Are the old firm partly to blame for our international decline?

[Firestarter]

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And another thing...... the fee paying laddies obviously come from better nourished genetic stock. They are larger and more powerfully built, exactly what the formerly ginger national team manager is looking for.

Yes, this generation will come to fruition in the next 5 years I think.

[Marcus_Hibs]

I think another factor that doesn't help in British football is the young age that kids start playing on 11 a side pitches. Bundles of time on the ball, which is unrealistic compared to high level football & those moments are few and far between.

I worked at Brentford a few years back and they had a really good academy. I'd go down and watch the kids playing futsal and I thought that's definitely the way to go. 5-6 a side, lots of touches of the ball, learning close control and skill to get out of tight spaces etc. Then other days I'd watch the 12 year olds playing on the adult pitches, just standing around for ages waiting for a touch of the ball. When you factor in how few times a week they'll play a game, you could be looking at Less than 50 touches of the ball per week for some players. The coaching system definitely needs updating and I really think futsal is a big step in the right direction

[Onion]

Totally.

[angus hibby]

I’ve been coaching kids for the last 6 years or so. Just before my team reached under 9 level, I arranged a training match against another team in same age group. So here I was doing what I thought was best for 7 and 8 year old kids in giving them a game of football against another team.

Low and behold, because I hadn’t let the local football organisation know about the training match, I received a letter saying I had “brought the game into disrepute by playing an unauthorised match” and was summoned to make the 4 hour round trip to Hampden to explain my actions!

If powers at be are punishing folk who are trying to make kids better footballers, what chance have we got?

[Bishop Hibee]

Iceland has 30 full sized artificial pitches, 7 of which are indoors. Imagine for a minute Edinburgh having something similar. No, I can’t either sadly. Our council is so skint it’s selling facilities off or downgrading them.

[Marcus_Hibs]

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I’ve been coaching kids for the last 6 years or so. Just before my team reached under 9 level, I arranged a training match against another team in same age group. So here I was doing what I thought was best for 7 and 8 year old kids in giving them a game of football against another team.

Low and behold, because I hadn’t let the local football organisation know about the training match, I received a letter saying I had “brought the game into disrepute by playing an unauthorised match” and was summoned to make the 4 hour round trip to Hampden to explain my actions!

If powers at be are punishing folk who are trying to make kids better footballers, what chance have we got?

That just absolutely says it all, doesn't it? Laughable. Talk about totally missing the point and fighting the wrong battles

[Hibrandenburg]

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Iceland has 30 full sized artificial pitches, 7 of which are indoors. Imagine for a minute Edinburgh having something similar. No, I can’t either sadly. Our council is so skint it’s selling facilities off or downgrading them.

Every little village over here has it's own football team that is normally part of a larger sports club. I'm not sure of the exact numbers but I'd wager that Berlin alone has a few hundred full size artificial football pitches. Add to that, nearly every kids playground has a caged football area with an artificial playing surface. My boy got his first report card in school this year and as well as a grade for maths, German, English and all the usual subjects there was a grade for sport. It might be different now but back in my day sport was taught but never graded. Scotland has a lot of catching up to do.

[greenlex]

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Iceland has 30 full sized artificial pitches, 7 of which are indoors. Imagine for a minute Edinburgh having something similar. No, I can’t either sadly. Our council is so skint it’s selling facilities off or downgrading them.

They also jailed their bankers. Just saying.

[greenlex]

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Here's another thought.

Football is traditionally seen as being a working class game. How entrenched is that in our perceptions and does our footballing culture create barriers to children from different social backgrounds participating?

I know that there are players who come from fee paying schools, like Alex Harris, but they do seem to be a rare breed in our game. In Edinburgh approx 20% of high school children attend private schools.

It's a contentious point, but is there anything in it? Are we driving posh ****s away from the game?

I actually think it’s drifting away from working class or poorer backgrounds. If you have two kids at organised football,bearing in mind most of football is now organised, it’s exoensive. Certainly if you are on a small income paying a £5 or whatever for each of the to either train or play twice a week that’s a big hole in a small income not to mention the cost of boots and kit.

[where'stheslope]

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I actually think it’s drifting away from working class or poorer backgrounds. If you have two kids at organised football,bearing in mind most of football is now organised, it’s exoensive. Certainly if you are on a small income paying a £5 or whatever for each of the to either train or play twice a week that’s a big hole in a small income not to mention the cost of boots and kit.

Is it still working class when some players are being paid £49 million a year to kick a ball around twice a week?

Non De-script players are are being bought for a mere £30 or 40 million?

And even some players are hiring private jets to go to pop concerts?

I think the sooner it all goes belly up the better, then we might see the Famous winning the League, until then we just dream!!!!

[heretoday]

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Every little village over here has it's own football team that is normally part of a larger sports club. I'm not sure of the exact numbers but I'd wager that Berlin alone has a few hundred full size artificial football pitches. Add to that, nearly every kids playground has a caged football area with an artificial playing surface. My boy got his first report card in school this year and as well as a grade for maths, German, English and all the usual subjects there was a grade for sport. It might be different now but back in my day sport was taught but never graded. Scotland has a lot of catching up to do.

Excellent post.

