Andy’s Sting in the Tale (24/04/26) "Enough Already"

Sometimes the Good Ship Football is damaged by what looks like stupidity and unfairness but is in reality the natural

outcome of a system built on self-interest.

This week recent history repeated itself when Linlithgow Rose qualified for the SPFL2 play offs after a great second half of the season, only to be told they didn’t meet the criteria because of 6 licence failings.

The main one was that they hadn’t filed accounts.

Eejits.

Like Buckie Last Year

The club has let down the team, the team management, the fans, the whole pyramid system and the aftermath questions and indeed the resultant apparent and understandable anger should be targeted at the Owners/Directors.

It makes a mockery of the whole pyramid and is also extremely unfair to Clydebank and Bonnyrigg their nearest competitors.

The Rules are at Fault

Not the SFA rules.

Even the now unintentionally hilarious 1970s “Bullseye’ had the option of second or third place taking their ‘Play off’ spot to throw 6 darts to win a bloody speedboat or a caravan.

So why do the Highland/Lowland not allow the next best qualifying club?

It’s also about time that Scottish Football revisited all aspects of entry to the SPFL.

I say that because we know that clubs on their way down struggle to stay alive and this damages their communities.

Why?

Because our lower leagues don’t get enough in the SPFL share outs and below the SPFL clubs rely on benefactors.

Some would argue back and say “We already have too many ‘professional’ clubs”.

Some would say “Clubs pay their players too much at the expense of infrastructure and good management procedures”.

And some would say “SPFL commercial interests don’t spend enough time thinking and acting for the lower leagues”.

They are all correct.

But the biggest issue is there is not enough money in the system, and player wages dominate every budget to the point of some clubs constantly taking financial risks.

Back to Linlithgow

Some of their fans posting online think the club has failed the fans by concentrating resource on players at the expense of fulfilling their SPFL ambitions.

We all know all clubs spend too much on wages because they seek constant and ever hungry success and that comes from players on the park, not having match doctors, or audited and honest accounts, or kids and girls teams, or good value catering etc.

It’s all about money and in the short term for optimal performance and results.

So in my view, overall not a good week for our Pyramid and how the feeder leagues are set up.

Linlithgow will bounce back because they are a good club with a supportive community, but the rules and tram lines need some reviewing and change and a review of the pyramid and how non-league football interfaces with the SPFL is long overdue.

This Week’s Sting

1. Giorgia Meloni and Donald’s World Cup

2. Dostoyevsky Insight

3. Ultra Bad Behaviour?

4. All To Play For

1. Religion, Politics and World Cups

(50 Days out and Counting)

Corporate America’s ‘Cunning Plans’, Baldrick Style, to collectively rip off World Cup fans have still not realised the folly of their desires.

This week we learned that the organisers are even struggling to sell out the opening USA game.

But well done Philadelphia for coming out and confirming public transport will be free.

And politically this week a group of Civil Rights groups including Amnesty International warned fans of ‘rising authoritarianism and increasing violence.

This panicked Geoff Freeman, big cheese at USA Travel Association because he well knows that the expected booking surge hasn’t happened.

King Donald is affecting USA as a destination.

Anyway, the winner of the inaugural Fifa Peace Prize and solver of many wars, got into an inglorious spat with the first American Pope that led to some fairly predictable pushback in both the USA and some of the mostly ‘catholic’ countries like Italy where it was stronger than just pushback.

A country where King Donald had already cultivated his own special relationship with their newish populist leader, Giorgia Meloni.

That is until last week’s ‘Respingimento’ from the country of the Azzurri.

But have no fear ‘Special Envoy’, Italian-born, Paolo Zampoli, Donald’s current top aide and former model agency head who claims to have introduced Donald to Melania has stepped in.

“I confirm that I have suggested to Trump and Infantino that Italy replace Iran.

With 4 titles they have the pedigree to justify inclusion”.

With only 50 days who will play New Zealand and Belgium in LA and Egypt in Seattle?

And if whoever does comes second and USA also come second then they meet later in Dallas.

Does Infantino have the balls?

Nothing about the man surprises me or James writing below.

So yes he has.

