The Absence Of Pride
When you’ve been watching Scotland playing football for 50 years of your life, you become accustomed to disappointment. You expect disappointment. Anything better than disappointment becomes a bonus.
You also come to expect injustice, like last night’s inexplicable failure of VAR – which has unfailingly spotted micro-infringements like a player’s toenail being offside – to even take a look at a nailed-on stonewall penalty in the last minutes of the game.
But because you’re so used to these things, you’re not expecting rage.
Yet there’s no other rational response to Steve Clarke’s team selection and tactics in Stuttgart last night. For the whole duration of the tournament, having taken 26 players to Germany to twiddle their thumbs, he made just ONE unforced change to the side that so disgraced the nation in the opening match against the hosts.
And in a game we HAD to win he sent out a team with as much attacking menace as a wet bee, playing a slight-framed 5’9″ lone striker who’s scored ONE goal in 33 games against opposition ranked above 85th in the world.
That team then spent 80 minutes passing the ball sideways across its own half, apparently confused as to what the core aims of the game of football were, before Clarke finally made the changes that injected some urgency into it, two and a half games too late, before fate delivered a needlessly cruel – or possibly merciful – twist of the knife in the final seconds in the form of a breakaway goal.
Merciful? Hungary’s last-gasp winner saved Scotland the all-too-familiar agony of five days waiting to see if other results would somehow enable us to sneak undeservedly into the knockout stages via the back door. (And everyone else from having to watch any more of our dreadful toothless football.)
And even if we had made it, we most likely faced a humiliating mauling at the hands of Portugal – especially without our main goalscorer Scott McTominay, who picked up an absurdly unmerited booking that would have ruled him out of the game.
(Being our top scorer and a 6’4″ natural finisher, Clarke obviously started McTominay against Germany as a deep holding midfielder and had him take corners, which he’s rubbish at, rather than being in the box trying to get on the end of them.)
Scotland were of course plagued by damaging injuries in the run-up to the tournament to players like Aaron Hickey, Lewis Ferguson and talismanic forward Lyndon Dykes. But even if fit, the likes of Ferguson – who this season was absolutely SMASHING the top-level Serie A in Italy with Bologna but has barely a single start for Scotland to his name – probably wouldn’t have made the side due to Clarke’s dogged determination to stick with the complete waste of a shirt that is Callum McGregor.
(As a matter of general principle, absolutely NOBODY plying their trade in the Scottish Premiership should be getting picked for the national side in anything but the direst emergency. It’s a truly wretched league, largely due to the suffocating influence of its two biggest teams, and even really talented players waiting to move on to bigger things don’t get the sort of test from playing Ross County, Dundee and Livingston week-in-week-out that they need to be ready for the elite level of international football.)
But anyway. This is a politics site, so let’s see if there are any staggeringly obvious parallels between the states of Scottish football and politics.
Oh yeah.
Because Steve Clarke isn’t the only baldy middle-aged man letting the nation down with cowardly conservative caution. Two marches took place in Scotland this weekend – a miserably-attended independence one (at Bannockburn, of all places), and a Pride one in Edinburgh. And it surprised nobody which one the SNP turned up at en masse.
But they didn’t just show their faces. The party went all out to actively troll its own supporters. Sheppard carried the banner of its tiny but controversial militant affiliate “queer” group Out For Independence, in the same week that one of their former officers was remanded in custody to await sentencing for multiple sexual assaults.
He preferred to be seen with “furries” than indy supporters.
(Straight men were welcome at Pride. Lesbians were told their “looney shit” was not.)
But Swinney went further, wearing a trans-dominated t-shirt and – alongside Kaukab “DECAPITATE TERFS” Stewart – leading the march with a banner reading “END CONVERSION PRACTICES!”, despite the Cass Review warning explicitly that the Scottish Government’s proposed ban on talking therapies risks causing serious harm to young people with gender distress, and expressly advising against making it a matter of law.
The Scottish Government was supposed to have produced a formal response to the Review by now, but like pretty much every other Scottish Government target it’s been missed and hoofed aimlessly into somewhere in the middle of Row Z (with the blame spuriously deflected onto Westminster, of course, like the own goals that were the only ones Scotland registered at Euro 2024).
The June deadline was already a two-month stalling exercise, but with Holyrood closing for summer recess next week, that’ll now be extended until at least September, five months after Dr Cass published her report.
And it hardly seems worth reminding Wings readers of how closely Swinney’s indy tactics – like that of his two predecessors as First Minister – mirror those of Steve Clarke to Scotland’s appearance in international football tournaments.
Just like the long-suffering Tartan Army, who’ve won admirers everywhere they’ve gone in the world and whose stirring display of faith in their team after the bitter 5-1 thrashing by Germany brought a lump to throats across the world, heartbroken indy supporters keep giving the SNP one last chance.
But time and time again over the last decade the party’s leaders have shied away from going on the attack, preferring the endless sideways and backwards passes of failed “indyref2 campaign launches” and “summers of independence” and “task forces” and butterfly-span ministerial roles and firings of the “starting gun” and “11-point plans” and big talk that melts away when the time comes to actually take to the pitch.
And all one need ever say about the party’s team selection is the dumping of highly experienced and widely renowned KC Joanna Cherry as its justice shadow and its replacement of her with a useless waddling gravy-hoover of a drama student who last night posted this video of her carpetbagging scumbag grifter of a boyfriend ostensibly cheering Scotland on by wearing a Jamaican hat and waving the flag of… Palestine.
