The Scottish Football thread

[Lineker]

It's like people waited all summer to be dickheads.

[Kaney]

8 hours ago, Lineker said:

It's like people waited all summer to be dickheads.

The fact that none of them even bothered pretending to be concerned about the fans inside the disabled section is disgusting.

[Lineker]

Quote

Children under the age of 12 could be banned from heading the ball in training in Scotland because of links between football and dementia.

The United States has had a similar ban in place since 2015 but Scotland would become the first European country to impose such a restriction. The Scottish Football Association said on Thursday it was finalising its proposals.

A report by the University of Glasgow, released last October, said former professional footballers were three and a half times more likely to die of a degenerative brain disease.

A spokesman for the SFA said: “Since the publication of Football’s Influence on Lifelong Health and Dementia Risk [FIELD] study by Glasgow University into the link between football and dementia towards the end of last year, the Scottish FA has worked closely with the authors of the research – which includes the men’s national team doctor and medical adviser, Dr John MacLean – and wider football stakeholders to look at practical steps the national sport in this country can take to minimise risk in the area of head trauma.

“Given the study was undertaken using medical records from Scottish footballers, there is an additional onus on the national governing body in this country to take a responsible yet proportionate approach to the findings.

“The presidential team of Rod Petrie and Mike Mulraney, along with chief executive Ian Maxwell, were keen that all possible options were open to discussion but that any final recommendations would be taken with the guidance of the medical experts.

“To that end, productive discussions have taken place within the auspices of the Scottish FA’s professional and non-professional game boards, as well as main board, on proactive, preventative measures with particular focus on younger age groups. It is our intention to finalise those proposals with the relevant stakeholders in early course and further details will be announced thereafter.”

The former Celtic striker John Hartson said: “There have been some serious situations where players have lost their lives and ex-legends suffering from dementia, so I’m glad the SFA are leading the rest of football and doing something about it.”

The former West Bromwich Albion striker Jeff Astle died in 2002 of what a coroner said was an “industrial disease” partly caused by heading heavy footballs during his career.

The brain injury association Headway said: “It is understandable that coaches and parents are looking for clarification on this issue. It is therefore vital that more research is conducted to fully understand what risks, if any, are linked to heading lightweight modern footballs.

“There are questions about the age limit and speculation suggests this will be 12 years. This infers that a child of 13 years is safe to head the ball. How do we know this to be the case? The difficulty we face, in the absence of meaningful research relating to the modern game, is where we draw the line in terms of acceptable risk versus the rewards we know healthy exercise can bring.”

[Lineker]

They're off the foot of the table for the first time since 2017!

[Baddar]

 

Inverness properly fucked over here. 

Clear foul on the edge of the box, and it gets ruled as a dive which leads to the player in question missing the cup final. Even on appeal, a 3 man panel agreed with the on field decision. 

[The Lusophone]

The SPFL are a shambles.

[The Kraig]

6 hours ago, MadJack said:

The SPFL are a shambles.

Quoted for emphasis.

Heartbroken for my Partick friends. I don't think they would have ended up relegated under normal circumstances this season.

Interesting how the opening of the pyramid has allowed teams like Cove and Edinburgh to rise quickly, been saying this needed to happen for about 20 years so it's good to see the system working at least. No teams hugging the bottom of the table of the fourth-tier forever. Wouldn't mind seeing the Prem expand to 16 teams in a few years and have no table split. If folk insist on a money-spinning finale to the season where Rangers and Celtic play some more why not do a 4-team championship play-off. I think it would be instantly more interesting.

The SWPL has suspended all games just as the season was beginning, so I have no idea what's going to happen in terms of qualification for Europe. Glasgow City will likely just be selected to represent Scotland next year but who knows what kinds of talks will need to take place for that to happen. They are still active in the Champions League and were supposed to face Wolfsburg in the quarter finals, but obviously it's all been postponed.

Edited April 19, 2020 by The Kraig

[The Lusophone]

3 minutes ago, The Kraig said:

Quoted for emphasis.

Heartbroken for my Patrick friends. I don't think they would have ended up relegated under normal circumstances this season.

Interesting how the opening of the pyramid has allowed teams like Cove and Edinburgh to rise quickly, been saying this needed to happen for about 20 years so it's good to see the system working at least. No teams hugging the bottom of the table of the fourth-tier forever. Wouldn't mind seeing the Prem expand to 16 teams in a few years and have no table split. If folk insist on a money-spinning finale to the season where Rangers and Celtic play some more why not do a 4-team championship play-off. I think it would be instantly more interesting.

Also worth noting that whilst Partick and Stranraer have both been relegated... bottom of League 2 Brechin City will stay up. I wonder wh-oh Brechin are on the board that made the proposals...

This is despite Brechin being in a worse position in their league compared to Partick and Stranraer.

[METALMAN]

Yeah it's a mess. I've never been a fan of the 12 team league either. Playing Hamilton Accies or whoever for the fourth time in a season gets boring. Sixteen teams would be a good number.

[The Kraig]

56 minutes ago, MadJack said:

Also worth noting that whilst Partick and Stranraer have both been relegated... bottom of League 2 Brechin City will stay up. I wonder wh-oh Brechin are on the board that made the proposals...

