Macedonia v Scotland Match Preview
George Burley and Scotland travel to Macedonia to kick off their World Cup Qualifying Campaign, in a bid to reach a Major Tournament since 1998. Scotland were last in the World’s elite at France ‘98, when Craig Brown’s Scotland side did not qualify from a Group consisting of Brazil, Norway and Morocco. With the Finals in South Africa in 2010, George Burley will be looking for a good start to their campaign against Macedonia tomorrow and Iceland on Wednesday.
With Burley still looking for his first win in charge of Scotland, this would be the ideal time to get off and running however he knows that this won’t be an easy game as England can testify too. With the heat playing a factor, Burley and the SFA decided not to go early and acclimatise to the temperatures and have come under increasing criticism because of this.
Big News in Brief: Friday 5th September
The Young Scots show the Big Boys how its done against Slovenia, while the Head of Football Development in England Trevor Brooking, has slammed the cash rich EPL for stiffling Young English talent. Motherwell demand more tickets from the Nancy boys and Bad Boy Joey Barton has been handed a 12 match ban for assaulting former Man City team mate Ousmane Dabo. There is some good news for Celtic before their clash with Aalborg in the Champions League and Hibs boss Mixu is to face the SFA head on in an attempt to get his towel throwing ban revoked.
SFA agree to Clubs return to Youth Football
Members of the SFA Board have agreed to allow Dundee, Dunfermline and Ross County entry back into the elite level of Youth Football. Although they have to re-apply in November. If the clubs then satisfy all current Child Protection requirements, then they will be re-admitted into the Youth League in February.
The trio were stripped of their elite Youth League status after failing to adhere to SFA Child Protection criteria, mainly up to date paperwork. However the trio of clubs pursued this decision through the courts and the Scottish Government was asked to investigate the matter also on behalf of the clubs.
It has been a sticky subject for the SFA, especially SFA President George Peat who was criticised after the decision, by the Chairmen of Dunfermline and Ross County who urged him to quit over the debacle.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 Preview
After playing a number of Football Based Computer Games over the years from Championship Manager, Football Manager and FIFA on a variety of consoles. I came across the Pro Evo Soccer series and got addicted to it just like every other Football based game I bought or played.
PES, by Konami, is the most critically acclaimed football video game title. PES 2009 will be available for the PS3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, PS2, Wii, Microsoft Windows and mobile phones.
The latest in the PES Series is out in October 2008 in Europe but ahead of that release date we have a wee teaser for you.Take a look at the Official Trailer below.
Stranraer in Financial Difficulty
Stranraer’s Vice Chairman Sean Niven has admitted today that the club is in serious financial difficulty with debts reaching up to 250,000. Steps have been taken to try and prevent the club from going bust, with the club finally realising their financial limitations, they will look at the possibility of selling shares or recruiting the local community in fundraising to help alleviate their money troubles.
“Mistakes have been made at the club, and we have overstretched our budget capabilities and on realising that and trying to pull things back a bit - although at a late stage - we hope it can avert any lasting damage,” said Niven. Niven also admitted that tensions had surfaced between the board and club manager Derek Ferguson over transfers. Whether Ferguson would remain as manager is unknown, however the Board have more things to worry about than just one man, they have a whole club to worry about.
Maybe it is time that Scottish Football, as we suggested some months back at the time of the Gretna demise, helped to construct a Charity Fund to help teams from going out of business, when all other avenues have been looked at - otherwise we will have more Clydebank’s, Airdrie’s, Gretna’s and Third Lanark’s.
Modern Football is really a curse on the lower clubs.
Hibs the Latest Team to Stand up to the Old Firm
Hibs are the latest club to stand up to the Old Firm and refuse to pay the 5% ticket levy that Rangers and Celtic are demanding. This will mean that no tickets for the Away end at Easter Road will be available to purchase through Rangers or Celtic ticket offices. All tickets for away fans will therefore be sold directly to the fans by the Hibs ticket office.
Hibs revealed they will work with Rangers Supporters’ Association to distribute tickets to their members for the September 28th SPL fixture. Easter Road chief executive Scott Lindsay said: “The system has been in existence for some years and until now enjoyed the support of all clubs, namely that all clubs agree to co-operate and sell tickets for their away supporters with no charge.
Rookie Referee to officiate Scotland v Macedonia clash
FIFA have given a referee who was given a six match ban for a catalogue of mistakes in a Czech match the task of officiating at Scotland’s opening World Cup Qualifying fixture against Macedonia in Skopje. Czech Pavel Kralovec has handled just two games at this level those being in Moldova and Kazakhstan.
Manager George Burley has been left deeply worried over the shock appointment of a ‘young and inexperienced referee’ for the Group Nine opener, with the thought of the whistler cracking under the pressure and reverting back to his old habits that saw him battered senseless by angry fans and left lying out cold in the street after a horrendous performance. He was forced to apologise publicly for his awful display, which was peppered with botched red cards and dodgy penalty decisions.
Kravolec’s inability to properly officiate matches overshadowed the Czech title run-in last season and he was banned for six games after a huge amount of mistakes in a match between Slavia Prague and Mlada Boleslav.
Scotland and manager George Burley can only hope that the referee does not crumble under the huge pressure, and stated that they must accept FIFA’s appointment even though they do not agree with it. They will also have to be wary over tackles in and around the box just in case the bungling whistler decides to blow it.
When you think of the amount of publicity our own officials have had over the past two seasons, over dodgy decisions, goals ruled offside that weren’t and red cards etc - you have to realise that there are far worse referees out there in the World and unluckily for Scotland we seem to be getting one of them on Saturday.
Graham Speirs: Why do we tolerate this bile?
The article below was written by The Times columnist Graham Speirs in regards to the recent attack on Neil Lennon, the SNPs inability to come down hard on Sectarianism. We at Scotzine.com even found out from the folk at Kick Out Bigotry that the Scottish Government had stopped all funding to the organisation and therefore they could not continue with the campaign - they cited that the Government had other more pressing priorities than stamping out Sectarianism and Bigotry in Football. Anyway here is Graham Speir’s article:
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