Whether that or Swinney’s trans Saltire, the SNP increasingly seems ashamed of the flag of Scotland. And we’ll be honest, folks, we’re starting to feel the same way.
The SNP Betrayal has left its rump supporters with some difficult emotions to deal with…
It really is now or never, given the crisis facing us with Freeports, WHO, etc.
Do they REALLY want Indy, or would they rather keep ‘working towards’ it. Change is scary and a lot of work.
And secondly, they’ve been hoodwinked, multiple times, fooled and fooled again. Facing up to that takes courage… or they could dig deep, cut their noses off to spite their faces and access their inner thrawn.
Scotland the Brave? Now or never.
So so frustrating. Barely fired a shot. I was joking during the game to a friend, echoing former commentator, Jock Brown’s famous phrase – “disaster for Scotland” ringing in my ears. Not to be disappointed, the phrase rang out again in the 100th minute.
We made our own disaster over the past ten days, just like the SNP have done over the past ten years.
Something to be very proud of however, was the performance of Glasgow Warriors, who went away to Munster last weekend, a very difficult place to go, to prevail and put themselves through to the URC final. Then they made an 8000 mile journey to South Africa to play the final against the South African Bulls who the previous week had taken out a team rammed with Irish internationals. The game was played at the iconic Loftus Park, full of 50 odd thousand home fans, at altitude. Glasgow came back from being 13-0 down to win the cup. Sheer guts. What an outstanding achievement!
I’m choosing to focus on that for a while.
Scotland’s Shame can now be expanded, in addition to ‘The Rangers’/Celtic, Protestant/Catholic bigotry (obviously), to include
2. The Scottish Football Association’s national team performances and results
3. The Scottish Government, MSPs and MPs.
I am simply disgusted and annoyed at the betrayal of the SNP to us the people. I used to speak them up years ago to all unsundry, now I just want them gone. If you want to see how blinkered some of their supporters are read the comments on the WGD site. If you want a laugh put a comment in on the faults with the SNP and be ready for the expected blinkered response.
The Scottish flag is a Christian symbol, that and sex in the generative/reproductive way, are now taboo.
So Scottish history and the survival of the Scottish people as a nation thrown in the dumpster/skip/landfill…
Against such a background it is a surprise that Scottish football got as far as it did.
Swinney and co. are as useful as a flaccid penis at an orgy.
VAR was brought in to give the big teams (and the big countries) an advantage. I’m more annoyed that after multiple decades, we still cannot get a BBC Scotland or STV production of the Euros or World Cup. And yet no one seems to notice, as its normal behaviour to let another country deliver our primary sporting events.
Take a run over to Ireland next time there is a big tournament to see the difference. Yes devolution did not include broadcasting, but surely to cripes something could have been sorted. It’s gaslighting on an industrial scale.
And we’ll be honest, folks, we’re starting to feel the same way ourselves.
Colonised by Wankers?
Has Stu become a Moonhowler? 🙂
There is no pride in a colony!
The fuckers have even hijacked the word pride.
The headline ‘The Absence of Pride’ could be considered transphobic/a hate crime likewise my new phrase
There is no pride in a colony!
There isn’t a spectator in the world that would pay for a ticket to go and watch a team learning to play football.
The Scottish professional players, don’t have any skills on the field, yes they can hit the ball down the field and just sometimes it goes to the person it was intended for.
Its a shame we invented the sport but we can’t play it
Andy Anderson says:
24 June, 2024 at 9:20 am
From the WGD site:
The SNP is the biggest political party of the independence movement. You simply can’t discuss independence and not the SNP, whether negative or positive.
Using the measly words of not criticising the parties leadership doesn’t work because the SNP over the last 10 years has built the party around their leadership to the point where they are inseparable.
This says it all about the site and it’s supporters attitude towards independence.
There are few available remedies to reinvigorate Scottish football and its amateurish antics. If the Tartan Army keeps showing-up to watch what is generally abysmal play, who can blame the salaried gang for doing nothing to change their perennial expectation of defeat? Oh, that the fans would call-time on this blatant jumper-selling racket!
Someone, please give the fans permission to rebel and kick up a hellish fury at being taken for mugs year-in-year-out. That’s unlikely to happen, of course. Yes, indeed, parallels abound with what it means to be a colonised nation amongst the Tartan Army on the terraces, and amongst ordinary fans such as I in the pub or at home. We’re not good enough for international-level football and never will be so long as we, the fans, tolerate the quick-buck merchants at the top of Scottish football who continue to serve us up a steady diet of reheated cabbage.
Why is Scotland in the state it is?
My only explanation is because
There is no pride in a colony!
What other explanation can be given for a country not being able to play football?
It’s gotta be something psychological.
Why so much interest in football? Is it a distraction?
A way of not focusing on how shite it is to be Scottish?
I knew how shit Clarke was several years ago when he didn’t even take Ryan Gauld into the squad. In fact I was so incenced I sent an email to the SFA. The ‘young Messie’ was plying his trade (after being unfortunately dumped by Jesus in Sporting who hated young players) after an unsettled period for Farense. He was voted as one of the top midfielders in the Portuguese Div 1. Acclaimed by commentators week in and week out for his skills. But apparently not good enough for Clarke cos he had better players.
I meant to add that from next year he will be eligible for Canadian citizenship and most likely lost to us.
