SFA Arrogance Contains A Core Of Truth

If you’ve been following the Scottish Football Monitor site, as I have, over the past couple of years you will probably be aware that one of its frequent contributors, John Clark, sat down recently with the SFA President Alan McRae and their head of media Darryl Broadfoot.

You’ll also be aware of the patronising, condescending tone Broadfoot took for much of the meeting, and the way he appeared to ignore the attendance of the President to declare himself as the principal person to whom questions should be addressed.

To all intents and purposes, he said, “I am the SFA.”

The idea that a mere press officer can say that in front of the guy who was elected to run things at the Association tells you everything you need to know, right?

This website has talked about Alan McRae before; he was elected in June last year and his presence at the SFA is so low key he might as well not be there.

In his time in charge he’s offered not one scintilla of vision or shown the slightest imagination about the direction of the game.

To say he’s proving useless would do him more credit than he’s due.

If he really is the last President to be elected under the current system then he will stand as the final proof of how dismal, and unworkable, it actually is.

I find it impossible to believe that this guy would, or could, succeed in any other corporate culture.

Not only would he never have risen through the ranks, but he would last about five minutes in a for-profit organisation with genuine accountability.

The SFA’s ineptness was shown in all its glory this week, of course, as the Scottish Cup tie between East Kilbride and Celtic was plunged into chaos with the battle, and subsequent fiasco, over the venue.

East Kilbride believed they’d been shoe-horned into playing the game at Hamilton, but no-one had told the Premier League club about those plans and they’ve announced that their ground can’t be used for the tie.

This after tickets have been printed, the TV companies have already laid their plans for the game and bets have been made using a code on Betfred.

The word shambles is too light a term for this.

Only the SFA could screw up this royally without someone resigning.

The idea won’t even cross anybody’s mind, of course; they are a national joke, but as the comments from Broadfoot show clearly they are beyond the point where they can be shamed or embarrassed by their own failures and ineptitudes.

Broadfoot told John that “time would tell” if fans would walk away from the game out of genuine disillusionment, an assertion that revealed no intention on the SFA’s part to try and prevent such a disastrous outcome.

Not only this, but he appeared to firmly knock on the head any suggestion that the association is taking fan concerns seriously.

For a start, he refused to acknowledge the mountain of evidence that the Lord Nimmo Smith enquiry was tainted, saying that no such evidence existed – a quite staggering repudiation of the many fans who’ve pushed this case into the public domain, and a response that requires clarification from a number of people including those who say Celtic are fully engaged with this campaign.

The SFA, through their spokesman, are saying there’s no case to answer.

If that’s an accurate summary of things then the campaign has failed to accomplish one of its goals, which was to have someone take these allegations seriously.

Furthermore, Broadfoot then defended the “integrity” of Campbell Ogilvie, who left office with dozens of unanswered questions about his tenure still hanging over the association and his role within it.

This general contempt for ordinary supporters is what we’ve come to expect from these people, but in their conduct here there is, at least, a grain of honesty and in their words a core of truth.

If there is going to be real change in the game it will have to come from the fans.

You can tell just reading this stuff that these people think themselves above it all, and better at their jobs than their performance can possibly justify.

If changing things means staying away from games, even if it’s only SFA run ones, or lobbying the clubs for real reform, or simply exposing these people and their absolute incompetence until something gives … well it’s the supporters who’ll have to handle it either way.

Our national sport is rotting from the inside.

These people are going to kill it unless we stop them.