The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

In Issue 1 of Scotland Epistles, David Stuart’s article World Cup Vinyl Countdown gives an excellent review of the vinyl records released in celebration of Scotland reaching the finals of the biggest fitba tournament on the planet.

But what about the European Football Championship Finals, whilst we await independence and a proper crack at Eurovision? Well, a version of Purple Heather was released by Rod Stewart and the Scottish Euro ’96 squad but I don’t know if anything was produced to celebrate our appearance at the finals of Sweden ’92.

8th April, 2015 is John McGinlay’s 51st birthday, so many happy returns to the man whose winning goal against Sweden at Ibrox Park in November 1996 helped keep Scotland on course for the World Cup finals in France in 1998 – our last major finals before the Gods, fate and the weather turned against us.

The Inverness man’s 13th and final cap came in the 2-0 world cup qualifier victory against Austria at Celtic Park in April 1997.All told, Burnden Park’s last goalscorer played in four world cup qualifiers but, along with the likes of Ally McCoist, did not make it into the squad for France. I know that in respect of McCoist the reason was one of stupidity but I don’t know why McGinlay didn’t make it – injury or loss of form?Anyway, all the best Big Bad John and thanks for helping to get us to those now dim and distant finals.

On 21 May UEFA will decide whether or not to impose sanctions on Georgia as a consequence of crowd disturbances during their March qualifier at home to Germany – which could result in their match against Scotland in September being given the Charlie Rich treatment and end up being played Behind Closed Doors.

That possible sanction could prove beneficial to Scotland but I would hope that some compensation would then be paid to our supporters who have already forked out on travel and accommodation to the former Soviet Republic.From an anorak’s angle however, the big question is -Would the Georgian F.A. still produce a match programme?

Not being the fastest of readers it took me until Tuesday before I finished digesting the official programme for Sunday’s game against Gibraltar.The £5.00 tome consisting of 84 perfectly bound pages is now well on its way to becoming an Argos catalogue in terms of bulkiness and yet it continues to omit the basic individual player statistics of number of caps won, goals scored/shut outs achieved etc. I still liked it though especially the Question and Answer feature with the legend that is Alan Rough.By comparison, the programme for my first Scotland game [versus Portugal in October 1971] cost five pence and comprised a mere eight pages. From five pence to five pounds, that is an increase of 9900%. The increase in the number of pages represents a rise of ‘only’ 950%. Robert Mugabe would no doubt be impressed by these, admittedly, somewhat misleading statistics.By way of a further comparison, Scotland Epistles only costs £3.00, has a much lower advert ratio and all the articles are produced by real supporters.Of course I just could be a little bit bias in this respect…..

Well done Scotland in picking up another three valuable points on the road to France 2016 and also for helping with overseas [football] development via Gibraltar’s first competitive goal. Never forget it was Scots who helped with the early development of the game in places like Brazil and Argentina and look how well those ‘Tartan Proteges’ have done over the years.And who knows, we may even get a ‘British Championship’ next year if all four ‘Home Nations’ qualify and are drawn together in the same group. It’s amazing to think that Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales all made it to the 1958 World Cup Finals in Sweden which meant that 25% [some may even call it a quarter] of the qualifiers hailed from these septic, sorry, sceptred isles of ours.So heave to, me hearties and Fair stood the wind for France……..God but I’m full of it today.

Yes, they do exist but you have to go back to Sweden 1992 and England 1996 to find them.

I would much prefer it if we didn’t play Northern Ireland [or England or Wales] in a friendly match again. These games need a competitive edge [at least to get the Tartan Army motivated/animated in numbers] so I’m all for resurrecting the oldest international football tournament in the world – the British Championship- and I say that as someone who votedfor independence. Re-name it the British Isles championship if you must and concentrate on the geography not the politics. It’s worth remembering that there’s a trophy up for grabs and with four teams competing that gives it the edge over the Kirin Cup [three teams] and the Ashes [two]. It might be an idea however to play the Wales and Northern Ireland games in Aberdeen or Edinburgh where full houses would probably ensure a much better atmosphere than a half-full Hampden – a vociferous Irish support notwithstanding. I would rather watch ‘Championship’ games to many of the ‘powder-puff’ friendlies I’ve seen and I think they could be better for giving certain fringe players a try -out or alternatively we could seek to re-introduce League Internationals but hold on a minute for that’s a completely separate hobby-horse/article of mine.

I used to believe [selfish Glaswegian that I was] that all of Scotland’s home matches should be played at Hampden Park. Eventually I recognised the fairness and pragmatism associated with playing certain matches outwith Glasgow and in truth I’ve always enjoyed my international ‘away days’ at Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Kilmarnock.

I think it’s a real shame however that the city of Dundee does not have a stadium that is currently deemed fit/large enough to host a full international.As such, I’m pleased that the Scotland-Qatar match will go ahead at Easter Road – a venue where I’ve seen Scotland ‘humble’ both Canada and Australia 3-1[October 2002 and August 2012] as well as succumb 1-4 to Sweden [November 2004].

Happy Anniversary

I’m always on the lookout for a ‘Happy Anniversary’ to celebrate and so 6th April offers up the opportunity to remember a fine 2-1 victory against England at Wembley in 1963 which meant that Scotland were British Champions with a 100% record for the second successive season.