Andy's Sting In The Tale (01/05/26) "Mayday"
- Andy Smith
- 7 days ago
- 7 min read
For some the business end of the season is good news but for others disaster is on the horizon.
Right now, I genuinely think both our top leagues are still open with Hearts in the best position in both but with dog-eat-dog matches to manoeuvre.
Exciting yes.
Motherwell’s victory last week in Rangersland shows there are no certainties for any of the top teams.
But clarity is coming, starting tonight while Sting is in the ether.
Ross County will know if they face a double relegation.
That would be disastrous for both the club and the town.
And over the Black Isle their derby neighbours ICT have automatic promotion and championship to lose but have been stuttering and may now meet up with County in the league next year or even in this year’s play-offs.
I’ve been involved in both relegations and promotions as a player and fan and the truth is they hurt but soon blur into the mists of time.
Ups and downs in football are just that.
Memories.
Unless when the drop is into the abyss that is our Non-League levels.
We talked about that last week and many of you agree that that needs more thought and a full review because it hurts communities.
And while we’re talking about last week’s Sting I spoke about fan misbehaviour and got incredible support for the production of a charter with self-policing by fans at the heart.
Thank you all and some good insights too.
It will not easy but I think it has to be doable.
Has to be.
This Week’s Sting
1. El Presidente, Yes, but Cavalcade in Vancouver, No
2. Kids Need More Than Bullshit Ideas
3. Viva Los Noruegos
4. Scotland Flags in the Sun
1. When You Think You’re That Important
This week Vancouver’s Finest Polis Department leaked that Fifa El Presidente Jahnnie Infantino had requested that on his route from the airport or wherever to the Canada Place Exhibition and Conference Centre where the Fifa Congress was taking place that there should be a free run for his ‘very own, very important self ‘and his cavalcade.
it’s called ‘Level 4 Protection’, and thinking sideways maybe this very important guy needs ‘real protection’ for the fundamental damage he has done to our game.
Level 4 involves blocking all traffic lights and junctions, and more akin to a visit by a mediaeval King in a golden carriage.
Anyway, the Canadian Polis said, “No”.
Andy’s immediate thought reading the story was, “Banker”, or maybe a similar and well-known colloquialism that sounds a bit like that.
And talking about the Fifa Congress with circa 210 ‘voiceless’ and effectively disenfranchised nations being controlled, and steered no Iranians have been allowed into Canada let alone the meeting because Canada said ‘No’ to the IRGC elements of the Iranian party.
And the Palestinian delegation also found that Visas were not automatic like they would be for you and me but somehow squeaked in.
2. Confederation of ‘Wisdom’ or ‘Stupidity’
Seemingly the six Fifa Confederation Heads are in agreement.
Somehow they concur that they want some various internal Fifa committees to now formulate the formulations.
What for, I hear you think?
To introduce a worldwide rule where every club in every league in every nation has to play with an under 21, on the field, at all times.
It’s the kind of idea that immediately sounds good and football does indeed burn too many kids without giving them a chance.
BUT.
In schemes like this the devil is always in the detail.
This is not the answer.
And the answer is not a tick box exercise.
Football is a competitive sport and always will be and clubs cannot accept mandates from on high that restrict their right to field their best chance of success.
So a ‘good idea’ is in there somewhere but for now muddled thinking meets unintended consequences.
As always the devil is in the detail and Fifa need to think more things through.
Not something they are good at.
The more I know about Fifa, the more I’d support a Uefa break away and a full re-set.
3. We Need More Norwegians at the Top
It’s not that long ago that Norway was the second poorest country in Europe.
Mind you that was a time when Britain was ‘Great’ and the richest in the world.
Aye right.
From my family tree research my grandfathers and their families in Great Britain’s heyday were poor, exploited and constantly hungry.
Anyway when oil was discovered in the North Sea, Norway had the simple vision to start a long-term ‘Sovereign Wealth Fund’ which in addition to the constant stream of oil and gas revenues has been a game changer.
Down south in Blighty, our very own Margaret Hilda from Grantham didn’t think that way and we instead used our flowing years to break the unions, de-industrialise and shore up her establishment into her view of what an establishment should be with the glaring omission of any plan for the future and no discussion of long term strategy for the future.
What a wasted opportunity.
Thatcheristic Myopia on Speed.
