Clear out required

[DA Baracus]

HEADPHONES!

[theoriginalhedge]

11 hours ago, blue manalishi said:

What do you suggest we do?

 

16 minutes ago, the snudge said:

We need to pretty much copy Iceland. 

 

The seeds for this rise were planted by the KSí in the mid-1990s, when it began discussions on how to overcome its challenges of population and climate. The initiative bore its first fruit in 2000, when KSí built the first of a series of domed football facilities known as "football houses" in Keflavík near the country'smain international airport.^[14] Eventually, a total of 15 football houses were commissioned,^[12] some with full-sized pitches and others with half-size pitches,^[14]with these facilities supplemented by more than 20 full-sized outdoor artificial pitches and over 100 smaller artificial pitches throughout the country.^[12] All children's schools in the country now have at least a five-a-side football pitch on their premises.^[14]Additionally, all of the football houses are publicly owned, making access easier and much less expensive than comparable facilities in many other countries.^[15]

At the same time, KSí invested heavily in training of coaches, starting a regular program designed to equip coaches with UEFA "A" and "B" licenses. The association chose to conduct all courses at its headquarters in Reykjavík, and deliberately chose not to make a profit off the courses, reducing costs for participants.^[15] By January 2016, more than 180 Icelandic coaches held an A license and nearly 600 held a B license;^[14] an additional 13 held UEFA's highest Pro license.^[16] This translates to about one in every 500 Icelanders being a UEFA-qualified coach. By contrast, the corresponding ratio in England is about 1 in 10,000.^[14] Many top clubs in the country have B-licensed and even A-licensed coaches overseeing children as young as age 6.^[14]Every UEFA-licensed coach in the country has a paid coaching position, although only a small number receive a full-time salary.^[15]

The Iceland Football Association (KSÍ) have invested money on youth development.^[16][17][18]

This ! 

[DA Baracus]

We're a greedy, selfish, stupid country, and that is reflected in the way Scottish football is run and how the vast majority of clubs operate. 

 

For this reason there is no chance of things ever changing for the greater good of Scottish football. I think the Icelandic model wasn't just to improve their national team but to also give kids something to do and something to help them keep fit, something we are crying out for in Scotland. Once again though, local authorities won't be building indoor facilities or new pitches without charging a prohibitively large amount for it as they are staffed at higher levels by greedy, selfish morons who only want to cut services and 'save' money all the time.

[the snudge]

An example of this greed is in my own West Dunbartonshire. Half a BILLION in debt and f**k all to show for it. A population of 90,000. Sporting facilities are so expensive and they take the goal posts of the grass pitches down in the summer. 

[tintax]

Nothing will change and that is the most depressing thing about this whole mess IMO, you can have as many enquires, blueprints etc as you want but I have no faith in the SFA's ability to change/improve our game from the bottom up.  As much as Strachan is to blame, he is just the tip of the iceberg the root of the problems go far deeper and until we address our obvious inability to produce quality players from youth level we will continue to fail.

[woof!]

Perhaps Strachan should take over from Brian Maclair? They were working on some proposal or other.

[DA Baracus]

No. Strachan should have no part in the Scotland set up

[1320Lichtie]

An example of this greed is in my own West Dunbartonshire. Half a BILLION in debt and f**k all to show for it. A population of 90,000. Sporting facilities are so expensive and they take the goal posts of the grass pitches down in the summer. 

The goalposts coming down in the summer is just mental.

Allowing the grass to grow.... In public parks.

[Lurkst]

12 hours ago, Caley Shaun said:

Totally agree regarding Regan, oh, how we miss our ex chairman, now at UEFA or Fifa.

David Taylor? Sadly no longer of this Earth.

 

[Jan Vojáček]

10 minutes ago, 1320Lichtie said:

 

The goalposts coming down in the summer is just mental.

Allowing the grass to grow.... In public parks.

 

The team I coach got warned that if any age group were training in a public (highlight PUBLIC) park during the summer every team would have their lets cancelled and be banned from all East Dunbartonshire Council pitches. Utterly mental.

[Blackie Gold]

11 hours ago, Roker Rover said:

Looking in from afar the governance of Scottish football appears to be shambolic at best, I have met Gordon Strachan and he is a straight up and down tell it like it is sort of bloke. He is not the problem and the player pool he has available to him is.

