Just picked up on this thread, so some catching up to do.
Going back to Burnieman's original questions, I would prefer to talk about the junior game and not pyramids/reorganisation etc etc etc. How can we invent solutions until we have defined the problems? Will any solution make junior football and its member clubs better and more sustainable?
Someone said that the junior game hasn't made any changes. It has.
Changes such as:
Removal of the retention clause, reorganistion of the east region leagues, using Twitter for live match updates (well before senior teams got round to it), thejuniors.info, persuading local radio to report on junior games starting in Midlothian, now with a junior show on Pulse radio. All of these achieved at zero cost.
I am mentioning these as they were all done by volunteers, supporters and in the case of the east reog and the more recent one in the west by a handful of committeed club people. I think the key point of this is that it did not come from the 'top' of the SJFA, nor the committees. But resistance for many of these changes came from the SJFA hierarchy itself.
Someone suggested in an earlier post that the SJFA needs a dictator to force through change. I disagree totally. We already have the dictators. The whole essence of the junior game is being democratic and transparent. We can be democratic and progressive but that needs people who put the junior game first. Those on committees have not been elected to promote their own club, nor to protect positions that give them blazers and other fringe benefits.
And of course the junior game is totally different to senior clubs. Junior clubs are owned by their members (=supporters), run by volunteer committees (some better than others), and most are embedded in their communities in a real sense. And run on a 'not for profit' basis. The aims of senior clubs are around money, usually in the hands of a very few, and after all the documented aims of most senior clubs is to be 'more profitable'.
There is a strong story around junior football and needs to be told. To possible sponsors, local businesses, official bodies right up to the Scottish Government. This is not helped by the SFA who have senior people in place who will refer to the SJFA as a bunch of "effin dinosaurs". And they clearly control the message externally. A recent consulation run by the Scottish Government on supporter participation and ownership of clubs had a number of meetings with the SFA. The junior game was never mentioned by the SFA. And the eventual SFA response was some 75 pages of telling the Government to "f off, we are football". Just in case anyone reading this is in any doubt, scottish football is widely accepted as the worst run of all sports in Scotland. And it shows.
Change is needed, both in the SFA and SJFA. But let the SFA sort out their own mess I am just interested in the junior game. Most people in positions of responsibilty in the game would like to turn the clock back about 50 years, or more. But if you don't change while the world around you changes, the only result is failure and oblivion.
Anyone want to join the party?
