[Football] Scottish football

The Grockle · Mar 13, 2021

Football across the border is often ridiculed by the English and dismissed as being of a poor standard league one level at best I often read but based on population do you think there's an argument that Scotland has the best level of football in terms of attendances, stadia and quality of football taking into account their 5.5 million population?

Comparing their leagues to England's when they have 10% of the population always seems harsh and whilst the level is obviously miles behind I feel Scottish football massively punches above their weight.

Brok · Mar 13, 2021

Gafones · Mar 13, 2021

Probably a good point. I love Scottish football and watch it regularly. I don't give a monkey's (tennis) what anyone else thinks and I don't know any other Scottish football fans that do. I am baffled why people south of the border spend any time whatsoever thinking about Scottish football if they don't like it. I'm sure they don't agonize over the Welsh or Northern Irish leagues. Just enjoy English football. I do that as well.

Justice · Mar 13, 2021

Mate it’s league one at the very best, Sandazza went to Scotland and scored a shed load he was pants in league 1.

Swansman · Mar 13, 2021

croydon seagull said:
Football across the border is often ridiculed by the English and dismissed as being of a poor standard league one level at best I often read but based on population do you think there's an argument that Scotland has the best level of football in terms of attendances, stadia and quality of football taking into account their 5.5 million population?

Comparing their leagues to England's when they have 10% of the population always seems harsh and whilst the level is obviously miles behind I feel Scottish football massively punches above their weight.

Attendance yes, that is a fact. Stadium quality probably hard to measure. Quality of football is a definite no, if you watch a mid-tier game in SPL and then a mid-tier meeting in eg Denmark (3.3 million) or Portugal (10m) there's an ocean of difference in quality.

The Grockle · Mar 13, 2021

Swansman said:
Attendance yes, that is a fact. Stadium quality probably hard to measure. Quality of football is a definite no, if you watch a mid-tier game in SPL and then a mid-tier meeting in eg Denmark (3.3 million) or Portugal (10m) there's an ocean of difference in quality.

Portugal is twice the size of Scotland and football in the principle sport so makes sense that their league would be of a much better quality. I don't know much about Danish football apart from watching a gane on TV in Copenhagen where the passion and spectacle wasn't really matched by the standard of football

Neville's Breakfast · Mar 13, 2021

Gafones said:
Probably a good point. I love Scottish football and watch it regularly. I don't give a monkey's (tennis) what anyone else thinks and I don't know any other Scottish football fans that do. I am baffled why people south of the border spend any time whatsoever thinking about Scottish football if they don't like it. I'm sure they don't agonize over the Welsh or Northern Irish leagues. Just enjoy English football. I do that as well.

Agree with all of that. However, the answer is quite simple; rivalry. We do need keep the scotch in their place otherwise they come down here and swim in our fountains and break our goalposts. They would feel a lot worse if we didn’t care at all.

studio150 · Mar 13, 2021

The quality of Scottish football is such that we should play any scottish team, just so our strikers can get that feeling of scoring back.

SeagullinExile · Mar 13, 2021

A couple of seasons ago Aberdeen lost one of their best players to....Salford! Why? Salford offered more money. I think this says it all tbh.

atfc village · Mar 13, 2021

SeagullinExile said:
A couple of seasons ago Aberdeen lost one of their best players to....Salford! Why? Salford offered more money. I think this says it all tbh.

Non League Salford may i add at the time.

banjo · Mar 13, 2021

lawros left foot · Mar 13, 2021

Isn’t all football relative?
I loved some of the games when we were in the lower leagues, yes, the football wasn’t technically as good, obviously, but, the excitement was up there with anything I’ve seen since. When Spain and Barca were sweeping all before them with a brand of football that was technically brilliant, I’ll be honest, I found it a bit boring. I’d much rather watch a Scottish game between 2 evenly matched sides going for it.
My main criticism of Scottish football, is there is the 2 largest Glasgow clubs who usually win everything, and then you have the rest. Years ago I’d go and watch either Hearts, Hibbies, or Dunfermline if I couldn’t get home of a weekend,I saw some cracking games.

