‘Road to Rio’: Kenny Miller chats about Scotland’s chances

The ‘Road to Rio’ gets underway with a vengeance on Saturday with what I would already class as the first of two must-win games for Scotland.

Our constant failure to qualify for a major tournament since the 1998 World Cup in France has left us in a vicious circle of lower seedings and increasingly tougher qualifying groups.

This won’t change until we qualify once again and restore the glory days of regular qualification and ‘five in a row’. You have to have that hope or else what’s the point?

A near whole generation of the Tartan Army has missed out of the joys of watching their country at a major tournament.

I’ll state now that I think Craig Levein is the wrong man for the manager’s job and should have been punted before this campaign got underway. Unfortunately, we all need to get behind him for now.

I’ve probably have more hope than expectation with the current Scotland squad due to the toughness of the group. Two home wins to kick off the campaign would give us some momentum to rise up and be a respected footballing nation again.

What gives me the most hope is that we are finally starting to see some of our younger talent come to the fore and play at the top level. Nineteen members of the squad are playing in the top two divisions in England, with 11 of them in the Premiership.

Only two players are currently plying their trade abroad, and one of them, current captain Kenny Miller, has been having a bit of a rough start over in MLS with Vancouver Whitecaps. Miller has mustered only one shot on target in his first few games there, but he did at least bury that chance!

We had a chat with Kenny about the upcoming games, the hopes of reaching Brazil and the younger talent coming through.

Is Saturday a must win?

"They're home games. If we're going to be successful in any campaign, whether it be World Cup or Euros, you've got to try and put your home games to bed and get three points and as many as you can. Hopefully all of them, but if not, as many as we can. 

We're starting with the two homes games and I think it is vitally important that we pick up points.

It's a tough group and every team will pretty much fancy their chances in making the World Cup, so it's important that we do get the right results at home."

Third seeded Belgium are resurgent and much hyped right now, with many people tipping them to win the group, helped by on-form Everton midfielder Marouane Fellaini and the even more on-form Eden Hazard from Chelsea.

Scotland travel to Belgium for their fourth game of the group in October, but Miller doesn’t want to look too far ahead:

"We'll cross them when we come to them.

At the moment we have Serbia and Macedonia coming up first, then Belgium next month.

They're a fantastic team . They've got a lot of high profile players, which we've seen one in particular really light up the Premiership in his first three games this season.

When that game comes around, we'll make sure that the manager has a set up and a way that hopefully we'll get the right result."

Scotland’s morale boosting friendly win last month was pleasing, particularly as they played really well in spells to dispatch Australia 3-1 in Edinburgh. It gives us hope that when we choose to play attacking football, we can do some damage. We just need to play that way more often and lose all the defensive nonsense that Levein seems to adore.

Miller decided not to travel for that game as he was still trying to settle into his new surroundings in Vancouver, and living out of a hotel meant that he wasn't able to watch the game live, but he was getting regular updates on his phone.

One pleasing aspect from that game was an international goal for the up and coming, and highly rated, Jordan Rhodes, who Miller describes as "a goalscoring machine". With so many players out, and changes to the squad, was that a big win for us?

"Well it was. Obviously off the back of the US game, which was a poor performance and a poor result and unlike the team to be honest with you. We've been moving in the right direction.

The Australia game gave us a chance to put that right and the lads who were there by all accounts played very, very well and the result suggests that. A 3-1 victory against Australia is no mean feat.

The lads did very well there and hopefully put that USA result behind us."

Let’s hope so.

We'll see just how far on Saturday against Serbia.

Dawning of a new era for Scottish football

Today will go down in history as an important day for Scottish football.

Forget all the nonsense about armageddon and slow deaths, Scottish football will be given a rebirth today.

After years of being ignored by the money men that have ruined our game for too long, the heart and soul of the game in Scotland will finally have the voice they have been deprived of for many a year.

And they need to continue to use that voice long after today to force through the reconstruction and changes that are badly needed in the game in this country.