The SNP are actually Scotland under Craig Levsin levels of fear, rather than Clarke. At least we had a go occasionally in the qualifiers. But since we lost a meaningless friendly against England we’ve been dreadful. I agree with most of your criticisms, especially his reluctance to make subs. For me though having your first shot in the 85th minute in a must win game is the sort of behaviour that deserves defeat and exit.
We don’t have any good strikers. But we have better players than they showed this month. They don’t play ponderous ineffective misplaced passes for their clubs.
Thought when the arms factory in Linwood caught fire it was beginning of the end too, but, fortunately, appear to have been mistaken (so far).
With that in mind, I’d say it’s bit harsh to blame Steve Clarke since his tactics clearly would have worked, but for the opportunity afforded the authorities/ bad karma to reinforce our cringe (and remote possibility any penalty taker would have seized the opportunity to give the keeper a free back pass).
That leaves the politics, the SNPs (alleged) Hawk-Tuah based promotion policy, seasonal flu, & current FM’s untimely coming out party.
Possible solution (in absence of full transparency):
Send 57 of Douglas Ross’s candidates to Westminster in hope that at least 29 of them agree with Margaret Thatcher about the route to ending the union, & doing everything in their power to thwart a labour government – bonus being the dramatic rise in his personal standing could be more than sufficient to ensure UEFA give us a mulligan on yesterday’s match and/ or promise we’ll never be on the wrong end of such egregious cheating again.
🙂
Having been working towards Independence since 2010, in various groups, organisations and parties, I have come to the conclusion that there are what I call “gatekeepers” all over the place, who have quietly infiltrated, and who get themselves into positions of power.
From here their job it is to gently stop progress, without actually being noticed. They look and seem to be on our side, but actually they ensure the good, sincere, passionate, intelligent people are kept out of positions of power and influence and they disenfranchise these kind of people in many subtle ways, making them give up and leave.
I used to just think it was big egos at play, but now I have come to the conclusion it is organised. Freemasons? British agents? I don’t know, but they do a great job for their cause which is to ensure Scotland never rises too high.
I do wonder if our football is likewise controlled. All it takes is to get the right people into power, then order them to ensure the team loses by giving the wrong tactics, choosing the wrong players etc.
In Falconry, I believe they train the birds to expect that if they kill an animal there won’t be any meat on that animal, and so they come back to the trainer to get food. I think in a similar way, we are trained to expect Scotland will always fail in everything she does, especially team games, working for Independence and anything which involves national pride and success. These people, whoever they are, have been at this game a very long time and they are very good at it.
We need some whistleblowers to expose what really goes on. I don’t think we know the half of it.
We can support the team that beats England now. We’re not bitter it’s what we do.
The problems with football and politics are remarkably similar – an endless supply of sows ears, and a desperate need instead for silk purses. Burn it all to the ground, salt the earth they stand on, and start again – from scratch.
Portugal – twice the population but at least a hundred times better at cranking out players that know how to kick a ball in the right direction.
How much to put all weather pitches in every neighbourhood, town and village that can rustle up 11 boys or girls. Create an academy for coaches and add support for local clubs. Simmer for twenty years and see what emerges. The UK did it with cycling so it’s possible.
The reality is the majority of MSP, MPs aren’t bothered about LGBT+ or trans rights their just not bothered. The problem is Sturgeon she is still in charge of the party and there isn’t anyone who’s willing to stand up to her not even Swinney. She ran the party with no democracy but through dictatorship and no one is willing to stand up to her in case the 1 they became and victim like the Yes movement or Cherry and 2 in case they are deselected as a MP or MSP.
I once believed if we got rid of Sturgeon the SNP would come to its senses, no such luck, it has to be the totally removal of the SNP from Scottish politics.
I don’t know why Joanna Cherry remains in the SNP or indeed politics.
I also don’t know why Danny Armstrong of Kilmarnock wasn’t included in the squad.
He at least, knows how to pass the ball in a forward direction with pace and accuracy. He scores goals too.
Ho hum.
Agreed Sheena Jardine something very strange going on.
As you say whatever it is they are doing a great job.
Our Imperial Masters will be delighted!
Now that we are all ashamed of being Scottish time to replace the Saltire with the Union Jack.
Stuart says
‘Portugal – twice the population but at least a hundred times better at cranking out players that know how to kick a ball in the right direction.’
Portugal is a country Scotland is a colony. The Portuguese player know they are playing for their country the Scottish players don’t. They don’t even know if Scotland is a country or not.
I was confused by the term UK cycling. Does that mean England? Current problems with UK Cycling is that men want to compete in woman’s races.
The other thing I was thinking is
It’s sad that ‘The Tartan Army’ do not support Independence
and that AUOB didn’t go to Germany instead of Bannockburn.
I’ve had doubts about AUOB for a long time.
Seems Callum McGregors problem he actually wanted the ball and got involved in every game.
Can you say the same for your bigger better league folk?..what did your uber hyped Premiership players contribute?
What did Steve Clarkes same old same old pals from the Championship contribute?
There’s many folk out there who know they need to be looking at themselves a lot more than Callum McGregor.
And of course, we sadly dont know what Clarke told the players in how to play.
I’m a Celtic fan so bias applies of course but for the “No SPFL player should be playing” nonsense….seems Shankland had more impact in 10 minutes than many, pretty sure he is an SPFL player too just like McGregor.
‘We’re ruled by effete arseholes. It’s a shite state of affairs to be in’.
