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Scotland play Holland on March 28 - but who will win?

Burley wants government help to reach major finals

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Published Date: 27 October 2009
By Gavin McCAFFERTY
GEORGE Burley has called for more government funding to help Scotland qualify for major championships in future years.
The national team manager argues the Scottish Government should be providing more facilities and schemes to encourage youngsters to hone their skills.

Burley, speaking at an event to raise money for the Scottish Huntington's Association, pointed
to the investment made in indoor sports facilities in countries such as Denmark.

The Danes qualified for the World Cup finals this month, while Burley failed to lead Scotland to the play-offs.

"We haven't got the facilities, we haven't got the backing from the government," Burley said.

"We played football four or five hours a day. We played in school, in the park, for boys' clubs. These days, you see 15 to 16-year-olds who can hardly trap a ball.

"Sports science and diet has improved but the basic skills were much better then because we practised from an early age."

Burley, who signed for Ipswich at the age of 15, added: "If you can give children more opportunities, like myself, coming from a mining community in Cumnock, surely that's good for society?"

SFA Chief Executive Gordon Smith is involved in discussions with the government to seek ways of boosting his efforts to get children more involved in the sport.

Despite his fears, Burley is convinced the SFA are making strides. "I think we're going the right way," he added. "I think it's going to take time to develop young players. We all recognise that.

"It's important we try to get more new facilities. You look at Toryglen (Football Centre), which is fantastic, and we need more of that. Can we lobby the government more and get more money because the Scottish FA haven't got the money to do it all."





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  • Last Updated: 26 October 2009 10:15 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Scotland's football team
 
1

,

27/10/2009 01:55:16
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
2

North Perth Hibby,

27/10/2009 07:27:32
First Brady, now Burley looking for compassion!
3

Tynietiger,

27/10/2009 07:35:25
Send for Jim Murphy after him saving the Union and Rangers.
4

Hibernia,

27/10/2009 07:41:34
Why is Burley bleating about getting facilities for youngsters, we have plenty decent youngsters playing at a good level yet he never picks them for a squad or if he does he doesnt actually play them.
5

Dundee Pie,

Stop making excuses 27/10/2009 08:01:20
Stop making excuses before euro qualifiers start. There are plenty of players to choose from. Just qualify (that's all), without blaming governments.
1st choice Gordon
2nd choice Marshal

1st choice Whittaker Saunders Reynolds Wallace
2nd choice Hutton McManus Berra Driver
3rd choice S Caldwell G Caldwell Crainey

1st Choice D. Fletcher
2nd Choice Robson
3rd choice Forbes

1st choice Naismith Brown S. Fletcher McFadden
2nd choice Commons Morrison Dorrans Maloney
3rd choice Burke Davis Adam O'Connor

1st choice McCormack
2nd choice Riordan
3rd choice K. Miller

Qualify, please in this life time ..... please I'm begging.
6

Stoo,

27/10/2009 08:05:29
Maybe after they have paid back the public money p!ssed away on hampden.
7

Star o' Rabbie Burns,

New Cumnock, CUMNOCK 27/10/2009 09:07:51
For as long as our SPL clubs spend money they don't have on second-rate foreigners; ignore the claims of home-grown youngsters; over-charge for an inferior product; do not have a feasible long-term development plan either for players or the game as a whole including a viable pyramid system - then Scottish football has no right to ask for government money which would be better spent on decent housing or the many other social issues which blight Scotland.
8

Deadpan,

London 27/10/2009 09:23:42
By mentioning Denmark Burley does highlight a shocking disparity between two similarly sized nations. I read recently that 70% of the entire Danish population are members of their local sports club. This ranges from kids experiencing a range of new sports for the first time in a fun environment through the whole spectrum of participation to older members of society using them for social reasons and to volunteer to help the kids.

The equivalent figure in Scotland is 0.7%.

I don't think I need say any more.
9

Media for one,

27/10/2009 09:25:17
Burley is right to ask for government assistance and for once at least someone is taking positive steps to make sonething happen. For too long, NOTHING has been done.
There are many opinions on why Scotland suffers such a dismal sporting record, but in my opinion only one reason applies - Psyche!
The Germans take to the field AND THE STANDS in the combined belief that they will win, because winning is part and parcel of their make-up. Italy has it, Brazil has it, Argentina has it, The All Blacks have it, the Aussies have it, The Springboks have it, England has it, France has it, Scotland don't.
If you do a study of ALL the nations with 3 to 10 million people and then find the ones whos national sport is football, Scotland is a distant last when it comes to overall performance. You will find that nations like Croatia have been to the semi-finals of the European Nations Cup, they have made it to the Q/f of a world cup and they are also world handball champions, they have won the world basketball cup and they even have world class skiers. Denmark has won the European Nations Cup, so has Greece - Scotland has never been past the first round!
10

