The 5-3 win over the Scottish champions, Hearts, by the 1895 First Division winners was set against a backdrop of unease about money, imported players and new competitionsThe Club World Cup has never stimulated universal enthusiasm. “The whole case goes to show how undesirable such events are from a sporting point of view, and what a prostitution of titles they are,” raged the Edinburgh Evening News, but that was 1895 and it wasn’t talking about the soft-power festival of greed that, in the distant days before the virus, was supposed to be taking place in China in the summer of 2021.Rather it was talking about the first meeting of league winners of England and Scotland, of the match played 125...
The SPFL wanted clubs to end the season but Dundee’s missing vote has resulted in the game’s governing body being questionedScottish football does not have a monopoly on toxicity. At times like these it just feels that way. In a period when serious discussions should be taking place about the recalibration of football post-pandemic open warfare has broken out. People with involvement spanning decades admit they have not encountered anything quite like the past few days.When the chairman of the Scottish Professional Football League rounded on “damaging misinformation” in the media he had a cheek. The SPFL’s reputation has been damaged, all right to the point of laughing stock by a voting farce which barely feels believable. Related: Confusion surrounds...
Farke faces defensive dilemma for Liverpool, Forest need their best XI, Chelsea’s women eye treble and a six-pointer in AustriaLeeds are falling apart. Maybe. But here’s the thing: anyone who beats them ends up falling apart too. None of the eight teams who have got the better of Marcelo Bielsa’s men in Championship this season have won their next match – seven of them have lost it. Nottingham Forest were the latest to find that beating Bielsa’s side takes a heavy toll, as on the back of last weekend’s 2-0 win at the City Ground, they flopped to a home defeat by Charlton. But they are still only two points off the automatic promotion places and could foil West Brom’s...
Hearts’ appointment of a young, innovative head coach in Ian Cathro should be applauded, but the reaction from many in the game was all too predictableSometimes the feeling prevails that Scottish football deserves all it gets. Certainly, when asking why the country’s national sport has been reduced to laughing‑stock status for so long, events of recent weeks would serve as a useful reference point. Where the attitude of the dark age is so prominent, where hypocrisy is rife, it really is no shock that Scotland continues to fail.Heart of Midlothian’s courting of Ian Cathro as the head coach to replace Robbie Neilson triggered some quite astonishing coverage. Cathro, at 30, has now taken over at the Edinburgh club. He has...