2. Writing Well Worth Reading

This should have been all over our media but wasn’t.

I have lifted a complete article by James Dostoyevsky published this week in “Inside World Football”,.

No credit to me - it’s their piece and deserves blanket coverage.

James Dostoyevsky: Nothing matters

The most important lesson to learn in FIFA’s Disney World of football administration is nothing.

It doesn’t matter that support is bought with FIFA contributions disguised as development funds. It doesn’t matter that these funds have not been released in certain countries for a long time – against all promises and public declarations made. It simply doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter that the FIFA Council had absolutely no idea about the laughable and cringeworthy FIFA Peace Award being handed out to a 34-times convicted felon, a man accused of sexual misconduct and even rape by 28 women, a serial bankrupt who operated a fake university that robbed its alumni, and a guy whose brood ripped off his homonymous children’s cancer charity. It just doesn’t matter. He received the award, the world was stupefied, the FIFA president Gianni Infantino declared undying love to a guy at what was meant to be World Cup group draw ceremony that was surreally topped by the Village People’s rendition of YMCA. It doesn’t matter. Because in the eyes of the world’s football public – and increasingly for many people within the game – nothing about FIFA matters anymore.

It doesn’t matter that Trump’s cohorts announced that ICE agents will be roaming through the stadia on game days, trying to catch illegal immigrants who are, more often than not, US citizens with the extra bonus that they could get shot in the face, instantly called a domestic terrorist, enemies of the state, and all despite the fact that they are law abiding US citizens who have lived under the illusion that freedom of speech was a big thing. It isn’t, but it doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter that foreign nationals visiting the US are frequently exposed to the search of their cell phones and laptops and, if lucky, can be denied entry to the USA even if they have a valid visa or are in the possession of a visa waiver and just want to watch a very expensive football match. Their possessions can be taken, their equipment can be searched for “hostile messages against Trump and his administration”, and they can be sent back to where they came from. Except that they can first land in some squalid detention camp like ill-treated cattle.

Nobody cares, except the families of those who don’t hear from their daughters, sons or fathers who got disappeared in some detention dump for months without a trace. Like those two German girls who disappeared in Hawaii, where they wanted to have the holiday of a lifetime and were taken for months. It doesn’t matter. It’s just another anecdote. And who cares, right?

It doesn’t matter that prices for parking your car near a US stadium are four times as expensive than the cheapest ticket for a match at the EURO ’28. It doesn’t matter. It is what it is.

Nothing matters, no criticism matters, no absurdities matter, nada. 48 countries attending, a trillion matches in three countries, a fiesta Mexicana, maybe, and a US nightmare, possibly. Nothing matters though. Not the pornographically high ticket prices, not the cancelled fan-zones (no money for that but $200 billion for an illegal war of choice in Iran – because that, too, is apparently a spectator sport now. Panem et circensis and all that). None of that matters because why should it?

It all boils down to one thing: FIFA doesn’t matter anymore.

Its President has become a lackeyed laughing-stock of a US President gone mad (I don’t say that: Members of Congress say that).

Infantino’s administration doesn’t matter because it was castrated after the first Congress in Mexico when he appointed a GenSec against all established rules, and without any wider consultation or due diligence. It didn’t matter. That Congress he also removed the independence from FIFA’s Ethics process – replacing independently appointed judges and investigators with people he could appoint and use to bend to FIFA’s will. It was the weaponising of the FIFA judiciary in the most cynical way.

It doesn’t matter that pure hypocrisy rules FIFA and that there is no democratic debate. Russia was sanctioned because of its aggression but Israel remains untouched despite its illegal bombing of civilian homes in Lebanon, Gaza (ongoing even if only ruins are left to be bombed), Syria, Iran – where next? Nothing matters – despite the fact that Infantino is now a citizen of a bombed-out nation: Lebanon.

Thing is, FIFA today is a bit like what stopped to be international law after Trump and his cohorts took charge: it mattered before – it doesn’t matter today. Because today, nothing matters anymore. Not the law, not the rules, nada.

Nothing matters, and neither does Infantino.