Media for one,

27/10/2009 09:29:08
So government must get involved with the SFA and SPL and all the managers and look at a way of getting the Scottish pshyche changed to a more positive attitude. Not just for football, but also for rugby and other sport. With this paradigm shift in attitude, other things will also begin to change. Business, economy, school work, social responsibilites, life in general will change if the people involved take the time and the effort to change the psyche!
It can be done, first we need to know where we want to go and then seek professional assistance in getting there. Government is a good start on a road that will take us in many different directions but ultimately to one destination.
We dont need to be world champions at everything, but you do want to be a serious challenger!
11

ATB,

Edinburgh 27/10/2009 09:55:35
George, the government should do NOTHING until football can show that it put it's own house in order.

Step 1. The SFA NOT THE GOV should create a single unitary authority.

Step 2. Make the professional clubs accountable for providing development assistance to local clubs and schools.

Step 3. As per the SRU, every registered football club should have an assigned SFA funded development officer to work with on a national development curriculum.

IT'S NOT HARD SO STOP WHINING AND GET ON AND DO IT.

Or is it too hard because there are too many people interested in retaining their own cushy jobs? Or - and this is where we are and always will be different from countries like Denmark - ALL THE POWER LIES WITH ONLY 2 CLBS AND THEIR MEDIA LAPDOGS????????
12

Media for one,

27/10/2009 10:00:03
ATB - It is all about psyche!
13

ATB,

27/10/2009 10:08:48
Media for one - I suppose it is. But it starts with having the psyche to be bold and get on and do what needs to be done. This type of leadership needs to come from within the SFA. They need to start with the attitude that everyone in football is either part of the solution - or will be dealt with as part of the problem. Once they have demonstrated this, they have the right organisational psyche, then they can ask for government assistance. I'f afraid all that this type of article does is say that it's "someone else's problem"
14

MagnumOpusium,

27/10/2009 10:34:42
The various daily papers are full of ill-informed speculation regarding Rangers finances. Let me give you the facts:

1) Since SDM took over in the 80's, Rangers have used short-term bank finance as leverage to increase the annual operating base at the club.
2) Previously, SDM had the liquidity in his other businesses to underwrite this model.
3) SDM no longer has the liquidity in his other operations, nor does the bank have the inclination to continue to fund the club in this way.

The net result is that Rangers have to further reduce the cost base until the current "owner" is replaced.

Simples.

The future is bright, the futures blue and white.
15

MagnumOpusium,

27/10/2009 10:37:53
The reason I used "owner" in quotes is that an institution of Rangers size cannot be owmed by anyone other than the fans. The majority shareholder is simply a trustee/temporary steward.

The famous Glasgow Rangers, 137 years of unsurpassed dignity.
16

Gordieboy,

Musselburgh 27/10/2009 10:49:04
Right idea, wrong time.

It's abundantly obvious that investment is required right across the sporting spectrum in Scotland, but it ain't going to happen while the economy is cream-crackered.

Hopefully someone somewhere in authority is listening though, and these ideas are given a fair hearing once governments are actually capable of investing in peripheral stuff like sports again.
17

Media for one,

27/10/2009 10:58:07
Gordieboy - It is never the wrong time, if they say it is, they are shirking!
A nations pshyche is to a large degree dependent on government, and in the case of Scottish sport in general the attitude is small doggish and lacks confidence.
It is time for a change in psyche! A new league is needed, a new format is needed, a new and accountable style of management is needed not only in the dressing room but more importantly in the board room.
Scottish classrooms need to be filled with belief that they can achieve whatever they like because they are Scottish - This CAN be achieved, whether the nations wants it is up for question.
18

Bosco Bhoy68,

27/10/2009 11:05:29
Mandy at 15 suggests that the future at Ibrox is "bright".

We can only speculate to what type of drug he is currently using at the moment.

This absurd level of self delusion and willingness to take in any of the BS that eminates from RFC is the very reason the bears are now staring into the abyss.

The pathetic bravado and 'no surrender' sentiment only makes it more funnier and it is going to be amusing as a Celt seeing this play out over the weeks and months to come.

Hail Hail
19

Bosco Bhoy68,

27/10/2009 11:13:56
Re the article Burley has a point, to a degree, about young fella's not posessing the basic skills but spending millions will still not gaurantee that in years to come that this will change.