We're hooked into the austerity thing. Money must be saved. Libraries are cutting hours. Public toilets are closing.

You have to go to the local pub to have a pee. What does that say? Go on, have a drink.......

[superfurryhibby]

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Every little village over here has it's own football team that is normally part of a larger sports club. I'm not sure of the exact numbers but I'd wager that Berlin alone has a few hundred full size artificial football pitches. Add to that, nearly every kids playground has a caged football area with an artificial playing surface. My boy got his first report card in school this year and as well as a grade for maths, German, English and all the usual subjects there was a grade for sport. It might be different now but back in my day sport was taught but never graded. Scotland has a lot of catching up to do.

Kids in high school in Scotland are given grades for PE too. Participation is compulsory.

I think you need to make like for like comparison. Berlin probably has a population of nearly 4 million people. It would be more relevant to compare us to a nation of roughly equivalent size than the capital city of one of one of Europe's largest nations. I would wager that there isn't 200 hundred full sized indoor pitches in the whole of Germany.

Most of our high schools have good facilities, although I notice that astro at our local high school are rarely used in the evenings, We definitely could do with more places to play that have lighting, in public parks and the like.

[superfurryhibby]

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I actually think it’s drifting away from working class or poorer backgrounds. If you have two kids at organised football,bearing in mind most of football is now organised, it’s exoensive. Certainly if you are on a small income paying a £5 or whatever for each of the to either train or play twice a week that’s a big hole in a small income not to mention the cost of boots and kit.

That's a fair point Lex, it does cost money to take part and buy kit etc. My middle boy does two organised sports (fencing and hockey) and it's roughly £50/ month in fees. A pal at work said that his laddie's boys club know that some folk find it hard to keep up with costs, but they also need the cash to cover facilities to train etc.

Another few points worth considering. We are a country with a small population but a large land mass. Although most of us live in the South of Scotland and up the Eastern seaboard, there are huge rural areas where facilities are harder to reach and sport is harder to organise. There must still be sizable numbers of people in the Highlands and Islands, Argyll and the like? There doesn't seem to be many pro players breaking through from these areas? Likewise, the Scottish Borders has rugby as it's main sport and no pro football team in a region a pretty large population, another swathe of folk less interested in football.

So, if we add up the middle classes, urban poor, folk from the Highlands and Borders, we're not connecting football to a fair chunk of our people?

[West lower]

The old firm stifles Scottish football, any challenge from another club and they either buy the opposition or unsettle the player: the sooner they are gone the better. Apparently Griffiths only became a player after a year or so at Celtic. It will be the same with Mcginn. Same old same old.

[GreenNWhiteArmy]

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The old firm stifles Scottish football, any challenge from another club and they either buy the opposition or unsettle the player: the sooner they are gone the better. Apparently Griffiths only became a player after a year or so at Celtic. It will be the same with Mcginn. Same old same old.

He only became a player after they'd accepted him. I had many run ins with Celtic "fans" I'm mates with at the time over whether Leigh was "good enough for Celtic"

Top player. Hope he gets a decent move in the summer

[Mibbes Aye]

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I think another factor that doesn't help in British football is the young age that kids start playing on 11 a side pitches. Bundles of time on the ball, which is unrealistic compared to high level football & those moments are few and far between.

I worked at Brentford a few years back and they had a really good academy. I'd go down and watch the kids playing futsal and I thought that's definitely the way to go. 5-6 a side, lots of touches of the ball, learning close control and skill to get out of tight spaces etc. Then other days I'd watch the 12 year olds playing on the adult pitches, just standing around for ages waiting for a touch of the ball. When you factor in how few times a week they'll play a game, you could be looking at Less than 50 touches of the ball per week for some players. The coaching system definitely needs updating and I really think futsal is a big step in the right direction

Lots of research around this, and the differing levels of touch you get dependent on the team size. The evidence is there that you get a lot more touches the smaller the team. It's a no-brainer that the more touches you get, the better you develop.

[anon1875]

Sky bought the premier league in 1995. Scotland last qualified in 1998 and haven't got a sniff since. I'm not saying this is the defining reason.

When was the last time you seen kids playing football in the street?

[West lower]

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Sky bought the premier league in 1995. Scotland last qualified in 1998 and haven't got a sniff since. I'm not saying this is the defining reason.

When was the last time you seen kids playing football in the street?

The old Hampden was also Scotland’s 12th man. We started knocking it down in 1990. It has been all downhill since then too for qualification.

[mca]

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When you have people of the 'calibre' of Regan and Doncaster as major players in our game, it's not hard to realise why it's in such a state !

[Eyrie]

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The old Hampden was also Scotland’s 12th man. We started knocking it down in 1990. It has been all downhill since then too for qualification.

So do we spend big money on rebuilding Hampden to provide a better atmosphere, or do we invest that money in youth football? More coaches, better trained coaches, better facilities, free/subsidised facilities etc?

The money has to come from within football, because there are more deserving societal needs than a sport when it comes to public money.

[Haymaker]

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Sky bought the premier league in 1995. Scotland last qualified in 1998 and haven't got a sniff since. I'm not saying this is the defining reason.

When was the last time you seen kids playing football in the street?

91/92 was it not? I thought the break away happened with SKYs backing in showing more live football?