Have a look at the part in bold


Courtesy: The Herald


Scotland must now grasp thistle

by Alan campbell

THE future of professional football in Scotland could ultimately depend on the success, or otherwise, of the performance strategy which the Scottish Football Association is expected to unveil this week.

It’s as stark as that, because developing a much better standard of player is the only realistic way Scotland’s clubs can achieve financial stability and reverse the downward spiral they find themselves in.

It is an indisputable fact that Scotland has never adequately replaced the street and public park culture which formerly produced so many outstanding footballers. The sport’s insistence on existing in an isolated bubble has only contributed to its problems, although, to be fair, the youth initiative was a reasonable concept. Clearly, though, it has fallen far short of what is required.

Yet, despite the abundant evidence of our footballers’ shortcomings, expectations from the public and media remain high. This is both illogical and baffling.

Having a relatively small population need not necessarily be a handicap in world football, but nor is it any kind of advantage. As the performance strategy will make clear, Scotland needs to over-invest in youth development, and in a way that is smarter and very different from anything that has gone before, if there is to be any chance of the footballing success so many crave.

The current state of play was graphically illustrated at Easter Road on October 11 last year. That was nothing to do with Hibernian, though. The eye-opener was Scotland’s under-21 side being emphatically beaten by their Icelandic counterparts – both on the night and on aggregate. Iceland? Has it really come to that?

The answer is yes, and that match confirmed a number of points. Firstly, Iceland’s young players are faster and fitter than ours, while their youth development is also better and more scientific than ours. Furthermore, their indoor facilities are vastly superior, and nothing that is currently happening in the youth initiative is going to make matters significantly better.

Which is why we should be grateful, in a classic case of better late than never, that the SFA decided last summer to invest time and money commissioning the performance strategy. At last we have something that has not just been produced from within the game itself, and which has a depth of knowledge to draw from the experience of successful British sports like swimming and cycling.

It will, most likely, attract knee-jerk criticism from the dinosaurs who will point out that Denis Law and Jimmy Johnstone didn’t need a performance strategy to become world-class footballers. But for those tuned into the 21st century, it offers a welcome platform to give our talented young footballers – and they do still exist – the opportunity to become the best they can be.

To do that, the thousands of hours which the Laws and Johnstones spent unconsciously honing their footballing skills on our streets and parks have somehow to be replicated. The performance strategy aims to do just that by increasing the average amount of meaningful football practice from the 200 hours a year which most Clydesdale Bank Premier League clubs currently offer to 1000 hours.

It will seek to do so by combining football with education. The template has already been set down by Celtic and Dundee United, and the SFA will now attempt to establish a number of football performance schools around the country. Elite boys, and girls, will turn up for S1 classes at 7.30am, work on their skills for almost two hours, and then repeat the exercise after school. Swimmers have been doing it for decades – rather sadly, football is only now catching up.

Increasing practice time five-fold is a powerful step forward, and it will be accompanied by better and more focused club academies. There will be eight to 10 elite academies, and clubs will have to apply to the SFA for that status. Celtic, Hearts, Hibs and Rangers are four who already have excellent facilities in place. Although most of the academies will be attached to Premier League clubs others, such as Falkirk (based at Stirling University), may fulfil the criteria.

While clubs will continue to have the main responsibility for elite development from S1 upwards, the SFA will be responsible for those from the age of four upwards. In an entirely sensible move, the youth football season will move from March to November, with futsal introduced in the winter months. That Brazil, Spain and Netherlands are the nations which embrace futsal most wholeheartedly tells you all you need to know.

If the clubs play their part, they will not only be producing better footballers, but ones who can be sold on to make their financial operations more viable.


Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com