The 'Rangers' debacle has done something that I never thought possible in the Scottish game. It has united the fans of smaller and lower league teams like never before.

As East Fife fans, we find ourselves standing proudly shoulder to shoulder with our Fife rivals of Raith, Dunfermline and Cowdenbeath, and other teams across Scotland.

The animosity and rivalries are put on the back burner for the common good.

The message is clear. We will no longer be pushed around as an afterthought and the Scottish football authorities will ignore that at their peril.

We've been threatened. We've been bullied. We have nonsense spouted at us on a daily basis of how not admitting Servco to Division One will be the end of Scottish football and millions of pounds will leave the country.

Football is not, and should never be, about money.

The game in Scotland has been in terminal decline for years under the current regime. When we're at the lowest ebb that we've ever been, how can we go any lower? Change can only be good.

Scotland have not qualified for a major international tournament since the 1998 World Cup.

A whole generation have grown up not knowing what it's like to watch their country on the world's stage.

Every season Scotland's "top" clubs crash out of Europe at embarrassingly early stages.

We can't compete with sides from eastern Europe that wouldn't have been fit to lace the boots of our teams in the 70's and 80's.

Attendances are falling dramatically. Fans are turned off with the game and the ever increasing costs to attend. Why head out in the cold at 6am to travel to a game when you can watch your team kick off at noon in the comfort of your living room?

How is this the way forward and how has this helped the game in Scotland one bit?

There is no slow death. We're already there and this is the chance for a resurrection.

How removed are the vast majority of Scottish clubs from what goes on in Glasgow?

But if the TV and sponsor money were to leave the game, clubs will go to the wall we're told.
If the top clubs can't cope without 'Rangers', what would they have done once they pissed off to another League like they would have done if given the chance?

But 'Rangers' are an institution.

So what. So was Woolworths. They went bust, closed down and now we all get our pick 'n' mix elsewhere and don't give them a second thought.

Whole cities in the US are filing for bankruptcy.

If a football club cannot be a viable business concern due to relying on either one other team or Sky money, then you have to ask about how they actually operate. It's dysfunctional, it's not right and it should not be allowed to continue.

That's what's killing the game in this country.

Such clubs deserve to fail as they haven't followed proper business practices and have clearly spent beyond their means. They will get no sympathy from me.

My club has no debt. No overdraft.

No success too you may say. True, but at least I have a football club to support and when the success does come, like last year's League Cup run, it tastes all the sweeter.

For years, lower league clubs have struggled to survive because buses leave every town to go and watch the Old Firm. Any promising talent form anyone outwith the Old Firm was snapped up, so that the team they were playing for couldn't prosper and challenge their power.

Remember when Aberdeen were winning European trophies? Dundee United too.

Remember how we all united as a country and cheered them on for Scottish glory?

This is our chance to slowly build back to days like that. Teams like that. Proper Scottish football from when we were good. From when we were a force in the world game.

If the SFA were to punish Clubs that vote against 'Rangers' and force a SPL2 without them, you know what? We'd be left in a cracking League with local derbies and top fixtures every week.

It would pack the lower divisions and add an excitement we've not had in years.

I almost want them to go down that road. We'd soon see who was thriving and who was dying.

With the Servco decision day finally having come around, I am proud to be a supporter of a football club that has come forward and challenged all that is wrong with the game in this country.

East Fife have played their part in bringing the issues to the fore but the stars of our battle have undoubtedly been Raith Rovers and Clyde.

Both clubs have not pulled their punches and laid it out as it is in recent days. Their fans should be proud of the men behind their team.

The American poet Robert Frost wrote: "Freedom comes from being bold".

If those that run the lower reaches of Scottish football are bold today, then all of us lower league fans will get the freedom from the shackles of the money men we've been crying out for, but only if we keep the pressure on for change.

This is the chance for a rebirth of the Scottish game. Let's hope we take it.

The death of Scottish football? Far from it. Today is the chance for it to flourish and get the game back to what it used to be - local, not global.