In 1974, in W Germany, we drew with Brazil in the opening match of the World Cup and were the only undefeated team in that whole world cup finals but we still diud not get through to the last stages. England did not make it to the world cup finals in 1974 nor did they make it to the finals in 1978 and 1994. Not that I care.
Of the 1974, 28 man squad, 12 played in Scotland. Dennis Law played, aged 34, for Man City. The pool was legendary and we still did not get through to the final stages. It was glorious defeat.
In the 2024, 26 man squad, only 7 play in Scotland.
But I am still prod of those lads for giving us a week away from reality, when you could let our dreams tethered for 26 yrs, run away with us. No Scotland, no party.
Final thoughts: I noticed the squad were all brunettes. I think the manager should have played more redheads and blondes.
It might seem in the interest of an imperial power to do what it can to prevent its colonial possession succeeding on the international scene.
It is hardly unknown for referees to take a wee bung:
link to apnews.com
No point in bleating about ‘what might have been’. We need to get to the roots of, and understand, WHY this is happening to us. Yes, we are a colony’ yes we always overestimate our sporting abilities and, yes, the whole country is in a pit of despair and depression, and not just because of the football result.. So, why do our idiot politicians converge on Pride – no matter how much fun it was or how friendly? ‘Trans’ and their malevolent supporters are fun and friendly only when you agree with them and their insane ideology – for which not one iota of evidence even exists.
No study done has come anywhere near providing irrefutable evidence for the existence of ‘trans’, but plenty to dismiss it as lies and blatant misappropriation of the human rights of others. If there was any proof or suggestive evidence for the existence of a ‘gendered soul’ ‘born in the wrong body’ instead pop a paraphilia and/or a fetish, these vicious people would be pushing it harder than Blackpool Rock. Mental illness comes in many shapes and sizes, and ‘trans’ is just one of them.
Every sane person and all of our politicians know this to be the truth, yet they continue to feed our children to the god of mutilation and insist that women do not matter a whit in the bigger scheme of things. I simply do not buy that they are in any way captured by this pure ordure; they know it’s a con and they are still willing to sell out our children and female population, many of whom are captured. Women are as clever as men, but, boy, do they fall for the conmen. They almost beg to be kicked in the teeth and everywhere else in their soft, yielding flesh.
So many of our young women are gagging to be walked over and made fools of, their lives destroyed by lies. I have long since lost patience with their utter gullibility and part of me does hope that they suffer in the future because there is only the hard way now. I know it’s horrible but these stupid handmaidens have ushered in p**n-sick men and will be responsible for someone’s death one of these days. Young or not, nobody is that stupid or if they are, they probably require a lobotomy. Oh, no, wait: wasn’t that the last huge medical scandal that no one paid for at all? Better though, for the self-lobotomized politicians than actually having to do anything to fix the mess we are in, eh? I f*****g hate them. Vote them all out. Every last one.
An interesting parallel between the catastrophic pishness of our national football team that consistently fails to represent its country and the catastrophic pishness of our elected “representatives” that consistently fail to represent their country.
Been battling my local Council and NHS to get my son ASD diagnosis and support for seven long years – neither organisation be arsed. Local MSP now involved. Several tragic accidents on the overloaded A9 over the weekend resulting in yet more lives needlessly lost or irreparably changed – its now several occurrences daily. Royal Mail now so unreliable its starting to affect my wife’s business – not helped by Loganair, “Scotland’s Airline”, shutting the base at Inverness Airport which has been there since Methuselah was kicking about and and termination of overnight Mail flights which have operated forever, leaving Mail delayed and travelling by road on the… A9, which now gets shut multiple times daily due to fatal RTAs. We’re paying more tax than ever for services that are worse than ever, yet public debt is exploding.
Everything is fucked, our Government (both the WM shitfest and the Holyrood version) hates us.
Still can’t figure out what’s the biggest mystery
People still taking the SNP seriously on independence
Or McTominay being corner-taker
I don’t think Che Adams is an awful player. He’s done well with Southampton this season and taken them back up to the English top flight, but there’s something about how Clarke plays him that saps the life out of him. He’s being asked to hold up the ball (something Lyndon Dykes is good at) which isn’t really in his game.
McGregor is woefully out his depth increasingly at international level, and yes, had Ferguson been fit he’d be on the bench watching McGregor miss passes and tackles all over the place. Clarke never player players who ended the season in form either. Forrest, Shankland and Armstrong all ended the season on highs. All have a bit of attacking flair. All benched for much of the tournament.
Then there was Clarke’s post match interview slagging off the ref for being Argentinian. Yes, there should have been a VAR check on the denied penalty but the fact the ref cocked up was nothing to do with his nationality. We’re at the stage where Clarke has to go but who would want this job when the SFA are completely incapable of taking advice to help grow the game, especially with young people. It’s absolutely crazy that Denmark, a country of more or less equal size and similar climate regularly gets out of group stages, and has a Euros trophy in their cabinet but we’re still patting ourselves on the back for ‘bringing the party to the tournament’.
It’s a mess. Best chance to get out the group stage in a generation and we fluffed it.
I think SNP activists have to get their head around the fact westminster has managed to install plants whose aim is not the stop indy, it is to undermine the arguments for and destroy the underlying principles by diverting the movement into nonsense that people will not support.
