Garret Deasy

IMO! - don't bother, ain't interested. You are the guy who joined the Pollok committee as you didn't have a car and you could get a free run on the bus as a committee member to the away games. And probably didn't pay to get in either. And we should take you as seriously as you take yourself? I think not.

Condescending arsehole, as ever.

Please do. I assume you voted for Brexit and want to howl down anyone who voted otherwise. We live in sad times. Dear God.

Just a thought on some clubs grasping the pyramid 'route to the top' with such enthusiasm. We have seen clubs either developing their own grounds or having facilities built which they they accept the responsibility to run usually on a not for profit basis, for the benefit of the local community. There are risks in both these approaches. After all the 3G you get given by the Council today needs regular maintaining (think the maintenance cost of a 3G surface is about £4/hour of use) and replacing in a relatively short time (5 to 8 years). If developing their own ground the club will be dependent on grants and probably soft loans. Both approaches come with conditions. Running a sports facility is not easy. Having it handed on a plate still has its challenges. You just need professional management, this is not a game. Some are currently struggling with this, and in some cases have tried to hand it back to Council or Leisure Trust which just won't happen. Those successful in obtaining direct funding have the temptation to splash the cash on players with the plan to recover that money from future success on the pitch and additional income from the hire of facilities. I see Auchinleck are happy to stay junior, a club who have built gradually and live within their means. And there are many others at all levels with similar approach to running a successful junior club. It is a shame the realistic ambitions of those clubs get drowned out by those who will only survive with the extra shekels from the SFA as they climb the slippery slope of the money tree on offer.

So those running the Great Pyramid in the Sky have gone to the moneylenders. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/SC005453/filing-history then click on charges for 21st March 2018 Why this, and why now? Just the pension black hole, or something else? Come on your accountants/bankers out them give us a view. And you stattos, forget your obscure and obtuse leagues and tell us what you see, instead of scrabbling to jump on a sinking ship. Could be the SFA are now in the same position as Ranger were when Lloyds Bank put their man Manus Fulleron in place? Perhaps the Bank of Scotland now has first option on every pound that hits the SFA bank account, before the SFA can get their hands on it. Maybe the Scottish Football Association Limited (The SFA) needs junior clubs on board more than we need them?

I only read pronouncements like this as far as the first spelling mistake, and then give up. (Did I miss anything of significance?)

If TJ has something important to say about some momentous 'survey' why can he not tell the member clubs, the players, managers and supporters without asking that Sun journo to do it for him? The future of the junior game and the junior clubs is now a path of least resistance. In other words anything that creates work for TJ, or decisions from any of the committees in the game then it will be avoided at all costs. That is why the junior game is in chaos, lacking leadership and demonstrating cluelessness at every turn. This is the vacuum that allows the charlatans of the SFA to step in to fill the space. Anyone know the size of the bonus Regan got prior to his P45 for implementing the pyramid? Prepared to be amazed! Just in case you haven't checked, here is the latest news hot from the pages of the SJFA website. http://www.scottishjuniorfa.com/sjfa/scottish_fa_news.cfm?page=1747 Can anyone define useless and clueless?

The promoters of the much vaunted "Pyramid" the consistent SFA demonstrate again their total inability to organise a pi*up in a brewery. Join them if you want, but know the devil you are about to sup with. They had some issues on the table, which didn't disappear with Regan's departure. 1. Scotland Manager. Big Eck being a long time pal of short arse Macrae gets the mate's job. Paddy Power ✔@paddypower Alex McLeish is the new Scotland manager. "We went through a rigorous process," said a spokesman for the SFA. "We spoke to Michael O'Neill, Malky Mackay, the Krankies & that woman who calls her kids disgusting for not flushing the toilet, but Alex was always our first choice." 2. National Stadium Limited going bust. Despite £40 million of public money being put in. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sfa-plan-buy-hampden-deal-12067172 The right price is £1, but let's make it £2 million if we can avoid having to leave Glasgow and move games to that foreign country east of Harthill. 3. Get a new chief Exec. Needs to be better than Regan and therefore doesn't challenge the status quo, or the salaries of top staff. Preferably someone with Rangers connections. Ally must be in with a shout, and he's funny on the tele, or used to be. 4. Project Brave after the Dutch guy has jumped, McClair pissed off even quicker, now Malky Mackay (Not the one who is a director of The National Stadium Limited, that's Malky's daddy) will talk the talk to ensure he retains his bloated salary. Talk, loads of, action, sod all. 5. Operations Director gone missing, can be found on a golf course somewhere in Scotland. He gets a mention in this....https://www.scottishfa.co.uk/news/scottish-fa-statement-on-ceo/?rid=13929 Why are these things important to junior clubs? Because these are just the tip of the iceberg that is the back stabbing chaos that is the SFA. Join if you must, but beware that this corrupted beast will have to change and you will have to change too. Sometimes the devil you know........ As for the William Hill Scottish Cup, how does the Moneylaundering Scottish Cup sound? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43124258