Tackling The Tackling Problem

Modern day football feels completely unrecognizable at times from the game when I was growing up.

Now I know I'm a bitter and twisted, old fashioned football fan. I even have the When Saturday Comes t-shirt to prove it. In blue.

I'm a grump. A cynic. Stuck in my ways and don't like change. Pro lower league, grassroots football and anti the money men that are ruining our game at the top (and sometimes bottom) levels.

All this is true. I wouldn't even begin to deny it.

That said, I'm surely not alone in wanting something done to stop all the tinkering in modern day football that takes all of the raw passion and aggression out of it.

"Cleaning the game up" is also ruining it.

Players should be allowed to tackle and tackle hard. No one wants to see players injured. Ok, not strictly true. There are some I would gladly like to see snapped.

Why the modern day change in what is classed as an acceptable tackle? Was there so many career ending injuries that made the authorities feel there was a need to stamp out robust tackles? Of course there wasn't.

Today's sending off of Vincent Kompany in the Manc FA Cup derby is a prime example of the outcome of a game, and a player, suffering because of the ridiculous new laws.

Now, I'm no fan of either Manchester side, so there's no bias there. I just wanted to see a classic Cup tie. In some ways I did. Man City certainly gave it a spirited fightback in the second half, but the sending off deprived us of what could have been.

Maybe eleven v eleven wouldn't have provided us with five goals, but in most games, such a sending off will see the team down and out.

Up to around two years ago, Kompany's tackle wouldn't even have raised an eyebrow or a shout of ire, and neither should it have. He won the ball fair and square and made no contact with the opposing player.

Fair play to Nani, he didn't make anything of it at the initial moment of the tackle. And he's one of the most obnoxious, moaning cunts in the English game.

Of course, he soon joined in the protestations as Rooney, Wellbeck and Carrick rushed to the referee to demand red. Rooney, in particular, was gesturing for a card. Where was his, if the laws of the game are being so strictly adhered to then?

Was Kompany's tackle reckless? Out of control? Dangering the opponent? No. None of those.

The fact that his feet were off the ground and could have been deemed to be in a scissor movement are what seemed to be what sealed his fate.

It's frankly ridiculous. We're turning the game into one for pansies. Billy Bremner must be turning in his grave.

Watch some Match of the Days from that period and work out how many players would have been left on the pitch under modern day rules. Leeds united certainly wouldn't have been so successful, as most of their players would have been sent off and suspended.

Who is it that's wanting this sanitisation of the game today? It's certainly not the fans.

I'm all for sending offs for tackles that fly in with reckless abandon from behind, but 50-50 balls are there to be won.

If one player wants to fly in and one wants to shit out, then that's football. If both want to go crunching in, then that's also football.

Don't spoil our enjoyment by seeing matches ruined by reducing players on the pitch. Don't turn our game into nothing more than kids level of ferocity.

The time to fightback and tackle the ridiculous tackling issue needs to start now.

No wonder fans are deserting the current game in their droves. Not many want to pay to watch boring, tippy tappy games.

Save our game, before in a few year's time we are watching something which doesn't resemble what most of us grew up watching.

As Fergie Flops, Should Sir Alex Have Quit At The Top?

The 2011/12 season is starting to become an annus horribilis for Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United.

Weakly crashing out of the Carling Cup and the Champions League in the space of seven days, and chasing down their Manc rivals in the Premiership title race with a string of stuttering performances, is not what the spoilt United fans are used to.

And neither is Fergie.

When you add United drawing City in the Third Round of the FA Cup next month, it’s not inconceivable that Man U could finish the season trophyless.

There is the good old Europa League to aim for now, although I look forward to Fergie playing the kids and crashing out of that at the earliest opportunity.

What a difference a year makes.

United’s 12th Premier League title was secured by nine points and they seemed to be putting together another squad of amazingly talented kids. The future looked as rosy as Ferguson’s cheeks.

Ferguson will be 70 years old in 23 days time. At his age, and with 37 major career trophies to his name, should Fergie have got out when he was ahead and quit at the top?

