Scottish Football Is Not Irrelevant.

Scottish Football Is Not Irrelevant.

I have noticed that recently people who want to put down Scottish football have been labelling it irrelevant. Loads of negative minded people have been saying that.  

I think only arrogant people without a sense of self-awareness would dismiss a sports league as irrelevant.

It is relevant to the people who play in the game, even if only a few hundred people play in front of a crowd of their family.

But it is a utter joke to call the Scottish Soccer scene as irrelevant.

From a historical and present perspective the Scottish league has never and is not irrelevant,

From the historical perspective;

The Scots were one of the first two nations to play international football.

Scotland was the best nation at international football in the 19^th century.

Scotland have been to 8 World Cups, and 3 European Championships at men’s football.

Scotland have been to a Women’s World Cup and Women’s European Championship.

Scotland were one of the nations that encouraged the global take-up of soccer.

Aberdeen, Rangers and Celtic have won European trophies.

Dundee United have reached a European final.

Scotland have produced great managers such as Sir Alex Ferguson, Jock Stein, Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Graeme Souness, Alex McLeish, Gordon Strachan, Derek McInnes, Alex Smith, Joe Jordan, Dave Halliday, Billy McNeill, John Greig, Eddie Turnbull, Jim McLean, Steve Clarke, Craig Brown, Walter Smith, Bill Struth, William Maley, Hugh Shaw, Andy Roxburgh, Scott Symon, George Ramsay, Alex Mackie, Frank Watt, Matt McQueen, Johnny Cochrane, Kenny Dalglish, George Graham, Tommy Docherty, Willie Waddell and others.

Great players like Kenny Daglish, Denis Law, Jim Leighton, Alex McLeish, Willie Miller, Billy McNeill, Graeme Souness, Gordon Strachan, John Greig, Jimmy Johnstone, Joe Harper, Ron Yeats, Iain St John, Darren Fletcher, Gordon Smith, Bobby Johnstone, Lawrie Reilly, Eddie Turnbull, Willie Ormond, John Collins, Tom Boyd, Paul McStay, Kenny Miller, Colin Stein, Asa Hartford, Billy Bremner, Scott Brown, Barry Ferguson, Roy Aitken, Richard Gough, Eric Black, Jimmy McGrory, Kris Boyd, John Robertson, Joe Jordan, Alan Hansen, Jim Bett, Davie Cooper, Stevie Nicol, Steve Archibald, Alan Hutton, John Campbell, Alex Young, David McLean, Willie Moir, Eoin Jess,, Duncan Shearer, Charlie Nicholas, Alan Gilzean, Mark McGhee, Benny Yorston, Brian McClair, Hughie Gallacher, Lawrie Reilly, Ally McCoist, Kenny Miller, Robert Hamilton, James McFadden, Mo Johnston, Robert Smyth McColl, Andrew Wilson, John McDougall, Jimmy Quinn, Derek Johnstone, John Smith, Ted MacDougall, Andy Gray, Robert Snodgrass, Billy Steel, Alex Jackson, Jimmy Ross and many others.

 

There are also big Scottish names in women’s football history such as Caroline Weir, Erin Cuthbert, Kim Little, Jen Beattie, Jane Ross, and Rose Reilly who were from Scotland.

 

There have been great non-Scottish players who have played in Scottish football such as Zoltan Varga, Henrik Larsson, Brain Laudrup, Paul Gascoigne, Terry Butcher, Ray Wilkins, Trevor Steven, Genaro Gattuso, Pierre van Hooijdonk, Marco Negri, Adam Rooney, Roy Keane, George Best, Chris Woods, Chris Waddle, Theo Snelders, Paul Elliot, Mark Hateley, Paolo Di Canio, John Harston, Robbie Keane, David Healy, Mark Viduka, Lorenzo Amoruso, Chris Sutton, Shunsuke Nakamura, Stefan Johansen, Claudio Reyna, Georgi Nemsadze, Nacho Novo, Michael Mols, Shota Arveladze, Ronald de Boer, Arthur Numan, Frank de Boer, Stefan Klos, Russell Latapy, Peter Løvenkrands, Tore André Flo, Hans Gillhaus, Mark Walters, Craig Bellamy, Andrei Kanchelskis , Hicham Zerouali, Mateusz Żukowski, Marius Žaliūkas, Maciej Żurawski, Juninho, Steve Davis, Kyle Lafferty, Fabrizio Ravanelli, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Claudio Caniggia, MIkel Arteta, Oleg Salenko, Jorge Cadete, Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Jorg Albertz.

 

How can that be declared as irrelevant to football history?

There have been great clubs like Glasgow Celtic, Glasgow Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs, Dundee United, Dundee, Queen’s Park, Motherwell and others.

The record official attendance for a club game in the UK is in the 1937 Scottish Cup Final between Aberdeen and Glasgow Celtic.

Hampden has hosted 3 European Cup / Champions League Finals. Plus one UEFA Cup and two European Cup Winners Cup Finals.

Dundee United has hosted a UEFA Cup Final.

Aberdeen has hosted a UEFA Super Cup Final.
Ibrox has hosted a European Cup Winners Cup Final and a European Super Cup Final.

Scotland hosted 4 games in the EURO 2020.

 

Even now at this point in June 2022.

Scotland qualified for the last European Championship.

Scotland reached the play-offs for the World Cup.

Looking back at last season Glasgow Rangers reached the Europa League Final.

Glasgow Celtic made it past Christmas in Europe.  

Glasgow Rangers had international plyers from Nigeria, Zambia, Jamaica, Croatia, Canada, Colombia, and Wales.

Glasgow Celtic had internationals from Japan, the USA, Australia, Israel, Sweden, Croatia, and England,

The Old Firm were getting attendances of over 50,000 for some games.

Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs and Dundee United had good average attendances last season.

 

People are still linking Scottish players with big moves to other leagues. To go with the many top players who play in the big 5 leagues of Europe.

Players like Lewis Ferguson and Calvin Ramsay have been linked with big movies to the big 5 leagues of Europe.

There are top players moving to the Scottish soccer scene. With links from top players all over the World coming to Scotland.

There should very likely be a Scottish team in next season’s Champions League Group Stages.

There will be other Scottish sides playing in the Europa League and Europa Conference League.

Plus to the people of Scotland, Scottish football is the most relevant to their lives, A nation of over 5 million people sees football as it’s national sport. There is no way that can be seen as irrelevant.

It is utter nonsense to say that Scottish football is irrelevant when you consider the hundreds of thousands of people who watch or play the game in country each year.

Scotland has and is relevant to football.

No matter what results Scotland has over the next decade at club and international football. Scotland has had a vital part in global football.