Our Competitive League

[Kapowzer]

@Jinky67 I've always been a fan of the Dutch model where every town and village has one club for all levels and I/II/III/IV teams based on the population.

If I use Motherwell because I am familiar. In the Netherlands within the town you'd have the established club, they would have and run the municipal sports fields and facilities (tennis courts, astroturf, indoor, etc.) and everything in the town was be geared to exposing kids to coaching and finding a place for them somewhere based on their ability and potential. The elite side of things is all about finding the natural progression as amateurs and giving them the option to pursue professionally. Those who do it for fitness, camaraderie and fun are free to do that. Everything in the town is the crest, colours. We seen it in Scandinavia in Aaelsund and Odense where the whole town was Orange & Blue or White and Blue, railings, lamposts, bins, signage. There's a civic pride that we don't have.

It's purely geographic in these three countries, everyone in the town wants to represent it. There will be Dutch kids that will be Ajax of PSV supporters but that's not where they are from and playing for your home town is the first step. Here we have a religious element too which influences. Many local kids would view pulling on a Claret and Amber strip would be betrayal of their Glasgow team.

In reality Motherwell is in North Lanarkshire Council which covers 6 major towns of +40k (Motherwell, Wishaw, Bellshill, Airdrie, Coatbridge, Cumbernauld) and another half dozen of about 10k that kinda sit on the outskirts or merge into these towns.

Within Motherwell itself when I was a nipper there were about 10 boys clubs, some multiple age groups, some welcoming in the new crop every year and those who took one team from U7's say till U16's. One thing was common, most were ran buy guys for the love of it, a few through obligation. Many were motivated by doing it for a son, some as it gave them purpose. However there was no defined funnelling of the cream, many were protective of breaking their team up but that comes back to the silo building I've mentioned before. Would Yett Farm, Jervison, Motherwell Miners alert the professional club to anyone? There was no incentive and even less altruism. I don't doubt scouts would drop by from time to time, press palms and foster relationships but that's where the bun fight starts with managers having personal loyalties. There was no common goal even within a town with a top flight club.

When we got to two cup finals, NLC received complaints from OF fans living in the area as to why their council tax was being used for C&A bunting, this mindset is what you have to combat first. I mean .... what the f**k is wrong with these people?

[Jinky67]

8 minutes ago, Kapowzer said:

@Jinky67 I've always been a fan of the Dutch model where every town and village has one club for all levels and I/II/III/IV teams based on the population.

If I use Motherwell because I am familiar. In the Netherlands within the town you'd have the established club, they would have and run the municipal sports fields and facilities (tennis courts, astroturf, indoor, etc.) and everything in the town was be geared to exposing kids to coaching and finding a place for them somewhere based on their ability and potential. The elite side of things is all about finding the natural progression as amateurs and giving them the option to pursue professionally. Those who do it for fitness, camaraderie and fun are free to do that. Everything in the town is the crest, colours. We seen it in Scandinavia in Aaelsund and Odense where the whole town was Orange & Blue or White and Blue, railings, lamposts, bins, signage. There's a civic pride that we don't have.

It's purely geographic in these three countries, everyone in the town wants to represent it. There will be Dutch kids that will be Ajax of PSV supporters but that's not where they are from and playing for your home town is the first step. Here we have a religious element too which influences. Many local kids would view pulling on a Claret and Amber strip would be betrayal of their Glasgow team.

In reality Motherwell is in North Lanarkshire Council which covers 6 major towns of +40k (Motherwell, Wishaw, Bellshill, Airdrie, Coatbridge, Cumbernauld) and another half dozen of about 10k that kinda sit on the outskirts or merge into these towns.

Within Motherwell itself when I was a nipper there were about 10 boys clubs, some multiple age groups, some welcoming in the new crop every year and those who took one team from U7's say till U16's. One thing was common, most were ran buy guys for the love of it, a few through obligation. Many were motivated by doing it for a son, some as it gave them purpose. However there was no defined funnelling of the cream, many were protective of breaking their team up but that comes back to the silo building I've mentioned before. Would Yett Farm, Jervison, Motherwell Miners alert the professional club to anyone? There was no incentive and even less altruism. I don't doubt scouts would drop by from time to time, press palms and foster relationships but that's where the bun fight starts with managers having personal loyalties. There was no common goal even within a town with a top flight club.

When we got to two cup finals, NLC received complaints from OF fans living in the area as to why their council tax was being used for C&A bunting, this mindset is what you have to combat first. I mean .... what the f**k is wrong with these people?