I have never known the people who run junior football to "do what it takes" if it means disrupting their "the way we have always done it". Whether planning fixtures ahead of next week or the week after next or even fiddling around with leagues always seems to be too much. They just can't be arsed. Even when a few forward thinking clubs get together to look at reorganizing leagues in a considered and logical way this is seen as treasonable behaviour. Allowing junior football to be consumed by the SFA into their pyramid is merely a way for the people running the SJFA to avoid making decisions that require thought or even understanding of the game they purport to lead. The SJFA is not alone in this incompetent behaiour. Only need to look at the SFA giving Chief Exec the old heave ho, no doubt with nice package to compensate for unfair dismissal and to keep his mouth shut. Malky the bigot now being a shoo in for Scotland job, the organisation being clueless and directionless.

Good luck to Mr Ewing. From never having heard of him, he now is achieving his 15 minutes of fame. As far as 'his' football club goes, this just smacks of just another vanity project.

Thank you Sgt Wilson for some common sense. You have so called full time clubs paying peanuts. In some cases £200 per week, or even less. Speaking to an agent he tries to get these young lads to go part time. They basically can't afford to live a normal life,(things like mortgage, credit rating - no chance) but they are sold 'the dream' by their clubs. "A few good games with us and you will be picked up by a 'big' club, even Celtic/Rangers/Liverpool/Chelsea/Barcelona." The reality is most of them are 'let go' at some point. Know of an ex Cetic player (about 25 games for them), then down south with a number of clubs. Eventually played junior and wished he had done it years ago while getting some education and job skills. You only have to listen to the pundits on Radio Scotland to realise the only skills these guys have is to talk about football now they can't play. Many players in Div 1 and 2 will after a midweek game have their overalls on the next morning digging holes in the road or painting someones house.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12070539.Hampden_Park_nets__23m_award_from_the_lottery/ Interesting to compare today's reality with the 'finest stadium in the world' talk. Suspect (haven't checked on this ) that the lottery money is a straight grant, so no payback. I know BT put in excess of £5 million into Hampden around this time, and have regretted it ever since. Their view was 'what a bunch of amateurs' both the SFA and Queens Park. This was under Jim Farry's watch of course, so what more can you say. But what pis**d them off most of all was the control from Queens Park. They felt at the time they were dumping their money into a black hole to be spent on vanity projects, or jobs for the boys. With Regan talking to Murrayfield, if you compare Murrayfield as a stadium with Hampden, you must wonder whether BT was giving him the nod to go for Murrayfield. Would have allowed BT to turn their back on Hampden and have both rugby and football in Edinburgh at BT Murrayfield. A modern stadium that enhances the BT brand, unlike Hampden. All these activities do have an effect on junior clubs. Especially those tempted to join in with the pyramid, licensing and all that stuff. The weakness of the SFA as a governing body, and its repeated ineptitude create a significant risk for any club investing its future on the future activities of the SFA. Who knows? As sure as hell we won't be told until the proverbial hits the fan.

