The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

Is it just the one Qatar that we are playing at Easter Road in June or is it all ten of them? Boom! Boom! Oh never mind…..

Anyway I believe this is the first time we have hosted an Asian nation at full international level unless you put forward a geographical [as opposed to a political] argument for Israel or a bed-hopping case for Australia.[No doubt HH will keep me right on this one]. Incidently, I still think an invitation to Japan is long overdue.

Hamish Husband’s recent post re meeting Eric Caldow served to remind me that I have met gie few football legends save for a number of Partick Thistle’s 1971 League Cup Final winning team at a 25th anniversary bash at Firhill.

My all-time favourite footballer however is John Greig who won the last of his 44 caps skippering his country to a 3-1 win against Denmark in a Euro Championship qualifier in 1975. It was the only time I actually saw ‘Ham n Egg’ in the dark blue of Scotland and so I missed seeing him more than hold his own at Hampden against the likes of Italy in 1965 [Facchetti, Mazzola, Rivera et al];Brazil in 1966 which included Pele, Jairzinho and Gerson; and West Germany in 1969 featuring the ‘terrible trio’ of Gerd Muller, Beckenbauer, and er, em, Vogts………

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.