This is the real poison. They make a mockery if the idea
For the first time in my life I’m not going to vote SNP. I can’t. They had a decade of impotence in Westminster and they are asking for another one. If they said: “Vote for us and we’ll disrupt Westminster until they give us our fucking referendum” I’d vote for them but they, like Labour, are institutionalised polite impotent wasters.
Scotland failed by a terrible manager, an IMPOTENT team, and an IMPOTENT and POINTLESS SNP.
Two marches took place in Scotland this weekend – a miserably-attended independence one (at Bannockburn, of all places), and a Pride one in Edinburgh. And it surprised nobody which one the SNP turned up at en masse.
We all know now the SNP have distanced themselves from independence as much as possible, but I’d have thought with an election campaign hitting its last 12 days I’d have thought it’d have been smart to show up at an indy march. Sure, AUOB are a joke and a shadow of what they were, but doing something to just even pretend they’re interested in independence would have been nice. Turning up at Pride marches isn’t going to win votes or save seats of some of those MPs and MSPs who’ve been turning up at them.
He preferred to be seen with “furries” than indy supporters.
I had to explain what Furries were to a mate which developed into explaining ‘pups’ to him as his kid is asking for a furry mask. After an hour or so he was equally horrified and adamant he’s going to scour through his child’s internet history because furries aren’t just a harmless thing as he thought, but they’re a mix of perverts preying on young kids, and young kids who’ve been groomed into this.
There’s been so, so many examples of what furries get up to & I should find it extraordinary that Pride allows them on marches but it’s 2024 so I’m not anymore.
Straight men were welcome at Pride. Lesbians were told their “looney shit” was not.
Pride hasn’t been about LGB people for at least a decade. It’s been about the straights, Trans and all the horrors that lurk under Q++++ than what people actually died to create all those decades ago. My fear is (and this is being proven far too often) that young people now think Trans has always been around, and that gay men and lesbians followed on the coat tails of Trans people & think homosexuality is a choice.
So this sort of homophobia is sadly, all too present at Pride which is why a number of LGB people now avoid it.
As for Cass, I fear it’s going to be ignored or the SNP and an incoming Labour government will just kick it into touch. There’s going to be a hell of a lot of TRA MPs from all the major parties (bar the Tories who face electoral oblivion) entering the Commons next week. There’s a few candidates who are exceptionally worrying, & if they act as I think they will then LGB/womens rights are under serous threat & children will carry on being mutilated and groomed on a massive scale.
And all one need ever say about the party’s team selection is the dumping of highly experienced and widely renowned KC Joanna Cherry as its justice shadow and its replacement of her with a useless waddling gravy-hoover of a drama student who last night posted this video of her carpetbagging scumbag grifter of a boyfriend ostensibly cheering Scotland on by wearing a Jamaican hat and waving the flag of… Palestine.
I’m not surprised. The entire Palestine cause has been adopted by some of the most dubious people in the country, and if a candidate is putting that as their main campaign focus then again, I fear for what’s coming next week.
For all the denunciation of Steve Clarke and key players, the real comparison here is not Clarke and Swinney, it’s the SFA and the SNP. The overseeing organisations are the problem.
It’s easy now to overlook that when Clarke came in, and we saw initial improvements it helped disguise the fact that these duds had presided over two decades of utter failure at international level. We weren’t even at the party.
How were the Dutch able to transform from amateur status to a world cup final in little over a decade? How, in more recent decades, have the likes of Denmark and Belgium been able to progress from backwaters to decent outside bets? Scotland’s footie problems lie squarely at the door of the authority that are meant to be responsible for development. They have got to go. To stretch the SNP comparison, they are an obstacle to progress.
That bloke moaning about lesbians at a Pride event has reminded me of what happened in Brighton yesterday. There was one of Posie Parker’s Let Women Speak events and the police completely failed to do their job so women were put in fear of their lives as crowds of aggressive men with some women chased them through the streets of Brighton. In that crowd was Sarah Jane Baker, and for those who don’t know he’s the guy who cut off his own testicles and ate them in prison after being imprisoned for torturing someone.
Again, my fear is that in 10 days a new Labour government is coming to power and TRAs who are empowered by weak policing & other authorities will be further empowered by TRA MPs. I dread what might be coming & the fear is that the violence and aggression from TRAs is escalating to the point where a women is going to be killed. There’s already been multiple assaults in the UK at LWS events & it’s a matter of time before the police fail yet again.
@Cuilean (12.05) –
Well said.
They’re still ‘our’ team, no matter what. That the quality of our national game has suffered over the years because of money (quelle surprise, eh?) doesn’t change the fact that those guys represented us and deserved the great support they received.
If it did nothing else but help reaffirm our strong sense of national identity then that’ll do for me.
😉
For all the denunciation of Steve Clarke and key players, the real comparison here is not Clarke and Swinney, it’s the SFA and the SNP. The overseeing organisations are the problem.
Berti Vogts 20 odd years ago was saying Scottish football needs a massive overhaul from the ground up & said many of the things we’ve all been saying since last night but the Scottish establishment dismissed Vogts and his concerns.
I’m not a football guy but I watched all three Scotland games and they were really terrible. I’m inclined to wonder what the attraction is with football but every now and then it throws up a little drama…
“If the Ibrox Asbestos rumours are true, then Celtic are going to be the least of the Govan outfit’s worries next season…”
link to msn.com
It looks like this team that goes by the name of Rangers is going to have to play games somewhere else for a while. If the Asbestos rumours are true, they could be playing games somewhere else for quite some time.
Alf 12.06pm.
