When Two Become Three

I remember once going to watch my brother play football. It was a long, long time ago and it was the sort of Scottish day that was as wet as it was cold.

The sort of day that threatens to drown a diminutive full back and turn a skinny left winger a very unhealthy shade of blue.

The sort of day that might make you despair of a nation that sends ten and eleven year old boys out to play football in such conditions.

The referee obviously didn't share the convinction of the coaches that the game should go ahead.

He pondered, he checked the pitch. And then he set upon a compromise:

"What we'll dae is we'll play three halves instead of two."

The game went ahead. The players had two breaks in which to coax the blood flow back to their extremities. Unfortunate fatalities were avoided.

I was put in mind of this yesterday when I read this:

Michael Beavon, a director of Arup Associates, the company developing the zero-carbon solar technology that can cool the 12 stadiums to be built for the World Cup, told delegates at a Qatar Infrastructure Conference in London that air-cooling could maintain a temperature of around 24 degrees Celsius in the stadiums.


"There is a moderate risk of heat injury to the players between 24C-29C but if you go above that you have high and extreme risk of injury," said Beavon. "The one thing FIFA do say, although it is for guidance, is if it's 32C they will stop a match and play three 30-minute thirds rather than two 45-minute halves.(ESPN)

From the playing field of Midlothian in the 1980s to Qatar's World Cup in 2022.

That's progress. Unless you actually care about the spectacle of the game.

> Fifa have apparently moved to distance themselves from this latest lunacy - a change that would require alterations to the laws of the game. It seems Beavon was floating a balloon and Blatter's battalion have shot it down.

Two breaks would double the amount of time for adverts though. Craven commercialism wrapped up neatly in concern for the health of the players. There will be somebody in the governing body who thinks is an idea worth considering.

SPL Clubs Play Fitball

In the not too dim and distant past I used to work for a health charity in Midlothian.

I'll admit I wasn't straight from central casting. The only way I become a poster boy for health and fitness is if you need someone to pose for the "before" section of your "before and after" pictures.

I'm not one of life's joggers, teetotallers or carrot chompers. I do actually walk for about an hour and 40 minutes three or four days a week at the moment and with a cringe I remember a particularly wooden Gavin Hastings telling me that would do some good in an old 'get fat Scots healthy' advert.

Sorry, Gav, but the only discernible impact is to make me moan about having to walk for an hour and 40 minutes three or four days a week.

Anyway although locked in a cupboard to hide me from public view for most of my time at this health charity, I was released long enough to do some publicity for a men's health programme we were running.

And it was a hard slog. Scottish men aren't naturally given to such group activities. Too reserved, stubborn, proud, embarrassed, fearful of the unknown. Like drawing teeth.

Solving the nation's issues with diet and exercise was always going to be harder than just lumbering the Scottish Cup with that awful Active Nation sobriquet.

Kudos then to the SPL clubs for backing the Football Fans in Training scheme. Such programmes rely on tangible results for their survival and last year this one certainly seemed to achieve something quite impressive.

Perhaps it's because it provides an environment that is familiar and comfortable or that you're with folk with at least a football club in common.

Whatever the reason, it works. Weight is lost, unhealthy bodies become healthier bodies.

And that leads us to an "SPL CLUBS DOING SOMETHING GOOD FOR SOCIETY" shocker.

Most refreshing.

Full text of a press release I was sent about how to get involved below. I'd encourage anyone who thinks they - or someone they know - could benefit to at least find out more.

On this occasion doing as I say and not as I do certainly seems to be worth it.

Lose weight, get fitter and get more out of life with your local SPL club* - Football Fans in Training 2011/12

Following the very successful Football Fans in Training (FFIT) programme last season, the community coaches at your local SPL club are looking for men who feel a bit out of shape to sign up for the 3 FFIT programmes being run in 2011/12.

Men completing FFIT last year lost a total of 2.3 tonnes in weight and 24m around their bellies.

They loved the 12 week course activities like a night out with the lads without the drinks and many said they looked forward to coming every week.

You can register now for FFIT 2011/12 at your local SPL club if you are:

Male - 35-65 years - With a BMI of at least 28 kg/m2 - Or a belly of at least 40 inches/trouser waist size of at least 38 inches

Visit our website at: www.spl-ffit.co.uk

Call 0800 389 2129, Text FFIT to 88802 or email ffit@sphsu.mrc.ac.uk

*The 13 clubs offering FFIT free of charge during 2011/2012 are:

• Aberdeen
• Celtic
• Dundee United
• Dunfermline
• Hamilton Accies
• Heart of Midlothian
• Hibernian
• Inverness Caledonian Thistle
• Kilmarnock
• Motherwell
• Rangers
• St Johnstone
• St Mirren