I live in Wishaw, went to St Aidans High and once upon a time played for Motherwell Miners in the early 90’s for a few seasons so get what you are saying. I remember we used to get the odd complimentary tickets to go watch Motherwell and was more than happy to go along to watch the matches, Celtic were always my team though so yeah I get I’m part of the problem but all the names you mention are very familiar to me. 

Back then though I remember most lads who were scouted were done through playing with the school teams and the old Lanarkshire select sides. Two guys I played with at school were Mark McCormick and Colin Waldie who were both picked up being watched playing for the school, Mark went to Livi and Colin went to Raith Rovers if memory serves. I can only remember a couple of Motherwell fans one of whom was John McCrossan who funnily enough was the linesman at the Celtic v St Johnstone game on Saturday  

Whilst there seems to be more opportunity for kids to get spotted now it’s still difficult for kids and parents if I use Motherwell as an example they have an academy setup through Braidhurst High I believe, one of the girls who works for me is from Armadale in West Lothian and has to take her son to school there just so he can continue playing for the Motherwell youth team, hugely talented boy by all accounts but it’s a big commitment and expense for the parents so these things could be made much easier with the regional format you describe in the Netherlands, we could learn a lot from their methods and that’s even before looking at how they play

The claret and amber bunting didn’t bother me in the slightest, it was good to see the community get behind something as it doesn’t happen enough so saddened to hear of the complaints but not unsurprising given what I know about the area.

[Monkey Tennis]

9 hours ago, Kapowzer said:

@Jinky67 I've always been a fan of the Dutch model where every town and village has one club for all levels and I/II/III/IV teams based on the population.

If I use Motherwell because I am familiar. In the Netherlands within the town you'd have the established club, they would have and run the municipal sports fields and facilities (tennis courts, astroturf, indoor, etc.) and everything in the town was be geared to exposing kids to coaching and finding a place for them somewhere based on their ability and potential. The elite side of things is all about finding the natural progression as amateurs and giving them the option to pursue professionally. Those who do it for fitness, camaraderie and fun are free to do that. Everything in the town is the crest, colours. We seen it in Scandinavia in Aaelsund and Odense where the whole town was Orange & Blue or White and Blue, railings, lamposts, bins, signage. There's a civic pride that we don't have.

It's purely geographic in these three countries, everyone in the town wants to represent it. There will be Dutch kids that will be Ajax of PSV supporters but that's not where they are from and playing for your home town is the first step. Here we have a religious element too which influences. Many local kids would view pulling on a Claret and Amber strip would be betrayal of their Glasgow team.

In reality Motherwell is in North Lanarkshire Council which covers 6 major towns of +40k (Motherwell, Wishaw, Bellshill, Airdrie, Coatbridge, Cumbernauld) and another half dozen of about 10k that kinda sit on the outskirts or merge into these towns.

Within Motherwell itself when I was a nipper there were about 10 boys clubs, some multiple age groups, some welcoming in the new crop every year and those who took one team from U7's say till U16's. One thing was common, most were ran buy guys for the love of it, a few through obligation. Many were motivated by doing it for a son, some as it gave them purpose. However there was no defined funnelling of the cream, many were protective of breaking their team up but that comes back to the silo building I've mentioned before. Would Yett Farm, Jervison, Motherwell Miners alert the professional club to anyone? There was no incentive and even less altruism. I don't doubt scouts would drop by from time to time, press palms and foster relationships but that's where the bun fight starts with managers having personal loyalties. There was no common goal even within a town with a top flight club.

When we got to two cup finals, NLC received complaints from OF fans living in the area as to why their council tax was being used for C&A bunting, this mindset is what you have to combat first. I mean .... what the f**k is wrong with these people?

Aligning youth development more closely to where youngsters live would be welcome, but it would scarcely nudge the dial on the problem you started the thread about.

Quite simply, this is about money and which clubs get it.  That's where this begins and ends.

[Kapowzer]

UEFA money has ruined any semblance of a level playing field.

Using that money to fund youth would limit an overcooking of the market if every team got an immediate spread of the wealth.

Ricki Lamie being able to command a jump from 2.5k a week to 9k achieves zero because that is what would happen.

The issue is it’s a 10 year wait to see the fruits of it and for that reason it’ll never happen. You also need the top 20 greedy clubs to acquiesce and that will never happen and you have to get 40 odd leagues to agree and that will never happen.

So for that reason my interest in Scottish football is at an all time low.