Its fair to say that the young Africans and South Americans who populate the EPL now proably came from a nation were resources such as training facilities may have been limited.
But it was the hunger and motivation of these individuals that got them where they are now.
Harry Redknapp said recently that white working class kids nowadays no longer have the desire to compete with the kids from abroad and that is the point.
Our kids cant be bothered getting off their a-r-s-e and stop playing FIFA 10 on the xbox and go out and do it for real on a cold windy night in February.
20

Media for one,

27/10/2009 11:18:09
Bosco Bhoy - Who cares about Celtic or Rangers in these times of crisis in Scottish football? It is no secret that this current crop of Rangers team is the worst in their history and they are still champions - as one pundit said, perhaps Celtic's only chance of levelling the league title haul is for Rangers to turn off the lights for 10 years.
But back to the plight of Scottish football, the nation needs assistance and government can help!
21

Media for one,

27/10/2009 11:24:28
Bosco Bhoy - As you rightly said in the post above, African kids with no hope made it because they were determined to make it. Kids like Wayne Rooney make it for the same reasons!
Germany is a wealthy country, so is France, life in New Zealand, Australia and middle class South Africa is a breeze, wealth is all about and they perform on the sports fields regardless that Playstations are in every home.
Scottish psyche is the problem! I am telling you, until the attitudes in Scotland change the results will be the same.
22

Bosco Bhoy68,

27/10/2009 11:37:50
Media 22

Yeah of course the African and South American kids have the greater hunger and then you raise the issue of German and Soth African middle class kids.

Here's a wee bit of anecdotal evidence. Few years back me mrs and kids went to camp site in France for a couple of weeks. Campsite 20 miles from Nice and it was jammed with Scots, Irish, Germans, Dutch, Italians and Scandanavians.

What i noticed was that most of the Scots and Irish kids sat at the pool were the other children did serious amount of swimming. The Scots and Irish kids participated in very few of the sports competitions available at the site and needless to say the continentals lapped it up on the tennis court or basketball court.

Sorry but our kids are often lazy wee s-h-oites.
23

Media for one,

27/10/2009 11:53:55
Bosco Bhoy -

You are 100% correct and this is where government comes in.
I have seen it with my own eyes and lived it. In Scotland I did not need to do sport at school, so I played football in the streets, there was no play station or I may have indulged.
When I enrolled in school in SA I was immediately informed that I would be playing sport and here is the thing. In Middle to upper class South Africa which includes about 4 million whites and 6 million blacks, almost EVERY government school has a football field, two rugby fields, hockey fields, tennis courts, athletic tracks, cricket nets and pitches, netball courts, gymnasiums and swimming pool. Inter house competitions are competative and inter school competitions are intense. The whole school goes to support the athletes and the rugby team and it has been like that for decades. The sun shines a lot so weather is a bonus, but every kid has a playstation, every kid has a pool in their garden yet they are out there playing rugby, cricket and football. The belief in kids in SA is that they will always win. And when the people schools believe that, the people playing sport believe that, the people in the stands believe that and professionals believe that, you win two rugby world cups and become the number one test and limited overs side in the world.
Interestingly enough about SA is that football is a game adopted and played by almost all of the black population, football is a black SA sport. And in SA the poverty stricken areas we often hear about are black, yet football talent isnt coming through, whereas cricket and rugby is. WHY? Becuase the people who run cricket and rugby are proactive, responsible and capable of progress. So maybe the SFA needs to take a long hard look at itself and ask if it is capable.
24

Media for one,

27/10/2009 11:59:48
Bosco Bhoy - Do you not think that compulsory sport in Scotland would be a very good idea?
25

Bosco Bhoy68,

27/10/2009 12:14:31
24 Media

Much of that desire,hunger and focus starts at home.
Just like respect for elders, a work ethic or not having the need to get hammered when out drinking all stems from how you were raised ( most of the time).

Govt's are IMHO severly limited in how they can input into peoples set of values and how they approach life such as sporting endeavour.
It can be done but usually takes decades and a generation or 2.
Strachan and the head of the RFC academy were right when they talked about it being a 'societal problem'
26

Lion-O "Lord Of The ThunderCats,

27/10/2009 12:16:23
Serioursly George, you expect the government to give George Peat and his cronies millions of our money to do what they want with it??

Get a professional SFA in place first before you start asking for our cash, otherwise we are all aware that it will get wasted as it always has done in the past.

How do we expect the SFA to turn into a forward thinking organisation when they still preserve the committee system from the 1800's and can take 6 months to decide whether to uphold a ban or not??
27

Bosco Bhoy68,

27/10/2009 12:21:15
25 Media

No probs with compulsory sport but you still face the uphill battle of what is going on in their homelife and what values are they surrounded by.

A few years back a documentary showed how a school head tried to put a healthy menu on during lunchtime in a working class comp in England.