Obviously I’ve never been in any sort of similar position. All I know is that I can’t wait to retire.

I’ve always been puzzled by players who play on past when they should. I know there’s the whole missing of the game and not knowing what to do with themselves. That’s a buzz I’ll never know to fully judge.

Long term managers also know no other life. It’s what they love doing.

Outside of football, I feel the same about actors who make really shitty films when they don’t need any more cash.

Why would you not go and enjoy your money and rest on your laurels, knowing full well that the legacy you’ve left behind will stand the test of time?

Why risk tarnishing it and going out on a low point in your career?

Let’s look at this from the viewpoint of another sport I closely follow – gridiron, American football, throwball, call it what you like. Let’s be more precise, Canadian Football and the CFL (Canadian Football League).

My team is the Vancouver based BC Lions. They’ve just won their sixth Grey Cup (Canada’s equivalent to the Superbowl).

I know most of you don’t care about such a sport, but bear with me. There is a point!

The Lions Head Coach, Wally Buono, has the best winning record as a coach in CFL’s long history and this was his fifth Grey Cup triumph, and ninth final appearance. The win for the Lions came in their own home hosting stadium, becoming only the third team achieve this feat.

Buono is 61 years old, 62 in February. He has a good eight years on Sir Alex, but after the triumph he has retired as Head Coach.

There’s not going to be anything better than what he achieved this season, so why not go out on the top? Several of the veteran players have/will be doing the same.

Back to proper football now, and so Fergie should have done the same thing as Buono last May.

I know football is in his blood. He would probably happily coach till he dropped down dead. One of his mentors, Jock Stein, did just that and you could arguably say he died doing what he loved most.

It’s not my, or anyone’s decision to make, just Ferguson’s. But will he make the correct decision at the right time?

I’m no Man United fan, far from it, but with all that Sir Alex has achieved in the game, I’d like to see him retire on a high.

Maybe he still will win a Premiership, FA Cup and Europa League treble.

If he turns this season around and does that, then that surely must be the tipping point for his retiral.

Let’s just hope he doesn’t keep going on till he drops or until people start to say he’s lost it. This season is his hardest in a long time, but of course, Man United are experts at the second half of the season revival.

It would be horrible to see arguably Scotland’s greatest football manager bow out after a season of despair and failure.

If the past seven days are anything to go by, then he has possibly his toughest five months of his managerial career ahead, as he looks to salvage some pride and keep his reputation in tact.

That’s just as important as silverware.

English Premiership Becoming More Of A Turn Off Than Turn On

Anyone that knows AFTN, and regular readers of this blog in particular, will know that we're not the greatest fans of top flight football at the best of times, or rather the mechanics behind the business end of it all.

As East Fife fans, I think it's naturally in our DNA to love watching lower league and non league football, in the smaller, more intimate environments. Or in other words, games where naebody turns up.

That's not to say we don't enjoy watching games from the English Premiership, because we most certainly do. Or at least did, until this season.

I've been finding it increasingly hard to get excited about this season's Premiership campaign.

For those that don't know, I'm currently a Scottish ex-pat, enjoying life in the new climes of North America. We've covered this fact before in AFTN, so for those that have heard it before, please bear with me.

Over here, we get an abundance of live and as-live football. Every top league you could imagine and also the SPL! European, Mexican, South American, even the A League down in Oz. The English Premiership is obviously the big draw and we get an amazing amount of games.

Every weekend, every game is basically shown in full at some point in the schedule. They draw big audiences. To put it in perspective, the recent MLS Cup final drew half the audience in the evening that a run of the mill EPL game had drawn that morning.

On a Saturday we get the early kick off game live, two or three 3pm kick offs live, and the teatime game live. We also get both the main Sunday games live, unless there's something like a Celtic-Rangers game to be shown instead. All the other games are shown, usually one after the other, in full.

That's a feast of football, of that there is no doubt. Sure it can be a bit of a football overload, and the pain in the ass that is the kick off times can be inconvenient, but hey, that's why PVR's were invented right?