BN9 BHA · Mar 13, 2021

I would probably watch or take an interest if I lived in Scotland and not on the south coast of England.

vagabond · Mar 13, 2021

croydon seagull said:
Football across the border is often ridiculed by the English and dismissed as being of a poor standard league one level at best I often read but based on population do you think there's an argument that Scotland has the best level of football in terms of attendances, stadia and quality of football taking into account their 5.5 million population?

Comparing their leagues to England's when they have 10% of the population always seems harsh and whilst the level is obviously miles behind I feel Scottish football massively punches above their weight.

Based on your argument then, the USA and Russia should have the best footballing leagues.

Clearly that is not the case, and, also, using your criteria we could then say that England’s leagues are over performing given the population difference to bigger countries.

The Grockle · Mar 13, 2021

lawros left foot said:
Isn’t all football relative?
I loved some of the games when we were in the lower leagues, yes, the football wasn’t technically as good, obviously, but, the excitement was up there with anything I’ve seen since. When Spain and Barca were sweeping all before them with a brand of football that was technically brilliant, I’ll be honest, I found it a bit boring. I’d much rather watch a Scottish game between 2 evenly matched sides going for it.
My main criticism of Scottish football, is there is the 2 largest Glasgow clubs who usually win everything, and then you have the rest. Years ago I’d go and watch either Hearts, Hibbies, or Dunfermline if I couldn’t get home of a weekend,I saw some cracking games.

I think that sums it up for me. I also think those who disrespect the SPL do so purely based on its inferior quality to the top English leagues. There are some great clubs, 4 or 5 fantastic stadiums and many other good ones and some fierce historic rivalries to keep it interesting.

The Grockle · Mar 13, 2021

vagabond said:
Based on your argument then, the USA and Russia should have the best footballing leagues.

Clearly that is not the case, and, also, using your criteria we could then say that England’s leagues are over performing given the population difference to bigger countries.

My argument was specific to countries where historically football is the principle sport. In Europe most of the biggest, most successful and better attended leagues are based in countries with the largest populations.

England does over achieve when you consider the population I guess but we have the richest history and our professional league system is way above anywhere else in the world

Tom Hark Preston Park · Mar 13, 2021

croydon seagull said:
My argument was specific to countries where historically football is the principle sport. In Europe most of the biggest, most successful and better attended leagues are based in countries with the largest populations.

England does over achieve when you consider the population I guess but we have the richest history and our professional league system is way above anywhere else in the world

You cannot be serious shirley? [said in a John McEnroe voiceover stylee] Serial underachievers if anything. Scotland, on the other hand, serially OVER-achieved for a while back there. At least until they qualified for finals of any kind. Then things tended to go bizarrely Pete Tong on a regular basis. A bit like the Albion in EPL 2020-21. Sake!

SeagullinExile · Mar 13, 2021

atfc village said:
Non League Salford may i add at the time.

Tbf. They'd just neen promoted.

The Grockle · Mar 13, 2021

Tom Hark said:
You cannot be serious shirley? [said in a John McEnroe voiceover stylee] Serial underachievers if anything. Scotland, on the other hand, serially OVER-achieved for a while back there. At least until they qualified for finals of any kind. Then things tended to go bizarrely Pete Tong on a regular basis. A bit like the Albion in EPL 2020-21. Sake!

Well no not entirely serious it was just a response to vagabonds reply.

With regard to Scottish football even now you can argue they over achieve (depending on how you measure that of course). A small country with a reasonable league system, a top flight with some big clubs, decent stadiums ect.
If, and its a big if clubs like Hibs, hearts and Aberdeen narrowed the gap between them and the old firm clubs it would seriously improve the overall quality and possibly push rangers and celtic on in European football

Jeremiah · Mar 13, 2021

It irks me that the Scottish Premiership results and fixtures are listed above our Championship and League One and Two on most media outlets. It's another country that holds very little interest to me and most others.

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