Carried on by Blair and all others since
This week Lise Klaveness the Norwegian FA demonstrated more clear thinking from the northern land.
Norway’s FA’s representative and official but very much Fifa ‘outsider’ came out saying the Fifa Peace Prize should be abolished.
If you were on the moon for the last 6 months, this is what Infantino said at the time about the orange ‘Peace Recipient.’
“He does what he says, he says what he thinks, he actually says what many people think as well, but don’t dare to say, and that’s why he is so successful. I have to say I’m a bit surprised when I hear some of the comments”.
I cringe about all things Fifa.
And for good reason.
Fifa must have some decent people working there but they are silent and their silence is deafening.
Why?
Why no whistle blowers?
Meantime, Palestine FA has raised a motion, again, to be discussed in Vancouver.
It is about Fifa football being played by Israeli teams on stolen/disputed land in the West Bank.
I forecast the motion will be long-grassed to another nameless time wasting internal Fifa committee.
Palestine are also taking the same issue to the Court of Arbitration.
Of course they should win but anything they do will be pyrrhic because whereas USA, Israel, Russia, Saudi and Qatar are in the inside ‘palsy-walsy’ lounge, Palestine and I’d guess Norway too will always be kept on the outside.
Machiavellian Infantino knows how to hold on to power and his key weapon is money, and what it props up.
One day the Magic Fifa Money tree will fail, or falter.
Because everybody will always want ‘more’.
Already this week Jahnnie had to increase ‘prize money’ in USA because countries like our own’s expected World Cup Bonanzas have turned into expected losses.
It’s all horrible, nasty and a cancer from the very top down.
A revolt and revolution is long overdue.
4. Viva Escocia en Alcala
On a wee trip to the sun we were sitting in the square enjoying a cheeky wee Spanish brandy when I noticed a few Scottish flags on surrounding balconies.
My thought was ex-pat Jocks everywhere, and I smiled.
Yesterday as we were tootling around the narrow streets there was a guy standing at his balcony with a huge saltire on display.
I said, as you do, “Viva Escocia”.
He looked at me and laughed as many do and have done over the years.
No amigo, Viva Tenerife.
In my nino Spanish I said, ?“La Bandera es Escocia”?
“No amigo, la Bandera de Tenerife es la mismo”.
It seems in 1989 Tenerife adopted the saltire so is extra welcoming to the Tartan Army.
Andy’s Sting Blog
It has always had a mind of its own and simply wants our game to dig deeper and think about the future.
Instead of reacting and indeed overreacting to simply survive.
Sometimes it’s not as humorous as I set it out to be because the real news is dark.
The total hijack of football by the power mad juggernaut that is Fifa is scary and planting of seeds of change is long overdue.
Andy’s Album of the Week
Julie Fowlis : Mar a tha mo chride
This famous Dingwall resident and well known Ross County fan will be on edge tonight.
County are in trouble either way.
Anyway, Julie has been part of my life for over 20 years.
I think I first heard her on a long-forgotten BBC Radio Shortbread Folk programme that in reality was just a space filler but was also often a lifeline to a booming culture.
I was driving home from somewhere important, no doubt, and there was a feature on her and a discussion of how Disney had chosen an unknown Scot for the title track of their new Scottish cartoon, Brave.
The track was ‘Tha Mo Ghaol Air Aird a’ Chuain’ and is wonderful but ‘Mo Bean Chomain’ is for me the stand out album track and on it her vocals make my neck tingle every time. Also the closing track ‘Moladh Uibhist’ singing the praises of her home island is just wonderful.
You’ve probably seen Julie on Transatlantic Sessions and one track, An Eala Bhan,
that she performed with her husband Eamon Doorley on his album Dual captures the loneliness and hope of a first world war soldier in the trenches writing home to his love safe in her bed in the islands.
Sadly the story was she found someone else but that’s life and so did he.
When Julie’s first album was released critics were amazed with words like ‘A gem’, and ‘Essential ‘, and ‘Captivating’.
If it hadn’t been in gaelic it would have been huge all over the world.
I’m sitting here in a sunny Spanish island two or maybe sometimes four finger typing and smiling so loud in my head with her music that it is bursting.
One other Julie track which I love was her gaelic version of The Beatles ‘Blackbird’.
A song that was allegorically anti racist and one of Macca’s finest pennings.
I always wondered why someone didn’t create a gaelic album of gaelic versions of pop classics like that.
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