This is despite Brechin being in a worse position in their league compared to Partick and Stranraer.

There's no one to promote at the moment, since the teams who might gain promotion don't have league licenses (because they don't know if/when they will be promoted). So if they were to relegate Brechin now, they wouldn't be able to guarantee a replacement team next season. That's what I think the reason is, I don't know for sure.

51 minutes ago, metalman said:

Yeah it's a mess. I've never been a fan of the 12 team league either. Playing Hamilton Accies or whoever for the fourth time in a season gets boring. Sixteen teams would be a good number.

I have a soft spot for Accies since I lived almost next door to the stadium for three years. The Motherwell/Hamilton derby is always interesting to me, I'm from Bellshill originally.

 

Speaking of which, I totally forgot something! The West of Scotland League has been restructured so that a lot of junior clubs will now join the ranks. This is something I've been hoping for also for about 20 years. This is the sort of shit that makes me want to buy the next Football Manager games.

 

 

M'on the Hill!

[Adam]

I presume the reason they haven't relegated Brechin is because it's usually a relegation Play Off against the winner of the Highland/Lowland Champion's Play Off? There's no way to determine who would deserve to replace them really, which is one of the issues in England's regional non-league set-up.

But yes the whole thing is a mess and has been handled really badly to this point.

[Lineker]

Season has been brought to an end. Celtic champions, Hearts relegated.

[DFF]

On 19/04/2020 at 21:26, Adam said:

I presume the reason they haven't relegated Brechin is because it's usually a relegation Play Off against the winner of the Highland/Lowland Champion's Play Off? There's no way to determine who would deserve to replace them really, which is one of the issues in England's regional non-league set-up.

But yes the whole thing is a mess and has been handled really badly to this point.

There's talk again of restructuring the leagues into 3 divisions - 14, 14 and 16 teams (with the highland and lowland winners both promoted to take the 15th and 16th spots). 

[METALMAN]

On 19/04/2020 at 18:48, The Kraig said:

Speaking of which, I totally forgot something! The West of Scotland League has been restructured so that a lot of junior clubs will now join the ranks. This is something I've been hoping for also for about 20 years. This is the sort of shit that makes me want to buy the next Football Manager games.

 

 

M'on the Hill!

I completely missed this! I've always had a soft spot for Auchinleck Talbot because I've had a few relatives play for them. They've been consistently better than quite a few SPFL clubs, so it will be interesting to see how they do.

[METALMAN]

Amazing performance by Kilmarnock, defying the odds and beating Celtic 1-1 in the second game of the season.

[Lineker]

 

[The Lusophone]

Amazing.

 

How it started How it’s going pic.twitter.com/QP9Na3PGsw

— Heart of Midlothian FC (@JamTarts) October 16, 2020

 

 

[Lineker]

Lennon has to be sacked in the next few days, right? Celtic have now suffered four home losses in a row since 1958.

[Kaney]

Its too important a season to just fire him without a higher-standard replacement ready to go, and who wants to come in halfway through the most important season in literal decades to try and rescue this shitshow?

But he absolutely needs to go, yeah.

[Lineker]

Quote

Queen of the South are likely to be hit with a Scottish FA charge after allowing George Galloway to attend the Boxing Day Scottish Championship visit of Dundee to Dumfries. Queens have issued two apologies, which Galloway has defended on the basis of giving publicity to the club.

The Scottish government’s switch to tier 4 for the entire country from Boxing Day means spectators are not allowed entry to football matches. Strict guidelines issued by Scottish football’s Covid-19 joint response group to clubs state that only ambulance staff, club directors and senior personnel – with no guests – analysts, scouts, the match delegate, referee observer, the stadium announcer and a screen operative can view from the “amber zone”.

Galloway, apparently in the company of his family, posted a photo on social media from the fixture. When challenged on his attendance, the former MP said: “I live in D&G [Dumfries and Galloway]. My family have five season tickets. I’m about to be a sponsor. I’m spreading the word about the club to millions of people.”

Other clubs who have, for example, conducted post-match interviews with sponsors via Zoom immediately expressed concern at the situation. The rules had been agreed between the Scottish FA, Scottish Professional Football League and Scottish Government.

With an angry backlash from their own supporters, Queens issued a statement on Sunday. “We can confirm that George Galloway did attend our game against Dundee at Palmerston yesterday. He was socially distant within an area of the ground where he formed a bubble with his family. All Covid protocols were followed at all times. We would like to apologise to our supporters who have been upset by his attendance at the match.”

On Monday morning, another statement appeared. “Reflecting on our statement to the fans last night we realise that we should have given a fuller apology.

“George Galloway was granted permission to attend our game against Dundee when Dumfries and Galloway was in tier 1 and fans were being allowed back into matches. We however accept that we should’ve readdressed the decision once the rules changed and should’ve informed Mr Galloway that he could no longer attend the match. We realise it was a total error of judgement and we should have been more considerate of our loyal supporters.

“We would again like to issue an unreserved apology to our fans and would like to reassure them that we fully accept and understand their anger. It was a genuine mistake that shouldn’t have been made. As we navigate our way through some tough times both on and off the park your valued support is needed more than ever.”

Dundee won the match 3-1, which leaves Queens rooted to the bottom of Scotland’s second tier with four points from nine games.