Andy's Sting In The Tale (20/02/26) "The Holiday That Isn't"
- Andy Smith
- Feb 20
- 6 min read
One of the good things about holidays in modern day Scotland is they come with a magic thing called ‘Holiday Pay’.
When I almost accidently became an employer I learned that there is no Magic Money Tree to fund the Holiday Pay that everyone loves.
When our First Minister declared a new public holiday for the day after our game against Haiti, out of the ether and with an election coming up, I cringed.
Not because I don’t like holidays.
No I love them all.
But I know the pressure on businesses and Chancellor Reeves hasn’t helped.
She scares me.
Someone always has to pay, or accept a loss in output and cover that loss.
If I was a hard pressed council like they all are, or a business under pressure why would I want to lose a day’s output or have to pay staff holiday rates?
Well a growing band are saying they can’t/won’t.
I get that.
Sometimes I wish our politicians had had to run businesses where every pound is a prisoner.
I’ve been there and it’s tough sometimes.
This is all electioneering nonsense straight from the Student Unions and whoever John’s advisor is should have thought this one through.
This Week’s Sting
1.We Have a Title Fight, But There’s a But
2. Anyone for Tennis
3. $75M for Palestine Football Infrastructure?
4. Racism is Ugly
5. $7.8 Million Dollars is a Lot to the Folks of Foxborough
1. Foreign Legions are Not the Answer
Here’s a wee question for everyone in football.
How did Scotland go from being self-sufficient in producing a stream of top level footballers who were good enough to populate Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen European winning sides, and other notable achievements.
And don’t forget those we exported south over the border too.
Another But.
But something is not working North of the Wall and we’re well and truly caught in a trap where every penny in football has to be spent by clubs on the immediate needs of the teams on the park.
We’re awash with foreign mercenaries who are not as good as we used to produce ourselves.
Looking back, our much vaunted foray into under 20s and academies hasn’t delivered and along the way being ceremoniously dumped isn’t good for our kids.
Statistically our European co-efficient doesn’t lie.
I’m enjoying the competition and the excitement of a 3 way fight is great for our game.
I’d also back Hearts to get back on track and the reality is the top 3 teams will all lose points in the run in.
But I’d be happier if our top teams were full of home produced talent.
2. Balls to the Board
Trouble at Parkhead continues.
And it’s spilling over into the football side.
Martin O’Neill said, after the yellow tennis balls protest took 3 minutes to clear, “It sends the wrong message. Anyone who thinks that’s a good idea needs their head examined.”.
His honest insight continued, “It’s very difficult for Scottish teams because there isn’t enough money” (when compared to clubs from richer leagues).
Not all green fans support or even approve of the Green Brigade or the protest movement.
Sally said on the Beeb, “Some Celtic supporters are not helping the team with their stupid, adolescent and immature protests”.
And Jim said, We are just not at the level of European teams”.
I think there are ways to protest but agree with Sally about last night’s organised idiocy.
3. King Donald’s ‘Board of Peace’ Hooks Infantino
The announcement said FIFA would give $75M to King Donald’s new ‘Board of Peace’.
It’s to rebuild Palestinian Football infrastructure, because if you’ve been on the moon, another special FIFA member has flattened it all.
Looking at the cost of building infrastructure and stadia, I doubt if it will make much of a difference so this is all symbolic.
So, Jahnnie slides Palestinian FA’s valid issues into the longest grass he can find but reacts immediately to his bestie’s new money making wheeze.
Don’t ask questions about what his agenda really is.
I don’t know.
But I do know for now it’s about Power and Favours.
Power does indeed corrupt and absolutely.
And Favours get repaid.
We just don’t know how and where and when yet.
And don’t ask about keeping inside FIFA’s Article 15 about ‘political neutrality’.
Jahnnie only uses the rules he likes and Dollars facilitate and lubricate his every action.
4. And it Runs deep in Scotland
Gianluca Prestianni was said to have called Reals Vinicius Junior a mono,(monkey), just after an amazing goal.
A stooshie ensued.
The team walked off for 10 minutes.
Trent Alexander called it a ‘disgrace to football’.
Mbappe said he heard it.
