The Scottish Football Association. Its purpose and ability to take the game forward.

[bikerbloke]

Football is a funny old business. A mix of passion, emotion and business where it is difficult to get the balance right. There will always be somebody who complains about any decision. But that also applies to companies with loyal customers. Unfortunately the SFA is better at shooting itself in the foot than taking the game forward.

Their attempt at inertia over the recent child abuse disclosures in Scotland is typical of the technique deployed over the years on anything that could cause the SFA or its member clubs any embarrassment.

Then we had the 'shoo in' of Malky Mackay being the top notch candidate for the Performance Director role. What planet are these guys on?

Pie and Bovril is a continual source of irritation to people within the SFA, especially at boardroom level. They see the posters on here as idiots with few brain cells who will moan about anything. I would like to think there are enough sensible and wise people involved in P&B who could contribute to help influence the creation of a better governing body for football.

Like any thread on here, it can be difficult to keep the posts ' on message'. So I would appeal to those who just want to be negative or to try to score points against other members of P&B to let rip on other threads so we can concentrate on the openness and transparency we need to start moving the SFA to a better place.

Why start this today? At the Scottish Parliament we had representatives of the SFA, the SPFL, Scottish Youth Football Association, Professional Footballers Union, Scottish Schools Football Association giving evidence to the public petitions committee about treatment of youth players. https://goo.gl/muuKjw

The SFA and SPLF were so totally unprofessional, and ill prepared it would be laughable if it wasn't so pathetic. 

Holyrood's public petitions committee questioned football chiefs over claims under-16 players had been paid £1 a week, and heard there were no background checks for player agents.

SPFL boss Neil Doncaster insisted the current system "strikes the appropriate balance" to protect clubs and players.

and then....

Under questioning from Ms Lamont, SFA Director of Football Governance and Regulation Andrew McKinlay admitted that the body could end up registering an "illegal" contract, as it does not look at the terms of each of the thousands submitted.

He said there were "no immediate plans to change" the system, with with SPFL chief executive Mr Doncaster adding that "we are not a police force".

What the SFA does and how it does it is so clouded in mystery. Today showed why!

And why do they need to be challenged? Because they way they are doing things is creating failure at all levels. They are not creating good young players, successful clubs or enough players with the skills and ambition to feed into the national team and make it successful. There are many other measures of success but we can bring them to the fore later.

I think the evidence of McKinlay and Doncaster will be on news bulletins on STV and BBC later today. Hopefully they will cringe when they watch it. We will!

[effeffsee_the2nd]

Scotland is too small and too incestuous for any real change to happen. the sfa are far too cosy full of auld pals acts it should be no surprise they just want to keep things the same as individualy they will do ok out of it.

needs shut down and restarted

[RedLichtie86]

The only way to enact any change either within the SFA and/or the SPFL is a hostile takeover. As with any business, money talks. It would pain me to hand over a Golden Handshake to the guys who run the these 2 fine *cough* boards, but if its the only way to remove them and their cronies then so be it.

The 2 boards are run by people who are so far out of touch with the modern day fans. They enact policy changes, cup format changes, etc without even seeing what the fans views are. Take the Scottish Challenge Cup, now known as the Irn Bru Scottish (now with added Premiership Colts. Also includes added Welsh and Irish vitamins in the 3rd round) Challenge Cup. The whole concept shows contempt for every club outwith the Top Tier, and for what? a few extra quid and a competition where even with free entry Inverness Colts couldnt get more than 300 through the gates for a game against Arbroath.

Im afraid to say there is not much else we can do but to pay them off.

[bikerbloke]

The SFA, who are they and what do they do?

Try phoning the SFA, assuming you can find a number for them, ask for the person you want to speak with and the first question is "who are you, and do they know you"? Then "what is it about"? Even at this stage you have no idea if the person is there or not. Then they will say 'I will see if they are in the office'. Meaning you only get to speak if you are known. They clearly are not available to any old Tom, Dick or Harry.

Go to the SFA website to get contact names. Not there. You can find more from the Companies House website than you can get from the SFA site about who is involved. During Gordon Smith;'s time as Chief Exec at least he had a list of employees available. Why no longer?

But maybe this is how Football Associations operate? 

