The level of seriousness Scotland attaches to the national debate over “summer football” can be judged easily: a couple of kicks from Greg Stewart and Gary Mackay-Steven and it vanished. Not only were the knives being sharpened for Aberdeen the other night by those of us in the media charged with delivering tablets of stone on the gravity of losing to teams from Luxembourg, Lithuania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but the knackered old argument about changing the SPFL calendar was being readied yet again to be held up as the panacea.
Something unusual happened when Aberdeen’s two new signings popped in those late goals which took the air out of Siroki Brijeg’s balloon. Across social media there was an outpouring of, well, not exactly love, but definitely some respect and even a fair bit of admiration for Aberdeen snatching victory from the jaws of defeat in the Balkans. Above all there was a palpable sense of relief, almost right across the board.
For all the fun fans have at the expense of rivals who lose to some European no-marks — and for all the sniffy declarations some of us make about “embarrassments” and “humiliations” and “disgraces” and “the worst evers” — the message which came through loud and clear was that Scottish supporters as a whole have had enough of being kicked where it hurts.
Teams from Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Gibraltar have delivered knockouts or one-off wins against Scottish teams in recent seasons, and don’t we all wallow in it? The annual percussion of first and second qualifying round exits has driven Scotland’s Uefa country ranking down to 26th (as recently as 2009 it was ninth; back in 1984 it was fourth, better than Italy’s). Google coughs up lists with titles like “Scottish football’s most shameful European results” and “five other shockers from Scottish clubs in European football”.
Aberdeen going out to Siroki Brijeg would not have made it on to those grip charts, as deeply ordinary as the Bosnian cup winners were, but it would have prolonged the narrative of all SPFL teams below Celtic being out of their depth in Europe. It would have continued the reality of our annual contribution being reduced to Celtic lasting until Christmas and the others being out by July, beaten by humdrum opposition. Aberdeen’s result felt like a shot in the arm.
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In the newspaper business we would have carried pieces on the hopelessness and maybe even the crisis in Scottish football if Aberdeen’s carcass had been tossed on the pile with those of Rangers and St Johnstone. The TV and radio stations would have done similarly earnest pieces about our game’s decline.
The point is, if there are systemic problems and issues about Scotland’s attitude to European football then those flaws and issues are as relevant today as they would have been if Stewart and Mackay-Steven hadn’t found a way through on Thursday night.
You don’t build policies or revolutionise a sporting calendar based on weather vane opinions and whimsical reactions to one-off results. Scotland’s weakness in the Uefa tournaments is an established, seemingly endless reality and if Aberdeen lose to Apollon Limassol the national wailing and hand-wringing will rise again.
The Scottish Professional Football League holds its annual general meeting at Hampden on Monday. Is a change to the calendar high on the agenda, given the waves of negativity created by Rangers crashing to the fourth best team in Luxembourg and St Johnstone following them out of the Europa League after defeat to FK Trakai of Lithuania? No. Not only is it not top of the agenda, it isn’t scheduled to be discussed at all.
Any momentum which swells behind the case for summer football is generated by the media — mainstream and social — without gaining traction with the clubs themselves. If they wanted summer football, ie a March-November/December season, Scotland would have it. If they were committed to alleviating the problem for managers who must go with under-prepared players and teams for European games, in which their failures are mercilessly assessed, then Scotland would genuinely investigate how to change its schedule. Instead the status quo is under no threat.
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There is no desire among the clubs or governing bodies to take Scottish football out of the mainstream by switching away from an August-May schedule. Maybe there should be, so that the season finishes in, say, mid-March and resumes at the beginning of June in order to have teams up and running before the European qualifiers begin. But that causes problems too. The SPFL season would clash with the World Cup and European Championships every two years. What would happen if Scotland qualified? What would happen if Celtic lost half-a-dozen or more international players from countries which made it to those finals? Would Scottish football pause for the finals or trundle on regardless?
Derek McInnes admitted he had put Aberdeen’s progress “at risk” by going into the first leg undercooked. He should have arranged one more friendly, he admitted. That amounted to taking responsibility rather than simply blaming the calendar. Bluntly, the entire body of the Scottish game isn’t likely to shift to further the aims of two or three clubs in Europe. It is up to the clubs to be meticulous in their preparation, and to be as ready as they can be.
If Scottish football is to experiment with something more radical the time to do it will be around 2022 when the World Cup finals in Qatar are scheduled to go ahead from November 21 to December 18. That will force a winter closedown and an earlier start. Let’s see how Scottish teams do in Europe then.