Now that the out of his depth Regan has jumped ship, how many of his 'strategies' will go too? Whether we like it or not, his sacking will effect the junior game. The Pyamid strategy with its Stalinist central control and apparatchics everywhere will probably be reinvented with him gone. Just on that I see Peterhead played Berwick Rangers on Tuesday last, a round trip of around 440 miles. (Attendance unknown, unstated). Then Peterhead go down to Annan midweek on 22nd - 500 miles round trip. Anyone believe this is a good idea? Anyone fancy League 2? After 8 years he has lost two Performance Directors, offerd 'social unrest' from Rangers fans , OKd Whyte and Green as fit and proper, project Brave in 'tatters', clueless on player protection, gormless in front of Parliamenetary committees, ending up with a racist as Performamce Director, and playing Murrayfield off against Hampden aka 'The National Stadium' in public was probably his step too far. Would hurt too many inflential people. From the latest set of accounts of The National Stadium Plc up to 31st December 2016. Given Queens Park is a company limited by guarantee, the most you can hope to get out of any director is £1. Debt recoverable? Don't you love weasel words like 'the directors believe that the debt is recoverable.' It either is or it isn't recoverable. But most likely nae chance. Now I see Mark McGhee is touting Strachan as next Chief Exec. Shows how little McGhee understands about what the job entails. Sad thing is the SFA have the ideal candidate in their midst, but never having been a professional player he will be ignored. More fools them. A new broom can sweep clean.

Intriguing. Given the assumptions, generalisations and wishful thinking I am sure you should be getting a phone call from President Donald Trump soon. I am convinced you could be the man who organises his Mexican wall. By Easter.

Deliberately not posting over the weekend, as regardless of what changes we may wish for, commenting on and discussing actual games is what P&B is best at. Coming back I see the Bexiteers and Remainers still moaning on. Sorry I meant Pyramiddeneers and everyone else. Those supporting senior clubs are nearly eloquent on why junior teams should jump to the pyramidden. Why are they arsed? Don't they have enough to do helping shore up their own clubs, especially those who have experienced multiple administrations, liquidations, fly boys running their clubs in the past, fly boys running their clubs today. Signing up the wee laddies across Scotland to follow their dream, only to be abused, then turfed out while the governing body is still totally clueless about why they should accept any responsibility for a mess of their own making. http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=10885&i=99602#ScotParlOR This has been running and after 7 years the well paid idiots of the SFA and SPFL still do not know the questions that should be asked never mind the grown up answers. Back to the junior game. It is different from the senior game as primarily supporter owned clubs, with democracy as the essence of what the junior game does. These principles are undermined when it is accepted by the junior clubs that the secretary can not just draw a salary but have the personal benefits thrown at him from a cosy relationship with the SFA . The junior game has allowed itself to be merely a sop to SFA. And those on committees when presented to on some initiatives that would help junior clubs generally, the organisation offering the help is asked after the meetings (in confidence) to come to their clubs to discuss how they could take advantage of the offers. The total lack of transparency of such meetings, publication of meaningful minutes is the perfect environment for people to joining committees for the benefit of their own club, and if lucky some personal benefits. (Have edited this to cut out direct references and examples, but happy to provide when it helps).

Excellent to hear from someone not a Pie & Bovril keyboard jock, nor a die hard fan. Just someone who wants to enjoy a decent game of football locally. The very people the junior hierarchy don't bother with. Fixture lists can be created at the start of the season (they already have the software to do it but there is a lack of willingness to use it!) results in paying someone £15k per annum to indulge them in forever fiddling with fixtures, next batch released for the next couple of weeks decided in secret and then slipped into the public domain quietly. What a total and complete waste of money. All because someone can't use technology or prefers it the way it is. Everything is in secret. The powers that be seemed to get annoyed for some reason when people find out w.hat they are getting up to. Time to get people like that punted no matter the number of years "service" they have given. These people are NOT acting for the good of the game.