This season though, I've found myself flicking through the TV guides on a Friday night and thinking "You know what? I really don't fancy watching any of these games in full". This results in me not getting up early to watch anything and not recording anything for perusal later.

Instead, I've found myself watching all the Championship games that have been on offer instead.

Even the games I do end up recording, I find myself just fast forwarding through and just watching the goals or any interesting incidents that catch my eye.

Now it’s got nothing to do with the football or entertainment on offer, on the whole. It's just that I can't muster up any excitement about the 20 teams in the Premiership this season.

I'll quantify that by saying right from the off that I'm a West Ham fan, so a lot of my interest went out the window right there and has turned to the Championship, which has been the best English League for excitement for years now anyway, and one which I've always followed closely.

The last few years we had the excitement of watching promoted teams like Hull City, Burnley and Blackpool try (and ultimately fail) to punch above their wait, as they end up in relegation dogfights that have provided twists and turns up to the final kick of the season's ball almost.

When Blackpool went down with the Hammers, I knew the writing was going to be on the wall for me with regards to watching the Premiership this season. Right there you were losing exciting football, underdogs and Ian Holloway.

Sure we have three new promoted clubs, but they're not exactly the underdogs the way the above northern contingent were.

Norwich are kind of blah. I do want them to stay up, as they are an unfashionable club and have a very promising Scottish manager at the helm. I know that when it's getting to the end of the season, if the Canaries find themselves in a relegation battle, that will be enough to get me to tune in, but just not right now. Last season I went out of my way to watch every Blackpool game in full.

The way Norwich are going they could find themselves safe without any need for a dogfight, which is great for them and all smaller clubs with strange aspirations to just stay up.

The same is true with Swansea. I also would love them to avoid the drop, primarily because they're not English!

Then you have last season’s Championship Champions. There is so much to dislike about QPR. They had the big foreign money investment and splashed the cash. Also, how can you cheer on any team that has Queen AND Rangers in their name?!

Existing teams like Wigan, Blackburn and Bolton don't exactly get the juices going when you see the fixture list for the weekend ahead. And if they're playing each other, then just forget it.

At the top, it could get interesting if Spurs keep up their charge. The football they played at the weekend was breathtaking to watch at times. Still hard to like them though.

If Man City run away with the title, which I think they will have all but wrapped up by the end of March, then it's going to be an even less exciting Premier League run in than we get in Scotland most years.

So for now, my disinterest in this season's Premiership will continue.

I will watch games of the top sides battling it out, even though they usually end up just disappointing and not living up to the expectations. I'll tune in for any interesting derbies or games with some player animosity thrown into the mix.

And I’ll sit here hoping above hope that West Ham, Blackpool and an unlikely club like Brighton, fill this season’s three promotion places come May. Not sure I’ll be getting that wish in full.

On the whole though I'm going to be relying on the good old Beeb's 'Match of the Day' to cover the day's games and keep me up to date with all things Premier League.

It's like I've been transported back to my childhood days of the 70's, as I avoid the day's results until I can settle down to watch it.

And you know what? It's been really refreshing.

Video Evidence Great For Justice But Punishments Need To Go Further

Watching Sportscene on Sunday evening, one of the weekend debates was obviously about Rangers' Sone Aluko and his apparent dive to win, what turned out to be, a match winning penalty against Dunfermline at Ibrox.

Pundits in the studio and punters online have all had their say on the matter.

To us it looked like Aluko knew exactly what he was doing. He had nowhere to go, he went down theatrically, he won a penalty by embellishment.

Most angles show no contact, one shows the possible slightest of knocks that looked nowhere near enough to send a grown man crashing to the deck the way it did.

The immediate question was whether the SFA would punish Aluko for diving. Today, we got our answer.

The SFA are proposing a two match ban for simulation, and the matter will be heard by a tribunal on Thursday.

Now this is all well and good (and it really is), but the end result of these hearings simply do not go far enough if we are really serious about stamping this blight out of football.

