All Animals Are Equal - But

YES, we've all read or heard the above quote, one which definitely has some relevance to Scottish football. And I reckon it's those Scottish football animals who reckon they're more equal than others, who will finally decide what form of change we get in the governance of the game up here.

I also believe the SPL's carefully "leaked" blueprint for change is a first shot across the bows of the SFL, in what will be a battle for control of the game over the next year or two.

It is significant that the "Dirty Dozen", as they will doubtless be dubbed, by some sub-editor with a soft spot for an SFL side, have pre-empted the release of Henry McLeish's second part of his review into Scottish Football - maybe they've heard that they're not going to come out of it too well.

The fact is, the SFA is not a very democratic body - just have a look at the composition of the SFA Council, the "parliament" of the game up here, if you like. It's top-heavy with people from the senior game, either the SPL or the SFL and in case the SPL hasn't noticed, through the offices of such distinguished bodies as the Fife FA, the Angus FA, the Stirlingshire FA and so forth - the SFL can field a lot more bodies in the council chamber than can the SPL.

If the SFL is to be no more, then the time-servers and sundry "blazers" will need to be bought-off, just as the SPL is still under-pinning the SFL through the parachute clauses and what-not, levered from them to allow them to break free 12 years ago.

But the lack of democracy in the SFA goes far deeper than turf wars between the 12 SPL clubs and the 30 SFL ones. In that SFA Council, the 42 so-called top clubs call the shots. They've got greater numbers on the council than the 170-plus SJFA clubs, who are represented by SJFA secretary Tom Johnston. The 1000 and more grass roots amateur sides, the "pub" teams who really are the heart-beat of the game in Scotland have less Council representation than the SFL Division Two clubs, who between them attract less fans on any given Saturday than there are amateur players.

Scottish football's neglect of its grass-roots, the way the players of the future are pretty-well ignored within the corridors of power at Hampden is mirrored in the council chamber, where the SYFA has little or no clout, while taking the Scottish Schools FA's representative sides out of the hands of the teachers and into the full SFA age group development scheme, hasn't exactly brought new success.

It would perhaps have been better had Neil Doncaster and his cohorts kept their plans under lock and key, and let McLeish have first dibs at trying to right the wrongs in Scottish football.

Mind you, under any organisation which allows George Peat to become Mr Big, you'd perhaps be better-employed trying to right the Titanic.

We need change, but we need the right change and from what I've seen of the SPL proposals, this isn't it.