I recall Scotland playing Italy at Hampden and the Spanish referee giving everything to Italy and nothing to Scotland, this cumulated in a clear as day foul against I think it was Alan Hutton, who was the right back for Scotland near the edge of the Italian 18 yard box, of which the Spanish ref looked away and gave the sign to play on, Scotland went out of that tourny that night.
Later that night, before flying out to Spain the referee was seen dining in an Italian restaurant with a few Italian players and fans and stuffing his bags with Italian memorabilia of the game.
Of course last nights dismal pish result was if we’re honest with ourselves is down to the abysmal players and manager, as one commentator said on the radio this morning.
Scotland is a party team at the Euro’s or the World Cup, there fans are there for the beer and a laugh, the national football team playing in these tourny’s is just part of the party atmosphere.
There is very little wrong with the people whom are not agressive war mongers, Scotlands people have always been at the best as defenders.
It is not long since Scotland has become aware that the people they thought were on there team was actually playing and recieiving funding from the other side in more ways than one in the Scottish parliament. With no manager on our side, and no training,
And shame on those that turn on those fighting on the same side of the battle field with a Colonial attitude tell them how useless they Are, that there team was to wee, to poor and too Stupid,
There are enough opposition on the other side constantly telling you that, to keep the Scottish mind under a mental psychological thumb,
Why are you joining the enemy to beat your own nation team down, a good manager builds his team up, gives them confidence, works at stratagies and ensures their are no injuries on the battle field.
He does not just give them information on the game from a few leaflets them expect them to win because with No Manager , No funding, No Media or advertising their team coverage for their side.and little Confidence,
Against the biggest players in the World. You expect them to do something that would need Magic to be acheived that you have not done yourselves.
Shame on all of those thinking to Wee, Too Small,Too Stupid,
Give them the weapons, give them the Confidence, build the nation of men up, for it is not just one team they are playing against, Scotland is playing and expected to win their long historical opposing team but all the Danial de foe teams that have banded together in each and every match,
Change the rules boys and fight the laws of injustices like men,
Football – I’d sooner watch submarine racing.
Scotland’s football team might have lost in the Euros, but the Scots as a people won. They won the goodwill of their German hosts and I suspect they won the goodwill of many other peoples around the world.
And although the performance of Scotland’s team might have been a disappointment for fans of the game, that goodwill is far more valuable to the Scots than performing well in a mere football tournament.
The Scots cannot be defined by the performance of a few ‘Scots’ (are some of them even Scots?) playing a game when 200,000 of their people won the goodwill of the world in a much bigger and infinitely more important ‘game’.
Their football team aside, the Scots played brilliantly in the Euros – the football was just a sideshow for a bit of fun and of no real importance.
Re TRA, this is where pathological tolerance has landed us.
Close to where I live there is an electronic billboard with an advert for Alba with one of the candidates four stated priorities being Pstine.
Re fitba, a couple of my friends have commented on me losing interest in Celtic, not texting about the results etc. I no longer feel involved or any connection to the team and see the whole thing as bread and circuses to keep us distracted and divided. Glblsm helped to kill football as a wrkng clss sport.
It didn’t take long for the usual Moonhowlers to blame Scotland’s football defeats on:
1) “Colonialism”
2) Cheating by foreign referees
3) Vague foreign conspiracies
4) the SNP
5) and much more.
So far, the long-dead Queen Anne (another of their staple villains) hasn’t been blamed…. not yet, at least!
The SNP can rightly be blamed for a lot of things–they’re corrupt and incompetent. But blame them for bad football?
Watched that last night with two Hungarian mates. Dominant in possession to start but didn’t create a chance in the first half. After the non penalty ( that’s the Argentine paid back the hand of god , cheating bassa) the almighty crash almost felt inevitable after the near chances at the end.
‘74 is the first I remember and took the huff at getting knocked out without losing a game ! ‘Course was another 8 years before England started joining in back then.
Not too fussed about the state of Scotland football as it perfectly reflects the position of Scotland in the UK . Used, abused , belittled and mocked.
When it comes to the football, to my understanding it wasn’t until the 1980s after a century of playing each other, that our neighbours south of the border that isn’t a border matched Scotland for wins .
Decades of degeneration have left many potential players on other paths.
Hope Hungary get through. The win has given them not a bad chance. I have adopted their forward Adam as my favourite this tournament. Looks as if you’re likely to see him on a Sunday game and reminded me of Grizzly Adam .
Keep telling myself it’s just a game. So is football
excellent analasys as usual. For a team that needed to wi, one shot on target in injurytime really is a poor mindset of attack!
Unlike the SNP, the national football team did not have an open goal to shoot at. The SNP could have taken us to independence in 2016, with the right leader of course!
The national team also lack a very direct focussed approach!
Well done the Tartan Army though, no fan base has ever deserved a better team!
…and besides, Scotland’s ‘national’ football team’s poor performance in the Euros is almost entirely the fault of Queen Anne – who was the first manager of Scotland’s team but was rubbish at the footballing and preferred tennis. And that is an historical fact.
It’s easy to find reasons to blame the SNP – they’ve singularly failed to achieve independence despite any number of open goals.
With independence, we would have the resources to build sports and training facilities, things that other European countries take for granted. 14 years of Tory austerity, and the lack of a sports minister in cabinet, has seen sport fall way down the priority list when it comes to receiving funding from the SG or the local authorities, as it competes for a share of the ever-dwindling Barnett pocket money.