Let's see

The Welsh FA.http://www.faw.cymru/en/ Here if you find details of key people, and if you want to see the document for their 2020 strategy it is here http://www.faw.cymru/en/about-faw/governance/fa-wales-strategy/ Population of Wales 3 million.

Try this on the SFA site (Henry McLeish's face) and the page isn't available. This would be where the strategy that Malky Mackay is implementing should be, but why can we not see the original?

What does the SFA site say about child protection. No statement of policy, just how to sign up for a course.

And the Irish FA (Northern Ireland). NI population 1.8 million.

Know who runs it http://www.irishfa.com/irish-football-association/about-the-ifa/the-irish-fa-staff with contact details.

Their strategic plan http://www.irishfa.com/media/3975/ifa_strategy_-_final_proof_19_nov_2013.pdf

Population of Scotland 5.3 million.

And before anyone tries the Mickey Mouse argument, it is worth reminding ourselves that in the FIFA world rankings, Wales are 12th, Norther Ireland 32nd, Scotland 67th.

What comes first, international success or a well run Football Association?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bikerbloke]

http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/hearts/sfa-could-benefit-from-ann-budge-influence-robbie-neilson-1-4332054

You need to be out of Scottish football before you can have an opinion!

 

[leb8t]

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!

UEFA Euro 1996, Scotland qualify for the final tournament beating Switzerland, drawing with the Netherlands and missing out on further qualification on goal difference and are ranked 26^th in the world.

UEFA Euro 2016, Scotland fail to qualify and are ranked 67^th in the world.

Solution by Malky Mackay, the Scottish FA’s Performance Director, appoint Jim Fleeting and Donald Park to new coaching roles as part of the ongoing implementation of Project Brave. Yes, promote from within the "Old Boys' Mafia" that have failed Scotland for more than 20 years.

Jim will move on from his post as Director of Football Development to become Director of Coaching and will lead on coaching within the seven regional Performance Schools whilst also overseeing the coach education programme.

Donald has been appointed as Head of Coaching and will work closely with the Scotland national youth team coaches as well as provide coaching support and mentorship to academies within the Club Academy Scotland structure.

Malky Mackay said: “Jim and Donald are two highly respected and experienced coaches and these new roles will greatly enhance our coaching programme at all levels.
“Our coach education programme is among the most highly-regarded in Europe but these changes will allow us to provide greater focus in education and mentoring at all levels of the game."
 

Last five title wins managed by Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland, Norway,  Norway and next title win Northern Ireland.

Last five Scottish Cup wins managed by  Portugal, Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England.

[Auldheid]

A major difficulty in effecting change in the governance of Scottish football is the lack of capacity to bring about accountability. Supporters Direct simply do not have this on their agenda for reasons given below and an alternative is required so

Introducing the Scottish Football Supporters Association. (SFSA)

In the light of the SFA President’s unfortunate remarks in the MSM, relegating every Scottish football club other than Celtic or Rangers to support role status, the need for checks and balances on the thinking at the SFA (and SPFL) is never more evident.

The capacity to introduce such checks and balance simply does not exist, so it needs to be created. This blog on Scottish Football Monitor  

https://www.sfm.scot/time-to-make-things-happen/ 

is important in that it shows that there are people out there working to this end, who are engaged in finding workable solutions to our problems – solutions which must involve the major stakeholders in football, the fans (or customers as most boardrooms would have it) of all clubs, particularly the ones most damaged by events in the past 5 years.

The people involved in finding solutions at The SFSA are well-connected and not without influence, but most importantly they seek to give fans a greater voice in the game – and they do not represent a paid-for voice with a seat at the SFA table or a funding source that depends to a large extent on saying nothing when fan interests are damaged. Through the SFSA plans which will unfold in the coming weeks, supporters of all clubs will be able to check the McCrae duopoly as a business model for Scottish football and in doing so not only create more balance but make those running Scottish football know they are directly accountable to the paying customer.

The duopoly is a failed model that has seriously damaged our game and destroyed trust in those charged with its governance and to return to it is a form of insanity for all clubs.

If you want to see real change in how our game is governed you can join the SFSA direct via this link

http://scottishfsa.org/

 

or if you want to know why the SFSA offer the best opportunity for real change read the SFM blog first.

https://www.sfm.scot/time-to-make-things-happen/  then, if persuaded, please join.