A Tale of Two Games in a City

Understanding the structure of football in Scotland outside the SPL and SFL is not easy. Seniors, Juniors, Amateurs, Juveniles, Welfare . . . there are different rules and practices associated with each grade. So why do so many different grades of football persist?

It would not be entirely correct to think of these as different ‘levels’ of football. Any notion of a ‘hierarchy’ is flawed. Senior sounds like it should be better than Junior but it frequently is not. Juvenile sounds like it should be for kids, but it operates to Under 21 level. Amateur sounds like it should be played on public parks and whilst it often is, it sometimes isn’t. These grades are separate strands that have become entangled. Each strand is separate and distinct but together they could form one stronger woven chord.

Two games that took place in Edinburgh last Wednesday night well illustrate some of the anomalies that exist in the twilight world of Scottish football. Edinburgh City and Civil Service Strollers met in the East of Scotland League Premier Division at Meadowbank Stadium. Both of these clubs are full members of the Scottish Football Association which allows them to compete in the Scottish Cup – City were one game short of a ‘local derby’ against Hibernian in Round Five. Across the city, an East Region South Division Junior match went ahead between Spartans Juniors and Edinburgh United at Ainslie Park. This is the lowest level of the Junior ‘pyramid’. The admission charge at both games was £4.

The Senior East of Scotland League and the East Juniors run in parallel with each other. The standard of the top teams in each is comparable. The Juniors have more strength in depth and their poorest teams are not as weak as the strugglers in the Seniors. But the real anomaly is that teams who are close neighbours never meet competitively. Whitehill Welfare play next door to Bonnyrigg Rose and Newtongrange Star. Preston Athletic’s closest geographic neighbours are Tranent and Musselburgh. Furthermore, teams like Coldstream who play in a public park get automatic entry to the Scottish Cup every year, yet Linlithgow Rose and Newtongrange Star with fine floodlit grounds do not.

To explain why these different levels survive is actually quite easy – self interest, self preservation and the desire to perpetuate positions of influence just about sums it up. Each grade of football has its own administrators who are all ‘important’ in their small spheres of influence. They guard their ‘Associations’ jealously with talk of ‘tradition’ and ‘heritage’. Yet the lack of an integrated structure is nonsensical.

I’m not necessarily talking about a ‘pyramid’ system here. Perhaps that could evolve through time if teams were interested. What I am arguing for is the streamlining of administration to bring the different strands of non-league football under a single umbrella.

Take the aforementioned Spartans Juniors as an example. Spartans also run a team in the East Seniors which they regard as their ‘first team’. They’ve had great success in the Scottish Cup in recent times. But the two teams have to be run as separate entities. Last Wednesday the Juniors wanted to field a player from the Seniors who was recovering from injury. The Seniors had to cancel his registration and he signed new forms for the Juniors in order to play. Same club, same ground, same strips . . . same silly old rules.

A fundamental difficulty is the administration of football by committee. By their nature committees tend to be resistant to change. The ‘status quo’ and ‘precedent’ are easy to understand. To progress change committees must abdicate some of their power in favour of an Executive. Sadly there is little chance of this happening. Turkeys will not vote for Christmas.

It can, of course, be argued that nobody really cares. Edinburgh City v Civil Service Strollers – reported attendance approximately 25. Spartans Juniors v Edinburgh United – reported attendance approximately 50. Of these numbers fewer than half will have actually paid to get in. But why did the authorities of both grades decide to schedule their games at the same time as Hibs were playing Aberdeen at Easter Road, half a mile from Meadowbank and a couple of miles from Ainslie Park?

The marketing of no-league football leaves much to be desired. Fixtures are often arranged or re-arranged at short notice. Finding out about postponements involves much ‘googling’. National newspapers don’t carry fixtures on a regular basis. It would be great if a governing body would take an advertisement in newspapers on a weekly basis promoting the lower levels of football with fixtures and other information, or if they would collate and promote a dedicated user-friendly website that gave full information. To the SFA’s credit they have tried to do this through ‘Football Central’ but the coverage is patchy and inconsistent. Why? Because, some grades and Associations prefer to do their own thing.

It’s time for the SFA to show some initiative and bang heads together. It will not happen through committees, working groups and reports. Decisive executive action is required to promote and streamline these levels of football which provide spectator enjoyment and the opportunity for players to continue their careers at appropriate levels.