Healthy body, healthy mind….
Northcode.
Good afternoon northcode
How are you today?
What you say too true, But then people of Scotland back home, were living a moment of their lives through their football team,
Just as Scots live through politicians at the this present time.
My gran used to say, you’ll know when you grown up, because you stop blaming everyone else in the world for all that is wrong in the world
And ” That is when you start becoming a man, in you’re own Right”
She applied it equally to females in her time era,
You just need the confidence, support and good guidance along the way to become a grown up.
Northcode.
Heres another one of my grannies sayings,
So you had a fall, pick yourself up dust yourself down and start again,
John C @ 2:05 pm
“the Scottish establishment dismissed Vogts and his concerns”
Yes, the problem with institutions in the colonial society is that the establishment that runs them are assimilated Brits and hence pro-colonialism and anti-independence. They actually don’t want, and cannot allow, the colonized country to succeed. This is because the ideology and values of colonialism are based on the inherent inferiority of the native and his continued debasement, and the superiority of, and dependency on the coloniser.
If Scotland were to succeed (at fitba, ferries, devo governance, or anything else) it would severely disrupt their colonial mindset, their way of thinking. The Scottish establishment can’t handle Scottish success, especially at international level. So it makes damn sure there isnae any!
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Sheena Jardine @10.44
“From here their job it is to gently stop progress, without actually being noticed. They look and seem to be on our side, but actually they ensure the good, sincere, passionate, intelligent people are kept out of positions of power and influence and they disenfranchise these kind of people in many subtle ways, making them give up and leave.”
This is what seems to have happened in Alba certainly since last summer But definitely not so gentle. Maybe they were in a hurry.
The number of activists that have been forced out is incredible.
In Dundee 7 out of the 8 council candidates in 2022 are no longer members.
Every member of Eva Comrie’s 8 strong Equalities, team who wrote countless policies, has resigned.
Alba NEC have deemed most of the activist resignations ‘public resignations’ so the ex-members cannot rejoin.
So Alba is in no position to replace the SNP if the SNP fall.
Northcode , you are dead right – the Scots supporters won the hearts and minds competition by a country mile.
Well done to them for forging friendships.
John @3:20
Any news on why there was an Argentinian ref at all?
Seems akin to asking Australia to judge the UK entry at eurovision – in which case there could be significantly more positive explanation for those Edinburgh pride shenanigans than hitherto considered.
Argie ref a tribute to all the Scots fans who wear Argie shirts and glorify Maradonna’s Hand of God?
Scotland’s players’ first touch was by and large awful. Too much time to control the ball, and by then a chance for a quick attacking move is gone. Much like our lumbering political class, they had no instinct to attack, move forward. Watching other teams in the championship – say Denmark, they moved and made decisions way faster than us, or than England in that game. This is because those players were trained from a young age in rock solid technique. Ours, are not. We could use the same agile quick thinking in our politicians, but everything is hedging and triangulation instead, leading us nowhere.
I agree with Alf – our colonial masters do not want a successful team to give us pride in our country, they are quite happy for us to win the lovable loser’s cup and supporters award – another way to grind a sense of inferiority into us. So funding for youth sport is diverted, or unavailable. I’ve read and listened to the arguments for a ‘dutch style academy system’ for 30+ years. It still isn’t here. Why? Because Westminster and Whitehall don’t want it here, and their dead hands on the levers of our government hold us back.
The SNP had chances to really change things, but did not. I suspect institutional resistance from Whitehall appointed ‘scottish’ civil servants was part of it, in addition to the party itself becoming ever more compromised. Either way the SNP are, like our football team, toothless and out of Europe.
Maybe we should petition politicians from all parties to commit to stop their use of nostril fuels.
Many parallels between the state of this nation and its’ football.
The hundred-thousand or so fans whe made the trip wanted the team to win the cup or dye trying. They put their toes on the line and were prepared to stay in hedgerows and bus shelters til the final.
Their commitment can’t be questioned.
The management however, just thought the limit of our ambitions should be to not be embarrassed. Don’t take a risk and maybe a bit of luck will fall our way and we’ll qualify for the “last-16” (big deal) before a big boy steals our marbles.
I include the players in that camp too. I couldn’t see any of them urging a change of plan. Stevie, like the blessed Nicol-arse, they said, should not be questioned. His glum, un-uplifting humourless demeanor hid great depth of talent, respected around the world.
Well, like Nicola, Stevie’s been found out. 3 dour games, no ambition.
Your team has to play in the national character, and our national character the last time I looked (but that candle is dimming) is still to fight for glorious defeat and the occasional stunning victory against the odds.
Stevie has to go, the three centre-backs idea has to go, the lone striker has to go, and this nonsense about begging for a referendum or a review has to go. And even worse dancing on the head of a pin about what happened a few hundred years ago has to go.
You want independence? Show the electorate you can run the country with ambition and competence. And once you get their vote, you just TAKE independence, you never ‘ask’ for it.
If we get our act together, we might start succeeding in football too.
(-and the lack of decent footballers is the fault of our useless education sysem by the way)
@Stuart 4:53
Not a clue why we had the only non European ref. Neither did the Scotland boss.
Association Football aside. There was a fantastic win for the Scottish Rugby Union Football club side Glasgow Warriors at the weekend. An outstanding win in South Africa. Unfortunately our state broadcaster somewhat underplayed their coverage of this piece of Scottish sporting success. Indeed the state broadcaster webpage main report until a couple of hours ago is headlined “ No Scottish team could have pulled it off “ . Before actually reporting the result .
