KEN Schofield, the Scot who transformed the fortunes of both European golf and English cricket, last night admitted he would be prepared to help halt the decline of Scottish football.
Schofield, who was executive director of the European Tour from 1975 until 2004, has been disappointed to see another bid by his country to reach a major tournament finals start off badly.
The national team’s Russia 2018 qualifying campaign was dealt a further blow by an embarrassing 3-0 defeat to England down at Wembley on Friday evening.
Gordon Strachan’s side is second bottom of Group F, behind Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia, after just four games and would appear to have no chance of making it to the next World Cup.
It is now 18 years since Scotland qualified for a tournament - they have failed in nine successive campaigns since France ’98 - and they been through six different managers in that time.
Schofield increased the number of tournaments on the European Tour from 17 to 45 and ensured prize money rose from £600,000 to over £100 million during the 29 years he was in charge.
He was approached by the English Cricket Board in 2007 to chair a review of their sport following a whitewash to Australia in The Ashes and a poor performance at the World Cup.
The Schofield Report made 19 recommendations, the majority of which have been implemented, which have helped to turn England into the best Test side in the world.
The 70-year-old hails from Perthshire and is a St. Johnstone fan and admitted he would be happy to turn his attentions to our national game if he was approached by the SFA.
“I am viewing what is going on from 400 miles to the south,” he said. “But of course I would try and help anybody if they came and asked me. Why not? My goodness, although I’m an Anglo, I am still a proud Scot.
“I would try and help any sport, but, in particular, anything connected with Scotland. But if people have closed minds it makes it much more difficult.”
Former First Minister Henry McLeish produced the Scottish Football Review in 2010 and many of his recommendations were acted upon by the SFA.
However, Brian McClair, the former performance director, encountered opposition among Scotland’s clubs when he recommended changes to the performance strategy and stood down from his position.
In an exclusive interview with Herald Sport, Schofield reveals that he thinks the Ladbrokes Premiership should be expanded from 12 to 16 teams and further investment in indoor facilities is required.
“I believe strongly that a 12 team Premiership is four teams too light,” he said. “A 16 team Premiership, where clubs play each other home and away, would create far more opportunities for far more home-grown players, younger players, Scottish players, to play first team football.
“A lot of people feel if the league was expanded it would give clubs the chance to play more home grown players and I agree. Four more teams in the top flight would, working on the basis they would have 25 man first team squads, add 100 players and a fair percentage of them would be eligible for the national team.
"In many Scandinavian countries they have indoor pitches to deal with the climate. But we don’t have the same. There always used to be boys kicking a football about in the street in Scotland. They aren’t there any more. Those days have changed for many reasons. We now live in a digital world.”
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