James Dostoyevsky was a Washington-based author until the end of 2018, where he reported on sports politics and socio-cultural topics. He returned to Europe in 2019 and continues to follow football politics – presently with an emphasis on the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

3. Hiding in Plain Sight Behind Football

Scottish football has increasingly become blighted by certain ‘militaristic’ groupings of mostly youngsters using football to express long term angers, disillusionment about life in general and a need to ‘belong’.

The Italian word ‘Ultras’ is now common parlance but simply sums up a movement where some of whom see themselves as better than other fans.

‘The Storm Troopers’ of their clubs.

The Elite.

The Heart of the clubs.

Except they are not.

Their actions betray any claim.

Some of them don’t care about their fellow fans and a growing societal issue is Scottish Football offers collective anonymity and a place to hurt the game with no recourse.

They ignore or seem unaware that those that step over the decency line are not true or real fans.

And the easy availability of substances, and social media organisation both encourages, rewards and exacerbates behaviours that frankly our game is better without.

Last week we saw some real unacceptable ‘shit’ to innocent families and kids outside Hampden.

And well done to both Stenny and Alloa for their joint statement.

It will be interesting to see what happens as a result.

Ahead of this weekend’s fixture, Stenhousemuir Football Club and Alloa Athletic Football Club would like to share a message with supporters.

In light of recent incidents of unacceptable behaviour across Scottish football, both clubs are keen to promote a safe, welcoming, and enjoyable environment for everyone attending the match.

We remind supporters that respectful behaviour is expected not only within the stadium, but also in the surrounding areas, including approach routes, local pubs, and public transport.

Prohibited behaviour includes violence or the threat of violence, damage to property, hate speech, threatening or abusive language, the display of offensive materials, and the possession or use of pyrotechnics.

Where any issues do arise, they will be addressed through stewarding, matchday monitoring, or follow-up review, with appropriate action taken if necessary.

The overwhelming majority of our supporters represent their clubs brilliantly, and we thank them for their continued support.

We ask everyone attending this weekend’s fixture to play their part in ensuring a safe and welcoming environment for all, and to report any concerns to a steward, club official, or the police.

Stenhousemuir Football Club & Alloa Athletic Football Club

My own personal view is Scottish Football needs to address the glaring absence of a ‘Code of conduct’ by fans for fans.

Like the unwritten code that makes the Tartan Army special.

4. All to play for

Well done to Saints.

The other men’s and women’s leagues are more open and while I might now think ICT and Kilby have it to lose, nothing is certain and there will be many ins and outs to come at the tops and bottoms.

And it’s all happening so fast.

Andy’s Sting Blog

Hope you enjoy it, written by a fan for fans who want more than the usual gossip-dominated output.

Football needs to collectively work together to deliver long term positive programmes and attitudes.

(I also wish the politicians would learn that working together really is the only way and am fed up with Headless Chickens in the media over promising and offering things they can’t deliver, to people they don’t know or care about).

As always feel free to write to me about anything in football or beyond and this week the Scottish Football Union has broken the 100,000 barrier with 105,000 members and affiliates.

Please join us

https://www.thesfu.co.uk/

And please help power change across and through the game by working together for common good rather than just senselessly flinging mud at whoever is the easiest target.

Andy.smith@thesfu.co.uk

Andy’s Album of the Week

Elvis Costello: This Year’s Model

This came to mind when Chelsea sacked their previously headhunted manager the previously successful Leroy Rosenior after just 109 days.

These guys running the show down there don’t need a manager, they need magic beans, a willing and bit daft poor farm boy and a giant with a golden goose to rob and kill.

Anyway the track that immediately became an ear worm after hearing the news was, “I don’t want to go to Chelsea”.

Back in 1978 Punk was exploding but Elvis was always more.

He was real ‘New Wave’ and his music couldn’t be tied down.

New Wave, yes but New Wave with proud roots that were always bursting to come out.

My favourite track that wasn’t originally on the album was and still is Watching the Detectives, I got it on an import eventually.

I was also lucky enough to catch the band in Edinburgh during their troubled promotional tour and he was superb.

He’s always been a contradiction.

That’s what gave him a real edge.