Europe has been stealing other countries assets for centuries, N-at-o just give them that bit more power to do so.
There will be retribution for this at a later date.
“The European Union has approved the decision to transfer 1.4 billion euros of income from Roooshhian assets to U, said the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell.
“These funds – 1.4 billion euros – will be transferred next month. Another billion will be transferred in the coming months. In this case, we were able to overcome the structural problem with the veto,” the official said following a meeting of EU foreign ministers.”
To what extent does the national side reflect the nation?
I started to think about it & stopped.
Too depressing.
On the football front I’d like to say that a kid on a council estate football was pretty much all we had to play and we loved it.
At school we played at the morning playtime break, wolfed down diner school to get back on the pitch, again in the afternoon break.
Home for diner and straight out for more football and called in when it’s too dark to play to tell your Dad you had scored 22 goals that day.
We played in the street and we played in the back court and climbed the school gates to play on the pitch against a rial local area.
I would have played 4 hours of football on most days so your skills develop.
You just can’t put in that level of practice today.
Kids can’t play in the street and new estates put in basketball courts and Janitors chase kids out of school grounds fearing vandalism.
At my Primary school we won the league 2 years running and were runner up and winners of the Western District shield.
Our manager was a young single woman we begged to fill in the forms and escort us to away matches. She never knew a thing about the game and perhaps we would have been better to have some degree of coaching and know about formations and systems.
The secondary school had a PE teacher out of the Movie Kes.
He’d tell you how good he was and demonstrate how he would strike the ball and we were weak not being able to kick the ball the length of the field.
Never did see a 12 year old who could match a 30 year old for strength and speed.
In the Netherlands there are sports centres everywhere that encourage and coach in most sports and it’s for all and those poor at football aged 12 can be stars at 15 and 16.
All the time it promotes health and teamwork alongside a community spirt.
Scottish leisure centres are closing and reducing staff numbers and puting up costs.
With our weather we must have indoor facilities and community coaches or we will continue to battle a victory against Gibraltar and the Farao islands etc
Bring your own referee – in boxing terms meaning a knockout punch.
You don’t win matches by playing in your own half of the field.
Football has become boring. The “tactic” of the back three passing the ball across the field to each other is nonsense.
Compare it to rugby – an attacking game – after the three yellow cards to Hungary a rugby style ref would have called over the Hungary captain and advised – “the next one is a red, cut out the manhandling and rough stuff”.
And, referees have their careers to consider, staus games to referee etc. weifged against impartiality – as referenced above about the Spanish referee.
Incredible, its as if the Rev has read my mind, and most probably many, many others. This is so spot on..
And indeed it is a tragic, and ‘shite state of affairs.’
Man with good hair and law degree fails to get justice from lawmakers.
I’d vote for Stu (Armstrong) if he stood for parliament.
Lot of emotional reaction to that penalty decision, not a lot of cool, clear headed analysis. My first thought was that it wasn’t a pen and I still don’t – and I’ve been following Scotland for 50 years’ too so no one was hoping the ref would point to the spot more.
It looked to me as if Armstrong just panicked or stumbled as soon as he realised he was through and he sort of collapsed into the Hungarian defender who simultaneously fell into him. They sort of fouled each other, which doesn’t constitute a penalty. I see this is basically the explanation that Uefa have given, along with the extra comment that we were lucky not to give away a pen for an earlier shirt pull by McGinn.
On the whole, I think we have nothing whatsoever to complain about and blaming VAR or the officials is pretty pathetic. And by the way, even if it was a penalty, it doesn’t follow that we should ditch VAR, which no one ever claimed would eliminate all errors, only reduce them, which FIFA and UEFA claim it has.
Adding to the gloom surrounding this incident and this game, it was sad to hear Clarke saying that a South American shouldn’t be reffing at the Euros. Imagine if Nigel Farage had said something like that. He’d be slaughtered.
Re the famous Alan Hutton incident against Italy, the ref didn’t wave play on, he actually gave a foul AGAINST Hutton.
I thought Stuart Armstrong instigated the contact, he grabs his shirt. The TV focus was all on the legs coming together but I think they only did because Armstrong pulled the defender into him. We’d probably have missed the pen anyway or Hungary would still have denied us the win.
I’ll spread the word best I can about the SNP choosing to march with furries than Indy supporters. A friend is likely to vote SNP but another, like me, is fed up with them and likely won’t vote.
Alba MPs ( remember them? ) swore fealty to England’s Crown, same as the SNP MPs.
Salmond, the English King’s UK Privy Counsellor ( and leader of the supposedly republican party) was there like a bluebottle around shite to swear fealty to England’s King Charles on the death of of his beloved English Queen Elizabeth II.
Alba’s indy strategy is little different from the SNP’s. They both bow to English Crown in WM Parliamentary sovereignty. Both rely on begging permission from their English masters in total servility. That’s the bad news.
The good news is others see the futility of serving as sworn colonial servants of the English Crown in WM or Holyrood. E.g. The Independence for Scotland Party. SALVO. People on here. People in toons and villages across Scotland.
Hopefully, the knowledge will grow that Scots are sovereign. Maybe one day enough of us will grow a spine and defy the English Crown.
Salmond’s Alba and the SNP will hopefully become forgotten footnotes in political history books as examples of servile British colonial failures.