Networking Behind The Goals

How we used to interact

Another football networking site is preparing to launch. ExtraFootie is the footballing answer to Facebook for UK supporters. Or so they are claiming.

Fantasy football, forums, a resurrection of the pools (are the pools not still going?), supporters pages and a profile to network with.

All sounds fine but I'm not convinced it will take off. Other sites are already available but none seem to have really caught fire. So time will tell. Maybe it's time, on the day that Chelsea's Stamford the Lion began to tweet, that football began to explore the potential of the internet more fully.

The problem is that Facebook, Bebo or whatever can already offer most of these services and a lot more besides without the user having to define themselves by their love of a team.

And fans forums already exist where people can mingle and network with like minded individuals. My experience of these forums is that they quickly become cliquey and put off new users - at first FootieExtra can be an antidote to that but pretty soon it will risk the same thing happening.

Aside from anything else, of course, football supporting is a fairly tribal pursuit. Will fans from one club want to mingle with fans from other clubs. And if not the whole network idea is kaput.

But what do I know? They could be launching at the right time. England have a good World Cup next year, the site explodes and the creaters quickly cash in before the next big thing comes along. We'll see.

Coincidence?

It looks even worse on video. Who are they making a point to? The media? The manager? The trembling SFA chief? The Tartan Army?

Still, there's a welcome in the Hampden inner sanctum for both of them no doubt.

Gordon Smith Backs Manager Over Rangers' Stars (Late April Fool!)

The view from the Scotland squad

Gordon Smith on the Cameron House Two:

"He's made a decision; I know exactly why he's done it – he's told me his reasons. I'm going along with that just now.

"After the game's passed, George and I will have an opportunity to sit down and discuss what's happened in the last few days and review the situation and how it's been dealt with."

Smith revealed Burley did not consult him or the SFA board over the matter. "We weren't involved in the decision at all. It's George's decision how he was going to deal with the situation that's arisen. He has to deal with behaviour and any sanctions that are taken.

"He also picks the team 100 per cent. It's his decision whether the players are away from the squad.

"We have to give him autonomy in that respect. But we'll be reviewing the situation – I've told George that."

Is all our information wrong Gordon? Are you scared that the Rangers fans would turn against you?

Or, speaking before the match, did you think you could sack Mr Burley and all this would be forgotten.

You always back the manager or you say nothing. Simple.

If the BBC interpreted Ferguson and McGregor's gestures and body language correctly tonight then the two of them have shown exactly where they stand. Pretty much in the sewer.

Some of the booing before the game is laid right at Mr Smith's door.

Just. Scotland 2:1 Iceland

Well, we got there. And no more.

To borrow a phrase, at the end of the day the result was what mattered. And we got it.

Not without a scare. Not without a period of domination in the first half that we failed miserably to convert into a lead. And not without a period in the second half when a poor Icelandic side took the momentum.

But we won and we should, if nothing else, have put second place and all that back into our own hands.

McCormack again gets pass marks. Hutton showed what we've been missing. Gordon proved that George Burley's "no first team, no Scotland game" mantra is misguided. Fletcher did well up front.

Gary Teale and Gavin Rae coming on? Strange. At least they inspired Captain Barry to drag himself away from the sulks for a warm down. They might also prove that the manager will drag us to second place through luck and not much else. That debate must remain unsolved until September.

None of that, of course, is enough. Yet. Let's be optimistic. A play-off place might well be within reach.

Two Men Down

Just an hour or so till kick off then. And again I'm not really sure what to say. On paper you feel this game should be far easier than people seem to be expecting. Remember we've already gone over there and won - this is the simple bit against a team just beaten by the Faroes.

But how distracting has the preparation been? Seems to be a problem with some Rangers players, a little case of history repeating itself at Ibrox with Smith and McCoist unable to halt a slide back to the unprofessional (although successful) days of Smith's last reign.

If Barry Ferguson was aware of a curfew and willfully ignored it then it really should be time to edge him out of the starting eleven. A captain with that much experience should not let themselves get into this position - he's 31 now so you can't really excuse him for being a bloody idiot. McGregor? Well, what a time we're living in when both Old Firm keepers are pretty much mental. As I pointed out on Twitter earlier, at least there was no rowing boat involved.

April Fools dealt with, what can we expect tonight. Not more of the same. It's a home game against inferior opposition and it seems likely our formation will be a lot different. I still worry that Fletcher and Miller are unlikely to spark a goals bonaza so it will, as ever, be important that Darren Fletcher and Scott Brown get forward in support.