Clubs stay junior for a number of reasons. Some lack ambition or in some cases just couldn't cope with having to fill in a form. Others because they want to be big time, reasons are varied on this one. To say Dalkeith has jumped over anyone is just too simplistic. Close ties with the Council and the whole 'big picture' scenario from the SFA has built up over a period. Also committee members who can see the poor and even inadequate support from the junior hierarchy over many years. The junior game in reality is run by the west region, no matter what gloss you can put on it. So with change being imposed on the junior game whether it likes it or not (and it does NOT like it), especially as clubs depart usually in frustration, it encourages us to question again the whole setup and whether it is 'fit for purpose'. At the heart of it is the Secretary. The role is ....well who really know, is it one that reflects what clubs want, or is it one that leads the clubs to a better place? Tom Johnston won't be there forever. If you look at what he does it falls into a number of areas. 1. The admin side. Registering players, dealing with disciplinary issues, organising cup draws as required etc. Definitely not rocket science. 2. The blazer role. Sitting on the board of the SFA, going to international games home and away all expenses paid (in addition to the brown envelope for the inconvenience), sitting on another couple of boards as the SFA rep. Taking on the shit jobs on behalf of the SFA such as approving Green (The Rangers) as a fit and proper person. Oh yes and attending the annual junior internationals home and away. 3. The development of the game. The future of the game. When TJ retires, no reason why we can't spilt the job. 1. The admin part can be carried out a couple of days/week. Especially with email, mobile phones etc. 2. The Blazer roles. The only reason for someone from the sjfa to be on the SFA should be on a non exce role, to just ensure they keep abreast of any changes that may effect the junior game. As for getting on the blazer and tie, just share it round club officials. 3. Development. Someone with solid business and management skills to get out there talking to clubs. finding out what is really needed. But understanding and respecting the different culture and traditions of the junior game so it is protected and preserved. And to develop plans that make the junior game stronger and the clubs more sustainable. There are many people in clubs with goodwill towards the junior game, keen to help but I have heard the statement that joining a committee would only validate the incompetence that is there. Led by someone who can go from sorting out the constitution to making the game more attractive to supporters, players and committees alike. Sponsors will then come. Someone experienced at this type of role could spend 3 days a week on this development. Leading change is what it is about and taking the clubs with him or her. Many on existing committees will see this change (any change) as a threat. But we can't have the same old, same old being presented as a potentially successful future. We know it is lies. WE know it is not working. The clubs say so.

Dalkeith on the move now. Their support is as close to two men and a dug as is possible to have, so they have little to lose, especially given the support available from their governing body. Haddington probably next? How many must go before there is some reaction from the leadership of the junior game? Unless of course this is what they want to see happen? TJ was clearly confllcted with sitting on the board of the SFA while being secretary of the SJFA, not to mention his other SFA endorsed directorships. Some legacy guys.

Might be a starting point to consider this, cut from what other organisations conform to without the sky falling in. · Selflessness Holders of a junior club committee should act solely in terms of the interest of the club and its members. They should not do so in order to gain financial or other benefits for themselves, their family or their friends. · Integrity Holders of a junior club committee should not place themselves under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organisations that might seek to influence them in the performance of their official duties. · Objectivity In carrying out club business, including making appointments, awarding contracts, or recommending individuals for rewards and benefits, holders of a junior club committee should make choices on merit. · Accountability Holders of a junior club committee are accountable for their decisions and actions to the club members and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office. · Openness Holders of a junior club committee should be as open as possible about all the decisions and actions that they take. They should give reasons for their decisions and restrict information only when the wider club membership interest clearly demands it. · Honesty Holders of a junior club committee have a duty to declare any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the interest of the club and its members. Leadership Holders of a junior club committee should promote and support these principles by leadership and example. Not just for clubs but the various committees involved in running the game. Anything here you club isn't doing?

Thanks Che. A good read. Nothing new there. This list could have been put together 10 years ago. And do tell me how is any club going to work their way through that lot to work out which ones are the useless plonkers (can provide a list of these if required) and which can genuinely help. Tell me in 5 years time how you got on. Suspect just part of the attempts to respond to the Scottish Government's requirement to get the SFA to grow up.

