SCOTLAND'S historic pre-eminence in football has always appeared to have had something in common with Great Britain controlling an empire on which the sun never set. In retrospect, it seems clear that the improbability of a small nation lording it over much larger rivals was a phenomenon of its time, one whose end would be inevitable.
The colonies have long since been lost, while evidence of this country's decline in the world's most popular sport has been growing more convincing with each passing year. Nobody these days could argue with any persuasiveness that football's global f
amily still number the Scots among its well-to-do members.
It would be naive to reflect on last Sunday's pedestrian and inspiration-free Old Firm match as the final proof of a racking poverty, but the event could reasonably be regarded as an indicator of a depressing present and the likelihood of a future that offers little encouragement.
Portents of this dispiriting season were evident in its earliest days, when Rangers were eliminated from Europe in the first week of August, and two of the other three representatives, Motherwell and Queen of the South, went the same way by the end of that opening month.
Celtic's automatic entry into the group phase of the Champions League would ensure the Parkhead club a handy financial return, but their failure to beat the Danish champions, Aalborg, in their opening match in Glasgow – a tedious, scoreless draw – hinted strongly at their ultimate ignominy, finishing bottom of the section and confined to the domestic game for the remainder of the campaign.
Walter Smith and Gordon Strachan both offered the same defence of their teams' humiliation, arguing that, in a tough arena, it was no more surprising than their achievements of a few months earlier, when Rangers reached the final of the Uefa Cup and Celtic made the last 16 of the premier tournament for the second successive year. They concluded that this season's dishonour was no more indicative of a deep-rooted, possibly permanent deterioration than last season's distinctions were of a long-term resurgence.
These specific comparisons, however, do not cater for the visual evidence of a fall in playing standards and performance levels and the Scottish game's seemingly ever-strengthening relationship with mediocrity. The Old Firm's achievements in Europe last year, themselves a source of surprise, served primarily to underline the extent of the slide just a few months later.
Neither Smith nor Strachan, of course, could be expected to offer public condemnation of the product they are trying to promote, but the intensity and virtual unanimity of the opprobrium that has followed the latest meeting of their teams suggests a widespread disaffection that could have serious repercussions.
It should be stressed that a substantial number of those supporters – very possibly a majority – who have expressed their disgust through constant exhortations to the Glasgow giants to "loosen the purse strings" and buy more quality players remain unaware of the present difficulties in complying with their wishes.
Rangers have already made it plain that they have not the money to embark on such a course of action. But Celtic, who do, are consistently thwarted in their attempts by the reluctance of players of genuine international quality to re-locate to the Scottish Premier League. In this respect, the prospects for recovery remain bleak; the more disreputable the game becomes, the less likelihood of attracting those who could effect the required improvement.
Even if one or two could be persuaded, there would remain another obstacle, their wage demands. No manager or chief executive could afford to risk dressing-room insurrection by offering one player earnings that are considerably higher than the club's stated maximum.
But the clubs are not alone in their plight. The national team has not re-visited a major championship for 11 years, an objective that was, for the 24 years before 1998, regularly attained. This undistinguished decade is attributable solely to the country's plummeting reputation for producing high-quality players in significant numbers.
Under George Burley, the present squad's chances of reaching next year's World Cup are already jeopardised by largely moderate performances in the first three matches of the qualifying series, during which five points have been shed. If it is accepted that the Group 9 favourites, the Netherlands, are emphatically superior to their rivals, it is distressing that Scotland should be anxious about securing second place – and a possible appearance in the play-offs – ahead of such co-contestants as Iceland, Macedonia and Norway.
Every outing for the Scotland team these days is an ordeal of uncertainty, a trial of loyalty to which so many, astonishingly, still respond with unflagging support. That allegiance is rooted in a tradition that is rapidly being eroded by under-achievement. Perhaps most alarming of all is the possibility that Scottish football could eventually confound one of the eternal verities: the one that says hope springs eternal.
The full article contains 836 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
