International football - is it worth it?

[Gonzo79 15,294]

The Ministry of State Security is investigating Bluedell's post.

 

?

[compo 7,055]

1 hour ago, Bluedell said:

Do away with the Scottish national team and just have a British team that we can all get behind. ??

And all must be staunch loyalists 

[CammyF 8,129]

No interest in international football but wish no harm / ill and best wishes to Scotland, England, Wales and N.Ireland. 

[BlackSocksRedTops 3,752]

2 hours ago, Bluedell said:

Do away with the Scottish national team and just have a British team that we can all get behind. ??

So we will be basically be supporting an English national side? No thanks. 

 

Bills original post is spot on. I used to love World Cups and some of my fondest memories of watching football have involved these big tournaments but they now just leave me cold. Saying that so does the CL. I haven't seen a live CL game in years. It bores me to death tbh

[Bill 13,717]

6 hours ago, Gonzo79 said:

I wouldn't miss it if it was stopped immediately.

I wouldn’t even notice 

[ian1964 10,724]

35 minutes ago, CammyF said:

No interest in international football but wish no harm / ill and best wishes to Scotland, England, Wales and N.Ireland. 

Is that since what Scottish football did to us?.

I have no interest in the Scotland since what happened to us, however before that I was right into the Scotland team.

[JohnMc 2,765]

I enjoy an international tournament. Unlike so much top level club football there's still an element of the unknown about the Euro's and the World Cup. Yes, the bigger nations have an inbuilt advantage, but less so than the big European clubs have in my opinion. I like that smaller countries like Croatia, Uruguay, Denmark, Portugal and Holland can reach the semis and even the finals of major tournaments. Although the grandparent rule and creeping trend of the nationalisation of players there's still a purity to international football that is long gone from the club game. I like that a player like Gareth Bale has to play for Wales alongside some guy from Div 2, that Ronaldo can't just decide to play for Italy or China, he can only play for Portugal, no matter how good or bad the rest of the team are. 

 

I've great memories of watching international football. My first big football memory was the 78 World Cup, I was transfixed by the colour and spectacle of it all. Of course I also believed Scotland were going to win it but that disappointment aside players like Boniek, Hans Krankle, Jonny Rep and Mario Kempes were huge stars for me during the tournament and huge currency in playground sticker swaps. 

 

Ten years ago I watched Spain beat Germany in the World Cup semi final in a bar in Pamplona. The San Fermin festival was on and the first big bull fight of the festival was taking place at the same time so the bar was surprisingly quiet. Pamplona is Basque country, I got talking to a couple of guys from San Sebastian who had driven down to watch the game. They wanted Spain to win, Xabi Alonso was Basque so they felt they could support this Spain side, just not publicly in San Sebastian. As the bull fights finished the bar filled up and when Spain scored the only goal of the game late on pretty much everyone cheered. The consensus in Pamplona that evening was that while many of them didn't consider themselves Spanish and were very uncomfortable with outward signs of Spanish nationalism, that Spain team, dominated by Catalans, was one they could get behind. 

 

International football has lost some of its sparkle for me though. It's rare now for a player you've never heard of to light up a tournament anymore. That used to happen every couple of years in the 70s and 80s. Nowadays some fleet-footed Scandinavian catches your eye and when you Google you discover he's been a Man City for 2 years playing only one first team game and is currently on loan in Holland. Likewise a hot prospect from South America is almost always in Madrid or Barcelona by the time they've left their teens. 

 

I think the truly great players achieve true greatness on the international stage. By either dragging their small, normally also ran nation to a tournament in the first place or by simply excelling on the world stage while the whole world is watching. I remember watching Brian Laudrup go toe to toe with Brazil at France 98, demonstrating to everyone just what a player he was. That same tournament Zidane announced his greatness, following in the footsteps of Pele, Cruyff, Beckenbaur, Platini and Maradona, players who reminded you why love this game in the first place. 

 

As for Scotland, well, I'm typing this as we're playing. It's hardly transfixing me and in all honesty their games don't interest me in the same way as Rangers matches do. They did once upon a time and who knows maybe they will again someday in the future. I did cheer Leigh Griffith's goals against England a couple of years ago as enthusiastically as any Rangers goals, and I was gripped by the penalty shootout last year that saw us qualify for the Euros. But I've not been to a Scotland match for decades and the tartan army and their fancy dress leaves me cold. I'll watch their matches whenever the Euros come around, but with little hope and no expectation. I do still take pride in Rangers players doing well on the international stage, whoever they play for. 

[CammyF 8,129]

39 minutes ago, ian1964 said:

Is that since what Scottish football did to us?.

I have no interest in the Scotland since what happened to us, however before that I was right into the Scotland team.

Been like that a while Ian - I used to follow Scotland and Rangers but once Souness took over, his arguments wirh SFA and the fact it was getting more expensive to follow Rangers (home and Europe), I made a choice to drop a Scotland. 

 

The anti-Rangers sentiment from a growing number of the TA, the abused suffered by our players via the TA and few / no Rangers players being picked by Scotland and then our treatment back in 2012 has stopped me from going back. 

 

Ad I say, I wish the team no harm, but have little / no interest in Scotland and any other international football.  

[ian1964 10,724]

 

[the gunslinger 3,366]

Scotland game was a decent watch. More so second half.