Andy's Sting In The Tale (14/08/26) "I Don’t Care Where They Come From. As Long as We Win”

Three short weeks today, somewhere nice in St Andrews with good coffee and posh biscuits, the SFA will hold a meeting for and exclusive club.

The 42 Scottish current SPFL members of the much larger Scottish Football Family.

I’ve been told it’s a closed meeting, invited clubs only.

Certainly no riff raff like fan groups of our ilk, and while I welcome the fact that Scottish Football seems once again to be thinking on a macro scale about its own future that alone raises so many questions?

And also some quite forlorn memories of previous parallel but all failed initiatives like Ernie Walker’s mythical ‘Think Tank’, The McLeish Reports, and worse, what actually happened a couple or so years ago.

By that I mean the recent, very badly handled, ‘SFA Imposition’/‘Initiative’ to bully the ungrateful diddy clubs into a half-baked ‘B-team extra-inter and intra-somewhere ‘Conference League’.

What and why was that whole horror story and self-harm episode all about?

Well, long story short, because our top two or three clubs and their close SFA pals had obviously agreed to it all in a wee tryst in some unrecorded and informal meeting.

The Agenda, I’d guess, was how to ‘tick-box’ our game’s way to where we used to be before we forgot what we used to do right.

but, and importantly to achieve a result as cheaply as possible to suit the conspirators.

As an outsider looking in, I can see our SFA have a history of thinking ‘Tick-box’, is the way to change while never threatening the key members hold of power.

So ahead of September 4th and wherever that whole movement might take us, I want to be optimistic and supportive.

Honest.

But deep down I know that is naïve, and there are so many questions in this particular fan’s head that I think football is only doing what football has always done.

And that means us all living in an eternal world of ever-shrinking ‘short-termism’, where self-interest is de-rigeur and the biggest clubs always want and get the most.

The stark reality is clubs are not a coherent group.

They are individual businesses, mostly more worried about personal survival than how many Scots youngsters are in their teams.

And they know their fans really just want to win and bask in whatever short-term glory that delivers.

Most don’t give a hoot where the players on a Saturday come from as long as the team is winning.

So looking ahead.

I’ve both participated in and run major get-togethers like this before and from a distance don’t get the feeling this is being set up to be an open debate in any way.

So if I was interviewing Craig Mullholland, ahead of the event, my first question would be:

Have our clubs been approached and asked to come to the day with ideas to improve our game?

Have we done any research ahead of the event?

I’d then ask:

Have actual parameters for input and assessments been discussed, and pre-set for any club inputs and discussions on the day?

Are there any guest or expert speakers with notes ahead of the meeting?

Any pre-reading recommended?

Or, sadly, as my instinct tells me :

Is it another “Come along, sit on your hands, and we’ll tell you what we’re going to do and then maybe answer a few polite pre agreed questions”.

I’m a long time cynic and think that in meetings like this the biggest danger is always that ‘conventional wisdom’ and ‘group speak’, dominates.

And outcomes are pre agreed and almost certainly restricted to tick-box tram-lines.

So apologies if you sense a tad of tiredness in my intro.

It’s because this is the SFA we’re dealing with and 42 separate very different businesses.

Entities who have shown historically no understanding that football is actually united by differences, not divided.

But football lives in a strange land where greed has become the norm and big fish think they’re more important than the wee guys.

As I said above, many of us also remember the fight when the SFA recently introduced, nay, tried to force and then screwed up their particular B Leagues idea.

And this is the self-same SFA who have been less than willing to tell Mr Infantino we no longer support him in his outrageous power games, unlike the other home nations.

(Maybe we are secret pals, big time, and that is why we are chair of the finance committee and have 3 other exclusive seats on Fifa exclusive.

No, Andy doesn’t really think that is a maybe.

I think we’re up to our necks in the “Infantino Inner Sanctum and Club”, driven by hard commercial nous and self-interest. To achieve stuff that has never been come out into the open, yet.

(So we are actively backing the monster who introduced the outrageous fan rip-offs because somehow it’s justified because we have engineered a personal wee series of benefits, we can’t talk about, openly’.

St Andrews Known Knowns

All we really know is that there are two intertwined items, the ‘Pathway’ for young Scots footballers and the backdrop of ‘Financial Realities’ across our 42 club game.

We have also been told that Craig Mullholland, the recently appointed. Chief Football Officer will play a leading role.

Twenty Five Binary Insights to Get You Thinking

Here is some research I personally wrote and undertook not long ago where I needed insights into how fans in general think ahead of some government work.

For the anoraks, it was a statistically significant exercise with 1866 responses split mostly into yes/no/unsure options although it is important to say that the responders are fans, not the general public so it’s a football survey.

Fan Thinking Ahead of St Andrews

I’ll make no comments and just share the data

1. Do the SFA do a good job in Scottish football?

Just 12.9% thought so.

