Bad News Comes in Threes for Scotland Fans

By: Daryl | November 28th, 2007

More bad news for the Tartan Army It wasn’t so long ago that the Tartan Army were on top of the world and Scotland qualifying for Euro 2008 was a real possibility. But since defeat to Italy the wheels have come off the wagon. Failure to qualify wasn’t so bad, because at least it was heroic failure. A bit like when Mel Gibson yells “Freedom!” at the end of “Braveheart.” But then manager Alex McLeish quit so he could take up a better paid but nowhere near as glorious job at 16th placed Birmingham City, meaning the Scotland job now ranks somewhere in the bottom four of the Premiership. To make things worse, even if Scotland do find a suitable replacement for Big ‘Eck, Scottish fans are now going to have a harder time watching their team’s efforts to qualify for World Cup 2010.

The TV rights to Scotland’s World Cup 2010 campaign (where they’ll battle Holland, Norway, Iceland and others for a ticket to South Africa) have been snapped up by Sky Sports and Setanta, both of which require a subscription. Angry Scotland fans want important games guaranteed on free to air terrestrial TV, just as events like the Olympics are.

First Minister Alex Salmond has called for an inquiry, but it’s probably too late. Basically the Scottish FA needed the money (part of the reason for McLeish’s defection is that Birmingham tripled his salary) and Sky and Setanta simply offered more then the BBC or STV. Ironically, the relative success of Scotland’s Euro 2008 campaign made the World Cup 2010 games more attractive propositions and prompted Sky and Setanta to bid.

Scotland fans also feel hard done by because the majority of England’s games will be screened by free-to-air ITV. But if they’ve seen either 1) a recent England game or 2) one of ITV’s infuriatingly asinine broadcasts, they’ll realize that watching Scotland on Sky or Setanta isn’t the worst thing that can happen.