Most of the parents were against it on the grounds of 'individual choice/freedom' and many of them bought burgers chips etc and handed them in through the school fence to their fat children.

amazing to watch.
28

Media for one,

27/10/2009 12:26:42
Bosco Bhoys - Was that Jamies school dinners? It was on SA television recently. Amazing how a man who was trying to assist in a completely positive manner found such resistance along the way.
Some people tell me that sport is not something that all kids aspire to so it cannot work. But to them I say acadamia is not something that all students aspire to but they must still attend school.
This is a long term excercise, the current parents are important but the kids of today if involved in compulsory sport will learn morals, responsibility, relationships, committment etc and in time they will become paretns and bingo - the next generation reap the rewards! It can work, it really can work!
29

Bosco Bhoy68,

27/10/2009 12:36:18
Media
I agree it can work but as someone who works with teenagers and runs 2 under 12 teams,one for soccer and the other Gaelic football i can only re-iterate the words of the top coaches when they say its getting harder to get young people to make sacrifices and work hard for something in the long term.

Some can and do but the majority live in this x factor world of instant easy sucess and the riches that follow.

Just months before the Beijing Olympics i read an article in the Times about the Chinese approach to sport via their sports academies.

In the article they had a picture of 5 kids aged between 5 to 7 hanging on a bar a foot off the ground and it said that as part of their training they need to hold themselves off the ground for up to 10 to 12 minutes 3 times per day.

You imagine our kids trying that or the people who would chat about child abuse etc etc?
30

Media for one,

27/10/2009 12:44:29
Bosco Bhoy - Yes you are right, instant success without the work that comes with it appears to be a problem in Scotland. Maybe that has something to do with the dole?
Do you think that a system of paid benefit would work? In other words, people do community service for their dole money thus instilling a sense of pride in them, a sense of achievment? And whilst doing so maybe it would make the average tax payer more aware of the problems that some people have in getting out of difficult situations? At the moment it is a take, take, take and give nothing back system which is perhaps rubbing off on our kids?
31

Mike Hunt 31,

Greenock 27/10/2009 14:09:28
Surely you've got to be joking here ?

Why should the hard pressed taxpayers of this country stump up to support a sport where the players are paid more in a week than these same taxpayers earn in a year?????
32

Media for one,

27/10/2009 14:26:43
Mike Hunt -

You are looking at the small picture, try and imagine the bigger picture. Burley is asking for government support and he should get it. That in my opinion does NOT MEAN finance in terms of some cash injection that will be squandered aimlessly. Perhaps government can sit with the footballing and other sporting authorities and discuss complulsory sport at school and how it would need to be managed.
At this stage it is just a request for government involvement, which is nothing yet but an aim in the right direction and more than any person in the SFA has done in 15 years.
33

El Hef,

The Mansions 27/10/2009 16:48:39
Cooperation between the govt and the footballing authorities makes great sense.
34

El Hef,

27/10/2009 17:01:14
Kids in Scotland need more excersise. The government can spend millions on advertising in TV, press, radio etc about the importance of getting kids active and it can then spend billions on the treating the health problems caused by that inactivity and pretend its trying its best.

Or, it could get serious and promote football from primary one in schools. Football is the number one sport in Scotland and even kids that are not toogoodat it enjoy pklaying it and have an interest in it. Plus the facilities are already there. Show me a school in scotland that doesnt have a pitch? Show me a school that doesnt have an indoor gym hall. And these days more and more are gaining all weather pitches.

But do the Education authorities and the SFA want to get together and promote it as a healthy, wholesome sport that benefits purely through the physical exertion as well as the character building lessons that all sports provide kids?

Yes, the Govt should spend money on promoting football in schools because it quite simply is the most 'enjoyed' sport among scottish kids..it gets kids moving as much as any sport (and must be better than most) and guess what, its cheap to play...in most instances you only need a ball.
35

peteedinburgh,

Edinburgh 27/10/2009 17:36:31
You ran this same story yesterday.

I stick by my comments there. Why should Govt money (i.e our taxes) go to prop up a set of badly run entertainemnt businesses that can't be bothered to invest their own income in their own futures by building future resources such as coaching a set of players. Instead its short term fixes of expensive imported players.
36

Media for one,

27/10/2009 18:05:03
peteedinedinburgh - Why should government not try and better the lives of the young people of Scotland?
37

,

27/10/2009 18:56:03
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
38

Mike Hunt 31,

Greenock 28/10/2009 10:00:06
Rock Lobster - the point is that the request from George Burley is specifically for football, and not for all sports. ("GEORGE Burley has called for more government funding to help Scotland qualify for major championships in future years.")

Football is probably the only sport with the money to afford it. It's players are paid astronomical wages, and you have clubs that can afford to fork out £12 million for a single player. Let them pay their own way without the rest of us having to subsidise them.
39

Old Cartha Boy,

28/10/2009 10:40:06
George B is even more out of touch with reality than I had thought possible. So now it's the Government's fault that Scotland have failed miserably to get to the World Cup? - sorry George, that was your job and you blew it. Big time!

And before someone rants that Government gives Scottish football nothing, Hampden would still be a toilet without funding from both Tory and Labour Governments in the 1990s. The SFA remains a professional body run by blazered amateurs.

 

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