I know it is enjoyable for some to play around with leagues, mergers, pyramids, cups, including diddy cups, summer season or winter breaks but I would like to go back a step. This takes us to how the sport is administered (by the SJFA) and also how clubs are run. There is a regular chorus about what the SJFA do, and especially what they don't do. All perfectly justified but would like to come back to that later. But first how the clubs are run. The evidence is pretty clear that clubs that run themselves 'correctly' are also more successful on the pitch. They have competent people in key posts on their committee who are there to take the club forward honestly and without personal agendas taking over. You only have to think of Auchinleck, Linlithgow (excluding the fat dictator's time when it started to fall apart), Pollok, Beith etc. A good few others I could mention. At the other end we have outrageous behaviour at club level which is tolerated and condoned by the powers that be in the SJFA. What you quietly condone today is only postponing a bigger and dirtier day of reckoning. One club run by two undischarged bankrupts, one looking after the money, while using the club facilities for 'extra curricular' activities, the income being pocketed. Funding given for a car park, £1200 (in cash) going on a lorry load of tarmac, the other 23,800 going on players. Few years later club on verge of going out of business. The manager who got players to sign for next season, keeping the forms in his back pocket. Then manager poached by another club so he tears up the forms and take the players to the new club. No honesty or ethics from his new club, stupidity from his old one. Clubs signing players on big contracts only to find that by October there is no money. SJFA seems happy for players to be treated like this. Generally on public funding, clubs not using the money as intended, which ruins that source for all others. Watch out for clubs buying players insisting on paying cash. Club that paid their bills by cheque only knowing they were overdrawn when the cheques bounced. And they bounced every week. Fine for some, but no way to run a club. The property speculators (not developers) who knows somebody who will buy the ground. This business 'angel' then gets on the committee and makes all the running. One committee member told me they would end up with half a million in the bank after the deal is done. Aye right! The club with a bar, the club losing serious money. When showing a breakdown of the finances to an accountant, he asked if I knew who was on the fiddle. Answer, probably 3 committee members. Committees are made up of people of all skills and backgrounds, but when a club is not run properly any potential volunteer committee member will turn up a few times and then run for it. Especially if they have a professional reputation to protect. So a bit of a catch 22, can't get volunteers on our committee, and yes we are a shambles but that is the way we do it here. So, my point is, can the SJFA not get a programme in place to help clubs run themselves better? It may be courses, getting advisers available on call to help, organising volunteers who can help for a set period (say a year) without signing up to a lifetime commitment. It must include how to manage money, plan ahead, to even running meetings, documenting what the committee does, marketing the club locally, and engaging with their members etc. All standard stuff. We can keep playing around with the changes on the playing side, but without substance and competence at club level we are merely building on sand, and the path ahead can only be downwards. Without strong clubs the SJFA is for nothing. We have few enough strong clubs in the junior ranks, and as we now see some of the more competent (and ambitious) ones are jumping ship. If the moment of decision is not now, when will it be? In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. – Theodore Roosevelt

Of course they want to improve it. Running track keeping supporters away from the game, usually huddling under trees, playing on a surface that has shot putts and javelins destroying the playing surface every week, crap drainage , and the politics of neighbouring clubs all getting in the way.

LTHV are NOT playing 'the system'. At least not the one invented by THE SFA. Their main focus is in developing youngsters to be better footballers and better people. The principles of their coaching approach is far superior to anything coming out of the SFA or the Acadamies. Just ask Man City, Arsenal and other English Premiership clubs who have been there to see for themselves. As kids make their move to the senior game HV's preferred route is going down south. Too many bad experieces with the SPFL rogues. The 'inducements' from the SFA for them to play the pyramid system were financially attractive, but HV stood by what they believed it, and still believe in.

Many ideas suggested here are good, but the challenge is to take it from being a good idea to putting it in place and making it work. Other ideas are the 'rearranging the deckchairs on the titanic' type. And clubs falling into the pyramid is merely moving control to the SFA so they can kill off the junior game, their long held ambition. Unfortunately any discussion on here will only include those currently interested, and we end up talking to ourselves. Posters mention supporters of junior clubs in their 70s and 80s who have supported those clubs since their school days. Where are those school kids today? Individual clubs try hard on their own to attract them, but it is disjointed and not supported by the SJFA. Promoting the game comes in many forms. Publicising fixtures well ahead (if not for the full season from day 1) would be a BIG help. But when we have something like thejuniors.info coming along which was created totally by junior supporters for the benefit of the junior game, the SJFA goes out of their way to NOT use them, avoiding all attempts at cooperation, preferring a gobby jounro from the SUN (of all newspapers) to be part of cup draws etc. So the biggest block to ANY change are those individuals governing our game. Important to separate the posts from the individuals. For example it is not the post of West Region secretary that blocks progress, it is the person in post. Just as those elected to regional or management committees who work to benefit their own club rather than the game overall are preventing change and progress. This applies right across the junior game. Getting the right people in post starts with getting the right people on your club committee.

Would this have any bearing on this debate? https://www.leadinggovernance.com/blog/nolan-principles-20-years