GIVEN the injustice of what happened in Albania two months ago, the draw for the elite round of the Uefa Women’s Under-19 Championship has afforded the Scotland players, and their parents, a sliver of satisfaction.
Having been relegated to pot three in controversial circumstances, the Scots, under head coach Gareth Evans, could not have asked for much better than a group hosted by the Republic of Ireland and also featuring Finland and Ukraine. Serbia, despite being top seeds, must go to Norway, where they will also have Sweden and Italy to contend with.
“Karma” was the reaction of some close to the Scotland squad. A line of sorts has been drawn under the unfortunate affair, but those involved will not quickly forget what happened – and how they were traduced in the aftermath.
To recap: both Scotland and Serbia won their opening two qualifying group games in Albania easily. A draw in the deciding game, scheduled for September 19, would have left the Scots group winners and given them a higher elite-round seeding.
Instead, on the eve of the game most of the players and backroom staff were laid low with acute gastroenteritis. That’s the medical term. The female team doctor had to deal with the outbreak of severe diarrhoea and vomiting while ill herself.
Despite the crisis, the onus – according to Uefa – was on the Scots to take two of the ill players to hospital for blood tests. The head of the delegation decided not to subject the players to this further ordeal as there was no hospital nearby.
Uefa then charged Scotland with “refusal to play”. That was later upheld, and Serbia awarded a 3-0 win.
If that was harsh, what accompanied it was disgraceful. Not content with the near-certainty of being awarded the three points, a report in a Serbian media outlet claimed the Scotland players had been drinking heavily.
That report was then picked up by the media here – forcing the Scottish FA to issue a statement about the gastroenteritis outbreak two days after the non-game.
By then the damage had been done. The “no smoke without fire” principle was applied to a group of teenagers who are not even allowed fizzy soft drinks when in competition mode.
There are lessons to be learned from this dismal episode.
The accommodation provided by the Albanians was not up to the standard promised to Uefa. Having hammered the Scots for being ill, Uefa need to look at their own procedures.
In retrospect the SFA may feel they should have issued a statement on the day of the postponed game, clarifying the circumstances. Instead, they were forced to react after the Serb report appeared.
The SFA say there has been “dialogue” with Uefa over some of the issues surrounding the non-game, but won’t elaborate further. They felt there were no grounds for an appeal, but appear not to have sent a letter of complaint either.
What grates most among the players, and their parents, is that there was no interest in the 11-0 and 8-0 wins over Albania and Cyprus. That continued when they fell ill. They only became the focus of attention after the malicious report was published.
The blame for this lack of interest must start with the SFA, who routinely fail to publicise their women’s Under-19 team. As of last night, for example, the results of the games in Albania were still not on the association’s website.
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