Football and Fashion |

Peter Lawwell has recently made the announcement that he thinks that Neil Lennon is the greatest manager that Scottish football has ever seen. Mr Lawwell is the Chief Executive of Celtic football club and he has stated that he feels the manager is so notable because he has so successfully put up with the various threats that have been made to his life over the past decade.

Mr Lawwell made the comment that he feels no one in the history of Scottish football has had to endure as much abuse as Mr Lennon has. He commented, “He has faced an extraordinary amount of pressure that no one should have to go through.

“It is a testament to his strong character that he can deal with these problems and continue to work in a completely professional manner. We are grateful to the police for all of the efforts they have made to protect him and I feel this in part is one of the reasons why he has just been able to get on and succeed.”

As well as being sent bombs through the post, Mr Lennon has also been attacked during sporting fixtures. Mr Lawwell continued, “Over the last two years the pressure has been particularly extreme as he has had to deal with different attacks from numerous different people.”

Mr Lennon commented, “These last few years have been a very difficult time for my family and I. I am very glad that it is all over with the arrest of the people who were responsible for mailing me nail bombs.

The police have been incredibly professional and I am grateful that they have successfully brought these individuals to trial. No one deserves attacks like this, they are disturbing and cowardly. I still feel privileged to hold the position of Celtic manager.”

Plan for the future from Scottish football Fans

Football supporters have a unique vision for league football in Scotland, and it includes larger attendance at games, better methods of funding, and increased competition.

The Scotland trust Supporters Direct Scotland aims to implement some of these changes by publishing their directive, The Fans’ Plan,’ that is filled with recommendations to help make league football more entertaining for fans in the country. The information contained inside is the result of two years of surveys conducted among fans and supporters.

The Fans’ Plan calls for:

greater competition within Scottish league football structures

equal funding for each team in a league

support for clubs by central league management to increase the average attendance by 20% by 2016, and achieve an average stadium capacity utilisation of 65% within 10 years

two leagues of 16 teams, and a qualifying league of 10 or a feeder league of 16

re-introducing the League Cup, with a mini-league qualifying format structured on a geographical basis with four teams in each group

improved training and professional development for all players including greater use of Modern Apprenticeships and post-career planning

the establishment and implementation of a strong club licensing scheme

SDS spokesperson, Alan Harris commented: “The future of Scottish league football lies in the hands of its supporters and Supporters Direct Scotland has gathered the views of fans for the past two years: the most comprehensive surveys of football supporters in recent times. Fans are clearly telling us, we want more competition, more even distribution of the available funds, investment in the game, especially developing its talent from grassroots, and a greater say for supporters in clubs and national football.”

Alan Harris added: “Our approach is fairly simple. It’s about creating a virtuous circle for the long-term benefit of Scottish football. Too much of the present has been driven by short-term fixes and quick wins. However, that approach is unravelling at every level of the game. The time is right to re-build the foundations of the game in Scotland. We are proposing that a combination of league re-structuring, a re-formatted League Cup and more even distribution of funds, can continue to attract the all-important television sponsorship, create more competition between clubs and widen the game’s attraction to bring supporters back. This is our path to more sustainable development of Scottish league football.”

It is not a good time for Scottish football. All Scottish sides have been knocked out of the European club competition rounds, and this is the first time this has happened in history. Celtic and Rangers were both eliminated in the play-off’s showing a complete failure of Scottish football, and they joined Hearts, who were relegated earlier in the competition.

In the first leg of the competition Hearts had already taken a beating, losing to Tottenham five nil. Playing at home later they regained a tiny amount of pride by managing a draw, 0-0. Ranger’s managed a 1-1 draw against the Slovenian champions, Maribor. The Scottish team however lost the match on aggregate. Celtic lost in Switzerland by 3-1 and defender, Daniel Majstorovic was sent off in under a minute. All of the teams’ managers are facing a lot of criticism for the losing streaks of their various teams.

Ally McCoist, the new manager of Rangers, has had a dismal start to his time with the club as he has suffered only losses when playing in Europe. McCoist has, understandablym been criticised and has commented, “I feel disappointed mostly, for the fans and the players especially,” when asked whether he felt under more pressure after the losses he said, “No, it’s just disappointment, I don’t feel under more pressure.”

McCoist’s team have lost 24 out of the 25 matches they have played in Europe. Such a figure indicates that this problem is not just down to bad management. While McCoist cannot be held solely accountable he is certainly facing a lot more scrutiny. The manager has gone onto say, “We have been having some serious problems converting the chances for a win into an actual victory. The second half of the match in Maribor was a disappointing performance.”

A unanimous vote was taken in favor of a complete restructuring of the Scottish Football Association (SFA). The SFA president George Peat had commissioned the report and is stepping down from his position. Stewart Regan, SFA chief executive said that it was an historic day for the SFA and he is delighted that the members also share the vision for the future.

The entire 93 members of the SFA clubs at the meeting in Hampden voted to implement the entire package of recommendations in an attempt to modernize the way the game gets governed in Scotland.

The main changes are the SFA board get reduced from 11 to seven and will include an independent member. The SFA says the board will act more strategic than representative. Two additional boards will be created to work under the main board with one for the professional game and one for the non-professional.

The maligned disciplinary procedures will be entirely rewritten with a compliance officer deciding if cases will be heard by the new semi autonomous judicial panel. The different SFA committees will be disbanded immediately and an audit committee will be formed in order to ensure an efficient organization is operated.

Craig Levein and Stewart Regan will sit down together in an effort to create a foolproof plan for the SFA that will help to increase the national side fortunes back to their former glory.

Regan is the new chief executive of the SFA and has reviewed the Henry McLeish report as a start in his work to make Scotland a powerful force in the world of football once again.  He replaced Gordon Smith as Chief back in April and has set his sights on finding resources and funding to make McLeish’s recommendations a reality.

Regan has a strong background in both sporting and business with previous work experience at the Yorkshire County Cricket Club and with the Football League.

However, even with his background Regan is aware of the fact that he has a large amount of work in front of him as he attempts to win back fans that are tired of the national team’s exploits and the current status of the game.

He stated that he is aware of the fact that acceptance of football and of him in the lead position will not happen overnight and that he plans to talk with Levein in regards to what the best way to bring football success to Scotland will be.

The last time that Scotland qualified to play in an international tournament was the France World Cup in 1998, twelve years ago.  As each year passes it becomes harder to get into a qualifier since the country loses its seeding and ranking.