a cynical and damaging industry.

– The biggest danger is to under 22s because the brain is still developing and they don’t have the depth of judgement or experiences.

Our ’Yes’ Approval Number Would Have Fallen Significantly if All Fans Knew These Facts

The average fan in the street can’t be expected to know the real issues but Brendan Napier of Scottish Football Marketing, a joint venture between the SPFL, the Scottish FA and the Scottish Women’s Premier League, the man who did the deal on behalf of the SPFL board should be fully aware.
Especially since he and Neil his boss knew that our Women’s game wouldn’t touch Gambling with a bargepole and are not part of the deal.
A bit of an elephant in the room , but well done to the women.

The Marketing Bull in the SPFL Press Release Says:-

“This is a Landmark Title 5 Year Sponsorship Deal”.

No figure mentioned however, (why not)?

And (recognising push-back from all round on such a dirty deal) –
“We have done a deal with an organisation called EPIC to educate about gambling harm awareness across Scottish football (for SPFL players staff and supporters)”.

(And we are bumming that up big time and never mentioning the real costs of our game normalising a toxic partnership that will at the extreme kill some of our supporters.

In truth, SPFL Press Release words are easy, and cheap and say, and here goes some more nagumbi,-
“In the months ahead, EPIC will deliver impactful and interactive workshops across all 42 SPFL clubs to educate players and backroom staff on the dangers of gambling harm in the elite sports environment. This will ensure all participants have a greater understanding of the impact of gambling-related harm and where to access support”.

And somehow to anyone with a brain, the supporting and reassuring words from our Grand Fromage, Neil, sound like something a villain in a Dickens novel would  say,
 “We are enormously excited to have reached a long-term, record-breaking agreement with our new title sponsors.
This is tremendous news for our clubs and their fans, for the profile of the league, and for Scottish football in general. In addition our pioneering gambling harm awareness programme with EPIC will help to educate the communities across the 42 SPFL clubs on gambling harm prevention.
Everyone at the SPFL is looking forward to promoting the passion, drama and excitement of the League and its 42 clubs over the next five seasons, as well as the roll-out of our programme with EPIC”.

Gambling Sponsorship is Legal in the UK and is Not Devolved

Although there has been much discussion about closing it down it’s a bitter fight with lobbyists.
Gambling has become a pariah, an algorithm-driven money-harvesting entity with huge powerful lobbying power and clout.
Our youngsters don’t stand a chance.

Andy Has a Few Things to Say

Sponsorship is in reality nothing about nice companies being nice to other companies and is quite simply about buying cheap media space and positive endorsement to provide awareness, feelgood, customer links and customer spend.
It is hard-nosed and cynical when it is ‘sportswashing’ using fit athletes to support harmful products.

Despite the flimsy and transparent EPIC screen this tawdry and plain wrong deal will also affect many, many people outside the football bubble because it normalises a algorithm driven betting company and industry and makes it all seem jolly fun for everyone.

And the fact that the SPFL are introducing their ‘supportive’ link with EPIC to mitigate the damage internally they know they will cause shows they know deep down that this is the wrong thing to be doing.

Shame on Neil Doncaster and his board imposing this on clubs their athletes and communities.
Shame on you!

I fully understand that the toxic parts inherent in our game make finding wholesome sponsors a real challenge.
Maybe we should spend some time in cleaning up the things that hurt us Neil and Calum?

I can also forecast that this very tawdry business deal will end up causing grief and will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

2. Liam Signs Back on for Well

I read that Lim Kelly the departing Motherwell keeper in Germany as part of the squad signed a short term contract to keep him as a ‘Well player till after the Euros.
This will trigger a Euro’s payout to his club.
It was reported as being £140K but that might just be paper talk.
Either way well done Liam.

3. BDO Close the Books on RFC 2012 P.L.C.

I’ve been talking about tough times at my club ICT this week and up there, there has been radio silence.
I don’t know if that’s good or bad news and the season is only 4 weeks away.
I hope they find a path because they will get no help from the 6^th floor unlike one of our big 2 were given back in 2012.

This week 12 years on from the still very, very, very, very Secret 5 Way Agreement mostly produced by the SPL, and SFA for allegedly 5 entities : SPL, SFL, SFA, Rangers and Rangers we have found out that the final closure of Rangers liquidation has been confirmed.
Nice work for BDO whose fees were a tad over £7.5M and who charge £621 per hour for a Glasgow ‘principal’ but £994 for a London version.
And £93 per hour for a secretary.
A total of 6,660 BDO hours on the sheet.

Like all liquidations people get hurt especially the fans here, and the demise of Sir David’s team and all the carpetbagging and establishment shenanigans are said to have cost Scottish and National taxpayers well over £100 million.

One day someone, a skilled and forensic historian, will explain in detail what really happened, why and how and what the cost was.
Looking back to the causes and forward too.

It was not anyone anyone’s finest hour but the Rangers fans and Scottish football needs to find closure.
Here’s the full report

https://www.bdo.co.uk/getmedia/165d7178-d77c-452c-b3e5-040a3fda3e88/RFC-2012-Plc-final-report-to-7-June-2024.pdf?_gl=1*189ritf*_ga*MzI3ODU3ODcuMTcxODM3NjE3Ng..*_up*MQ..

4. Wanting to Stay Part 2

If a country like Iceland with the same population as Aberdeen can perform so well at big tournaments and beat England at Wembley they must be doing things right.
And what are other countries like Croatia doing to punch so high above their weight.
There is learning out there if we want to learn and change.

Scottish football has had two lucky, and unbudgeted Euros tournaments thanks mostly to a mix of Steve Clarke and a serendipitous group of players.
The hard and sad fact is our short term success can’t be linked to any thinking or previous actions by the SFA or the quality of our league which has fallen more than we’d like to admit.

Ring Fence the Revenues

Reward the players and the manager but don’t suddenly believe that we’ve made it.
Keep the unbudgeted revenues and invest them in what it will take to keep us qualifying.
That means thinking beyond not just the usual short term but way beyond the medium too.

Use the windfall to future proof windfalls in the future.

That’s it from me again this week.

If you are not an SFSA please join and help us make the future brighter.

Andy’s Album of the week

ReLoved by Capercaillie and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

I first heard about this project a few months ago and couldn’t wait to get a copy.
It’s a re-imagining of some classic Capercaillie tracks over the years with the band, Karen’s voice and an orchestra.

I’ve now players if half a dozen times.
At first it was actually as big a disappointment as when the JSD band re-recorded some of their early stuff into ‘For the record’ and lost the sparkle.

But as I play ReLoved more, yes it doesn’t have the urgency of the band alone or the raw Celtic tunefulness of my favourite Capercaillie album, The Blood is Strong, but it’s good enough.
Ideal background music when I’m sitting and quite disturbed by the hold gambling has over the SPFL.

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