Hopefully Craig Gordon will be fully prepared despite the strange build up. I've no doubts that he won't let us down and should, after tonight and recent events, be installed as Scottish number one again. At the back McManus will be hoping to show that he is now full time captain material - the only question mark is his injury but if he's been declared fit then good luck to him. It's unlikely that Hutton will last 90 minutes but he will offer something that we've been missing.

I don't predict a classic but I think we might end up winning with something - not much, but something - to spare. C'mon boys, don't let me down!

How Bad Are We?

During my trip to Holland a few weeks ago I noted with interest, if not surprise, that almost every decision by the referee or linesman was greeted with a barrage of missiles (coins, lighters etc) thrown by the home support.

Now the mighty ADO Den Haag have a reputation for being a bit crazy but speaking to people in Holland and watching a bit of football there and here it seems to me that this is not an isolated incident. It certainly happens elsewhere in the continent (remember the infamous pig's head at Barcelona?) far more regularly than it happens in Scotland.

I happened to have in my possession that night around a dozen AAA batteries (don't ask, suffice to say bargain hunting can survive the exchange rate if you know where to look) which, were I of a mind, would have been quite wonderful objects to throw. I'm quite sure they would have been binned had I been searched going into a Scottish ground. In The Hague the security guard patting me down just looked at them, nodded (clearly a fellow tight arse) and waved me on my way.

Likewise a couple of years ago a London derby (Chelsea and Spurs, for reasons of precision) ended with ten people getting stabbed within two miles of the ground. Coincidence? Nah, probably not.

Now I don't want to get bogged down in a "we're marginally less criminally minded than you" argument. But are UEFA cracking down on Dutch clubs? Are the Metropolitan Police embroiling all Londoners in a bout of communal soul searching as the Strathclyde force did a couple of weeks ago in Glasgow?

I don't think they are. But Rangers and Celtic fans - a minority of whom probably deserve all they get - are watched like hawks. You can read in The Observer's excellent "Said and Done" column almost every Sunday how UEFA and FIFA take what might, extremely charitably, be called a softly, softly approach to racism (as Dave Zirin in Welcome To The Terrordome notes they're not above a spot of institutionalised racism either) yet they seem to be prepared to be a lot harsher on Scottish sectarianism?

Are we, as a minority football nation, picked on because we are relatively insignificant? Well, you can hardly say the ADO Den Haag are a powerhouse of European football so the reasons would seem to run deeper than that.

I think partly we are bringing this on ourselves. When you start having rows about the hokey cokey you know that the battle against sectarianism is a long way from being won. It makes the whole country look backward. But our politicians are essentially inviting the footballing authorities to come in and hammer us.

You see, if you're a politician, it sounds great to moan about sectarianism. The majority of us who abhor prejudice can't argue with that, right? Absolutely. But there is a trade off - what about the sizable minority that support the Old Firm? Now they're not all bigots but even some of those that aren't might soon get pissed off at the constant abuse their team is getting.

So our politicians cop out. They raise the issue and say it's just terrible. Very pleased they are to lead the moaning. But they seem to forget their leadership credentials when it actually comes to doing anything about it. So here we are, a grown up country, own parliament and everything, and a bunch of elected clowns saying "Oh, look at us in Scotland, we've got all these bigots that we can't do anything about, please help."

That makes it very easy for UEFA to smash Rangers the next time they go abroad. Far easier than it is for them to smash Spain for having a vocal racist element in the stands and in the dug-out.

Again, I'm not saying that what we hear in Scotland is any better or worse than racist chanting (in fact if we look closely there remains a racist undercurrent in a lot of Scottish stands) but we are now a victim of double standards in our treatment by the footballing authorities.

Why don't our politicians set up a European wide consultation to rid football of all bigotry and violence? Why don't they work with UEFA and FIFA to set punishments that will actually really harm the clubs in question - by which I mean really, really harm their bank balances rather than denting their reputations?

Any politicians wondering why, for all Rangers bigot busting bluster, the problem remains need only look at themselves. Talking about doing something is not the same as actually doing it. Martin Bain might well have learnt that watching Holyrood Live.

Our politicians started the debate but weren't prepared to finish it. They could have started something across Europe. Instead they were content just to have opened their mouths. That has given UEFA carte blanche to use the Old Firm as its whipping boys. That in itself is no bad thing but the problems, in Glasgow, London, Barcelona, The Hague and Rome all remain unsolved thanks to a combination of UEFA's essential corruptness and the craven opportunism of Holyrood's finest.