The problem lies at grass roots with coaches and infrastructure etc. You are not producing the players in anything like the quantity or the quality that you did in the past and no manager, however good he may be, can change that overnight,

Again looking from the outside in I see a fractured system with Senior Clubs and Junior clubs at loggerheads and everybody fighting over their own tiny piece of pitch without seeing the bigger picture. The Scottish FA needs to grow a pair and bring the Juniors into line and set up a sustainable pyramid and support coaching at all levels.

If ever there was a case of too many cooks its Scottish football.

So Scotland being pish is all the fault of the Juniors. If it wasn't for our grade where would all these youngsters who are hoovered up by the big teams at 10 years old and spat out six or seven years later on go?

[1320Lichtie]

The team I coach got warned that if any age group were training in a public (highlight PUBLIC) park during the summer every team would have their lets cancelled and be banned from all East Dunbartonshire Council pitches. Utterly mental.

Had a pre season amateur game that was organised for a Saturday cancelled because the date for playing 'competitively' (lol) after the summer was the following Monday or something. Warned to not go down to the pitch either or there could've been 'consequences'.

[Jan Vojáček]

1 hour ago, 1320Lichtie said:

Had a pre season amateur game that was organised for a Saturday cancelled because the date for playing 'competitively' (lol) after the summer was the following Monday or something. Warned to not go down to the pitch either or there could've been 'consequences'.

 

It's unreal, they actually make anybody using the pitches feel like their being an inconvenience to the community or something. I just don't understand the contempt felt by Councils for grassroots football.

[AyrTroopMajor]

I asked someone in the know why they take the posts down during the time of the year when kids are most likely to use them and was given some absolute nonsense about allowing the grass time to recover. I also used to play with my pal in a wee park every weekend using the frame of the swings as posts. Next thing we knew, the neighbours had complained and the council had planted a bench right in the middle. I'm sure everyone else could tell exactly the same tale. Its as if they put any obstacle they can in the way.

[ayrmad]

2 hours ago, Sonsteam of 08 said:

The team I coach got warned that if any age group were training in a public (highlight PUBLIC) park during the summer every team would have their lets cancelled and be banned from all East Dunbartonshire Council pitches. Utterly mental.

They're quite right, where else are dogs going to shite if kids are using public places.

[Tulloch Gorum]

Those stories about pitches are utterly mad.  It's as if the leisure departments (or whatever they're called) of cooncils are run by the stereotypical cat-owning bitter auld, Tory wifie up the road who'd complain to your parents about you playing in the streets, or keep your ball if it landed in her garden.

Actively discouraging children from playing.  Not even just playing football, just playing at all, which is what kids are meant to do.  No wonder we all end up fat and bitter by age thirty.  

[effeffsee_the2nd]

11 minutes ago, Tulloch Gorum said:

Those stories about pitches are utterly mad.  It's as if the leisure departments (or whatever they're called) of cooncils are run by the stereotypical cat-owning bitter auld, Tory wifie up the road who'd complain to your parents about you playing in the streets, or keep your ball if it landed in her garden.

Actively discouraging children from playing.  Not even just playing football, just playing at all, which is what kids are meant to do.  No wonder we all end up fat and bitter by age thirty.  

to be fair I grew up in the 90s which most of the Scotland squad did aswell, we played football at school football over the park and football at scouts/ youth clubs and so on. the vast majority of us ended up shite, fat, lazy bitter , or all of the above !, them that were good enough got in the school team or the boys club and the rest of us were told to f**k off!

maybe playing down the park and picking the best ones to play for teams as adults worked when the rest of the world was still catching up with us . not now. we've fallen so far behind other western nations which have the same temptations as we do. I don't know what the answer is mind you

[thisal]

4 hours ago, the snudge said:

We need to pretty much copy Iceland. 