Mourinho said it was because of his ‘celebration’.
Benfica used Elon Musk’s X to deny it all and said, Trump style, that there is a defamination campaign against their player.
Vinicius said “Racists are cowards’.
And Uefa’s Ethics and Disciplinary Inspector is investigating.
Scotland has moved on since Hearts fans in front of me back in the day who thought it was funny to throw bananas to Mark Walters.
And the abject racist chants we still hear from our biggest clubs, the ones that don’t even get reported are not acceptable.
There should be the same kind of Stooshie every time, and escalating financial penalties with the money going into kids football.
That would turn an ongoing negative into an ongoing positive.
5. It’s No Longer the Land of the Free, as Foxborough Fights Back
There is a wee Tartan Army scare rumbling about the Kraft owned Gilette Stadium where Scotland will play two games just outside Boston.
Foxborough is a wee town of just under 19,000 people. (Think Peterhead or Bonnyrigg)
The stadium will need circa $7.8 Million worth of security over the scheduled games.
The town are quite rightly refusing to pay that because Fifa and Kraft are Billion Dollar businesses and it’s their knitting not the town’s.
Their trump card is the right to refuse to issue the appropriate license on St Paddy’s day in March.
I was quoted in the press on this one.
“This World Cup has shown FIFA’s ugly new side under a man who is fixated on money to maintain his power base.
I hope there is a solution available to the Boston Host Committee Board meeting on March 3rd.
It may be that the White House task force and the Federal Emergency Management Agency pick up the tab.
The Tartan Army will always find a way whatever happens but I hope an answer is found”.
Andy’s Sting Blog
It’s Friday again and thoughts and opinions are how I am reacting to the changing face of our game and wee stories of interest.
On my own I’m just one voice but one of the most amazing thing since my team and I were ‘nastily evicted and excluded’ at our old gig is how many people out there share our collaborative approach to achieving change right through the game.
Throwing mud can be great fun but the reality is it just builds barriers and entrenchments.
We’re way beyond that and amazingly approaching almost 100,000 members and affiliates, every one of them an important voice.
Fans want their voices heard and seek balance, not John Cleese’s vignette from Life of Brian.
We’re a broad church and as I’ve said before I prefer to think we are united by football rather than divided by which team we support.
The Scottish Football Union is a voice for all fans and if you are not a member you should be.
It’s easy and free to join and as we grow you will be part of a balanced and meaningful movement for the good of the game.
And as always feel free to write to me about anything in football or beyond.
Andy’s Album of the Week
Peat and Diesel : Light my Byre
I just about remember The White Heather Club blaring nationally at peak time, yes really, on the BBC when there only was one channel.
I certainly remember stuff like Round at Calum’s and there was always an accordionist in a kilt, I think he was called Will Starr.
And for a while we had a plague of Alexander Brothers and similar clones that I musically ran away from as far as I could.
Teuchter music.
Music that was hijacked by Billy Connolly’s ‘Surname Clan’ clowns in tartan.
But the tunes and airs and feel that had been sterilised by these ‘Variety Vandals’ didn’t go away.
Good tunes never do.
And they crept back in the capable hands of bands like The Tannahill Weavers, JSD band and then Capercaillie and Julie Fowlis and others across the Irish Sea who brought back the purity, embraced the evolution welcomed fusion and reached out to the sister genres that waves of immigration by the Celts created.
I was surprised to find out that Celtic music was at the heart of multiple genres, genres that I liked, but I wasn’t really.
Anyway I’ve been down a bit of a rabbit hole this last few weeks where Runrig led me back to JSD and now to the Isle of Lewis to a Stornoway band very different to Calum Kennedy.
Peat and Diesel.
An unlikely formula.
A trio who have been described as ‘Tractor Punks’.
Their energy, rawness and laugh at yourself humour reminds me of Shane McGowans early Pogues.
Revisionism on speed.
This album is fun, lively and if Will Starr had played the accordion like Innes Scott I’d personally have followed a different musical path.
‘Island’ and ‘Brandy in the Airidh are two self-effacing standout tracks but it’s all fun.
And I’m smiling at a new definition of Celtic music.
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