2. Do the SPFL do a good job in Scottish Football?

Even less with 9.2% thinking so.

3. Do you understand the difference between what they, the SFA and SPFL do?

85.5% say they do indeed know.

4. Do you feel valued as a supporter by the SFA SPFL?

Just 4.1% think as fans they are valued.

5. Should the SFA/SPFL amalgamate and run as 1 body?

12.8% think not the majority favour just one administrator body.

6. Is there a need for greater transparency in Scottish football?

Only 1.6% think things are fine as they are. The rest want more.

7. Should fans be allowed to watch SFA/SPFL meetings like the Scottish Parliament?

Only 9.5% think not but most favour openness.

8. Should there be fan representation on both boards?

Only 8% are against this and most want it.

9. Should referees disclose their supported as a kid team as in England?

It works down there but only 10.4 % think not for Scotland.

10. Should refs be allowed to speak after matches?

Just 3.9% want the current silence.

11. Do you approve of gambling sponsorships in Scottish Football?

The yes score was a substantial minority at 32.1% but most not in favour.

12. Is the current distribution of revenues in Scottish football fair?

Just 9.3% think our current divvy-ups are acceptable.

13. Should Scottish Football work closer with the Scottish Government on long term programmes linked to mental health?

6.4% think the government should stay away, the vast majority welcome joined up thinking.

14. Is our game model run ‘by clubs for clubs’ the best governance model?

Only 11.1% of fans like this model the rest want some new thinking.

15. Do you think Scottish Football is controlled by just a few clubs?

Vast majority agree, and only 6.4% think no.

16. Should Scotland matches be on Free to view TV?

Only a minority of 5.7% think the PPV option is ever acceptable

17. Is there too much bigotry openly present in Scottish Football?

8.8% think what we have is acceptable, most fans don’t accept it.

18. Are you happy with the current league structures sizes?

17.3% like what we have, just fine, the majority want change.

19. Do you favour clubs playing each other 4 times a season

Only 16.8% like this repetitive small-leagues model and the rest want a reset.

20. Larger Leagues?

Vast majority in support of this with only 9.6% against change.

21. Is Our pyramid a good thing?

10.7% say firm no, but the majority in favour and think it is important.

22. Should schools football be restarted and prioritised?

Another vast majority in favour with only 2.3% thinking it’s not needed and shouldn’t be prioritised.

23. Do we need to support kids more when they fail to make ‘the grade’?

Just 8.1% think the current situation of dumping talent is acceptable

24. Should football be free for kids in Scotland 2026?

Only 5.8% are happy with kids having to pay so much to play something that used to be mostly free across many areas.

So some raw research that shows fans want sensible changes.

I’d love to be a fly on the wall on the 4th.

Andy’s Track of the Week

Pink Floyd: Shine on You Crazy Diamond

In the last week I’ve spent some rabbit-hole-time trying to fathom what Progressive Rock ever was.

And eventually come to the conclusion that ‘Prog Rock’ never actually existed.

Yes the name was a ‘catch-all’, a media gravy train adopted by second rate journos trying to be ‘insightful’, and then in time adopted by bands and artistes smelling pound notes and dollars.

And we all know fashion is just current fads.

Music consumers have always liked, nay craved to be on the inside of ‘new waves’, real and or imaginary.

‘Prog Rock’ does exist, and that is a truism.

But it’s an invented genre just in the minds of, and for box tickers who didn’t back then, couldn’t ever and never could or would ever see the big picture.

All music is progressive.

I get that and more and more over the years I have been digging into bands and acts and styles that I liked and then going backwards and forwards with them.

Anyway, telly was crap a couple of nights ago so I watched an old recording of Mark Knopfler talking about music and influences and yes Dire Straits were special and of their time.

But that Glasgow born man was more than a guitar and writing phenomenon.

He was a sponge and conduit for so much insight, skill, fusion and progression backwards and forwards.

You soon realise anything in music goes, always has, and trying to pigeon hole anything across the spectrum is doing a disservice.

Anyway, while you’re thinking that through, have a listen to Pink Floyd at their best.

Ask yourself, if you’re of a mind to, where did this music and this particular track come from?

In Floyd, I hear and feel, R&B, American Blues, Dylanesque Story Telling and Messaging, and Celtic tunefulness.

But what’s really special about this band was as they matured they realised that ‘Less was More’, i.e. ‘Do what you do well’ .

That’s an ongoing lesson for us all and especially for Scottish Football at the crossroads it now has reached.

‘Shine on’ is a fine track, a heartfelt retro tribute to their ex-member, Syd Barret who they threw out because of substance abuse and more.

It’s a 26 minute long warm-bath.

Progressive?

Yes.

A Prog Rock Anthem?

Don’t know and who cares anyway.