 

The seeds for this rise were planted by the KSí in the mid-1990s, when it began discussions on how to overcome its challenges of population and climate. The initiative bore its first fruit in 2000, when KSí built the first of a series of domed football facilities known as "football houses" in Keflavík near the country'smain international airport.^[14] Eventually, a total of 15 football houses were commissioned,^[12] some with full-sized pitches and others with half-size pitches,^[14]with these facilities supplemented by more than 20 full-sized outdoor artificial pitches and over 100 smaller artificial pitches throughout the country.^[12] All children's schools in the country now have at least a five-a-side football pitch on their premises.^[14]Additionally, all of the football houses are publicly owned, making access easier and much less expensive than comparable facilities in many other countries.^[15]

At the same time, KSí invested heavily in training of coaches, starting a regular program designed to equip coaches with UEFA "A" and "B" licenses. The association chose to conduct all courses at its headquarters in Reykjavík, and deliberately chose not to make a profit off the courses, reducing costs for participants.^[15] By January 2016, more than 180 Icelandic coaches held an A license and nearly 600 held a B license;^[14] an additional 13 held UEFA's highest Pro license.^[16] This translates to about one in every 500 Icelanders being a UEFA-qualified coach. By contrast, the corresponding ratio in England is about 1 in 10,000.^[14] Many top clubs in the country have B-licensed and even A-licensed coaches overseeing children as young as age 6.^[14]Every UEFA-licensed coach in the country has a paid coaching position, although only a small number receive a full-time salary.^[15]

The Iceland Football Association (KSÍ) have invested money on youth development.^[16][17][18]

There's no doubt that Iceland are a great success. But simply copying them means we are 15 years behind them. Remember when the talk was we should copy the Dutch. Well we succeeded, they failed to qualify for Euro 2016 as well.

Money spent on facilities and coaching goes a long way. But I think our clubs need to be more outward looking as well arrange coaching sessions and matches with successful overseas (and English) youth set ups. Let young players and coaches see what's really required. 

I'm sure Thistle aren't the only club who had players on loan from the OF who basically think because they have made it with the U18's at the OF think they're already too good for anyone else's first team. I'm sure players from us to the lower leagues have the same attitude.

[FifeArab]

We need a real overhaul of the Scottish game:

The people who run our game do not have a clue. It's already been listed above why Doncaster, Regan and Strachan don't have a clue. We need In shrewd businessman who can market our game and get us better deals.

Youth system's needs to be the centre of every club which now they nearly are. United have done It for years including now, we sold Amo, Goodie, Johnny, Gauld and Roberston In the past 4 years for over 8 million quid. While It relegated us In the end (another day's story), we did use some of the money to keep developing our training facilities at St Andrews and added an all-weather pitch at Gussie Park across from tannadice which will hopefully pay off again In the future and keep United running because clubs just can't ask for million's off sugar daddys so we need to find good scottish youth and make them In to stars (easier said than done).

Coaching needs to be addressed here. To make youth stars you need good coaches, It's hundreds of quid for your UEFA licenses, what a lot of shit. We should be encouraging coaches and Ref's to get Involved In the game. The SFA should be helping kids get badges early and making It more of an attraction, unless you're working through an orginistion then the young kid with dreams of coaching has no chance.

The price of football has driven the man away and until the man Is welcomed back and not treated like a money tree then the Interest In our game will eventually die. £42 for Lithuania at home is just taken the piss. United my own club charge £19 for Ayr United at home, whilst It's not the most expensive In the league It's still mad and I don't blame anyone not wanting to pay that. It's £10 for under 18's, so an average family of 2 parents and 2 kids for United v Ayr United Is £58 plus fuel to get there It's over £60. £60 could do a smart family 2 weeks shopping, there's no contrast. We need to downvalue our game even a little and the fans will come back.

Good luck to whoever does It.

[vikingTON]

27 minutes ago, FifeArab said:

Youth system's needs to be the centre of every club which now they nearly are. United have done It for years including now, we sold Amo, Goodie, Johnny, Gauld and Roberston In the past 4 years for over 8 million quid. While It relegated us In the end (another day's story), we did use some of the money to keep developing our training facilities at St Andrews and added an all-weather pitch at Gussie Park across from tannadice which will hopefully pay off again In the future and keep United running because clubs just can't ask for million's off sugar daddys so we need to find good scottish youth and make them In to stars (easier said than done).

No it doesn't and no we don't. Scotland has an inherently limited pool of talent to draw from (although larger than a simplistic population size argument claims) - of which the best will be siphoned off by English clubs or the Old Firm at an increasingly early age. The aim of a Scottish football club should be to identify the best talent available on the European marketplace, regardless of where they come from, with the two goals of putting together a better quality side and selling players on for a profit to larger market. What may be good for the Scottish international team is not what is best for domestic clubs, who have an entirely different set of goals and are a far more important sector of the modern sport.