The introduction of video evidence has been a great innovation to the Scottish game and punishes cheats. At least most of the time.

The punishments don't always hold up when clubs end up appealing them, ala Hibs and Gary O'Connor, when a similar incident led to a two match ban first being proposed, then quashed on appeal.

Clearly post-match punishments also serve as no deterrent to players, who are prepared to take the gamble if it earns their clubs vital points. In a lot of ways, you can’t blame them.

Realistically most fans don't care if they win a game due to a dive or an act of cheating. I'd be lying if I said I would. I want the win.

On the other hand, if my team were to lose due to such actions, I would be livid. We're hypocrites. Most of us are if we’re being honest.

When the punishments are handed out later though, they need to be way more far reaching.

Banning a player for a game or two and/or fining the guy, means very little these days. It has to be the clubs themselves that are punished.

Rangers won the game, and all three points, due to Aluko's actions. Those points could be decisive in the Championship race at the end of the season or even the relegation dogfight.

Punishing Rangers, or any club, for their players diving by docking them three points (no matter what the outcome of the game) is way more likely to see these antics curtailed pretty quickly.

Ultimately, I would rather we had video evidence than nothing at all. The alternative is what we had before, with all such players getting off with nothing more than their reputations being tarnished.

If we're ever to stamp this blight out of our game though, then the punishments need to be way more far-reaching.

And I can think of no better way to start that off than by punishing the SPL leaders.

There's the clear message.

No matter who you are or how big a club you are, you WILL be punished in a manner which hurts you.

Premier Sports Aim To Take Interactive Television To A New Level

Wrexham take on Darlington at the Racecourse Ground tonight in the Blue Square Premier.

The game is live on Premier Sports, I’m sure you’ll all be watching come 7.45pm.

I would love to be watching live if I could get the channel and wasn’t actually at work when it’s on, so will need to make do with trying to find a download later on.

So what’s so special about this match? It’s just another non league game on a channel that not many of us actually subscribe to, right?

Wrong.

It’s been great to see non league action back on our screens. AFTN would always prefer it to be available on a free to air channel, but beggars can’t be choosers, and with ITV digital and Setanta Sports going tits up and taking football deals with them, then any kind of coverage that lower league and non league football can get in this modern age is very gratefully received here at AFTN Towers.

And Premier Sports do a really good job with it, treating it with respect and giving it decent airtime on their schedule. It's great that they stepped forward and picked up the coverage.

In the battle for our time and footballing mind, the game is primarily up against Man United v Crystal Palace in the quarter finals of the Carling Cup over on Sky Sports and the Europa League tie between Tottenham Hostpur and PAOK Salonika on Channel Five.

I know what game I would pick any day of the week, but that’s me. I’m in the minority I sadly know, although not amongst readers of this blog thankfully.

Premier Sports are adding a new feature to tonight’s broadcast though, and if it’s the success I think it will be, then we could be looking at a new direction for our football commentary.

Sky always like to be cutting edge, and if they see something working elsewhere, you can be sure that they’ll be on it quicker than you know.

For tonight’s game, Premier Sports are going to be going fully interactive, with the commentary teams inviting comments from viewers via Twitter about the game and coverage.

On paper, it’s nothing that we should look at as too groundbreaking in this technological age, but yet it is.

Now we have the chance to let commentators know that they’re spouting inane rubbish and that they should shut up! Or tell them to stop being so obsessed with certain players.

More so though, it will give fans to share their thoughts on the current action, ask questions about decisions, subs, anything you fancy. It should also make for more informative chat and batter during the game, especially during lulls when commentators are just trying to avoid dead air.

Presenters Steve Bower and Alan Snodin will try and read out as many comments as they can during the broadcast. You can get in touch with them at their newly created Twitter account.

Lower league and non league football fans already feel closer to their teams at matches, than their “big team” counterparts. Now they can feel closer to the action whilst watching at home too.

Watch the game, take part and make this experiment the success it deserves to be. You could be shaping the future!