New UEFA Europa League Asks Serious Questions About Scottish Football

A whopping six Scottish clubs qualified for European competition this season, which in May seemed great for Scottish football, but the reality is a far different story.

Falkirk narrowly avoided relegation from the Scottish Premier League on the last day of the 08/09 season but qualified for the UEFA Europa League through their Scottish Cup Final appearance, where they lost 1-0 to SPL champions Rangers.

The Bairns, who lost manager John Hughes to Hibernian in pre-season, were in no shape for European competition and crashed out 2-1 on aggregate in the second qualifying round to Liechtenstein’s FC Vaduz, a team which competes in the Swiss Challenge League.

However, this was not the embarrassing bit for Scottish football.

Desperate Times

Motherwell qualified for Europe via the fair play league having finished seventh in the SPL last season, which to those not up to speed on Scottish football, is in the bottom half of a 12-team league.

They were another team who had lost their manager, Mark McGhee, to Aberdeen as well as half their squad in the off-season.

So it was up to a few older players and a bunch of kids to uphold Scotland’s honour in European competition as they entered the Europa League at its first round.

But despite a shaky first leg against Welsh club Llanelli where they lost 1-0 at home, Motherwell came through 3-0 in the second leg to set up a second-round tie with Albanian outfit Flamurtari Vlore.

The Scottish side again lost the first leg 1-0 but again won the second, this time by a massive eight goals to one.

Maybe Scottish football was healthier than we all thought.

Dark Thursday night

With the competition entering its third qualifying round, it was time to welcome Scotland’s third biggest club Aberdeen into European action.

And enter European action they did on the 30th of July, alongside the battle-hardened Motherwell.

Aberdeen had a new manager (the former Motherwell manager Mark McGhee) but the very least was still expected.

There would be 100 percent effort, from a hard-working Scottish side.

But what Scotland got was one of its worst-ever European defeats (5-1 at home to the Czech Republic’s Sigma Olomouc) on the back of Celtic’s 1-0 humbling at home by Dynamo Moscow in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers the previous night.

Poor Motherwell never stood a chance and went down 3-0 at home to Romanian giants, Steaua Bucharest.

Perspective

Too add a little food for thought these matches took place a full two weeks before the Scottish season kicks off (Aug. 16) and were against clubs, well into their domestic championships.

The question is, with Scotland falling further and further behind England not just on the pitch but also financially, is it not time for Scotland to think about summer football?

With summer football, Scottish clubs wouldn’t be battling against good teams in Europe who have a head start; they would simply be battling good teams on a level playing field.

And it wouldn’t just be the smaller Scottish clubs to benefit; Rangers and Celtic would benefit too. With no summer football in Britain surely TV deals would go through the roof with every broadcaster in Europe wanting a piece of Rangers v Celtic in early July.

With all Scottish teams struggling financially following the collapse of Setanta UK and clubs looking distinctly mediocre in Europe it would seem that surely change is needed.

What the Old Firm think

Celtic manager Tony Mowbray is against the idea of summer football despite watching his side come out second best to a Dynamo Moscow side over 10 games into the Russian League season.

The Glasgow giants were a step behind their Moscow opponents and will lose millions of pounds if they cannot overcome the result in the second leg; another game played before the start of the Scottish League season.

On the other side of the fence, Rangers manager Walter Smith supports the idea of change to the Scottish schedule and has whispered the idea of an earlier start to the SPL, which would incorporate a winter shut down.

Scottish football would surely benefit from playing in the summer months and not just in European competition.

There would be more time to play football before the soggy, muddy pitches come to the fore as winter draws in and better football would mean bigger crowds as fans turn up in T-shirts instead of two coats, gloves, hat and scarf!

And finally it would benefit amateur players and the kids of the future, who wouldn’t have game after game cancelled in the winter and who would definitely learn better technique over a summer season which would be far more enjoyable.

Until any changes are made though, Scottish football will suffer.

Falkirk will almost certainly have been joined by Motherwell and Aberdeen on the European scrapheap when the Play-off round of the UEFA Europa League action kicks off.

Scotland will certainly not be expecting much of Heart of Midlothian (another Scottish club in crisis) when they step into the firing line on Aug. 20.