Build the right infrastructure and the youngsters will respond

Senior Sports Writer

Thursday 19 July 2012

Back in the days when a Scottish team could claim to be among the best in Europe and Pele was a demi-god, triangular tournaments would take place each summer in the fields around Tomintoul and Tamnavulin involving Celtic, Santos and Clachnacuddin.

Hannah Miley and her fellow Olympians richly deserve their time in the media spotlight and should be sporting icons for youngsters up and down the land. Picture: Craig Watson/SNS

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Kevin Ferrie

The inclusion of the first two was obvious to anyone who remembers the era. The third of the teams participating in the annual Ferrie Family Holiday Invitational was that my father and uncle were tickled by the way the name of the Inverness club rolled off the tongue.

Thus, when Dave Edwards, a sportswriter from up north whose natural enthusiasm makes him great company, asked if I would like to accompany him to a pre-season match between Ross County and Clachnacuddin last weekend, he was surprised by the answer.Grant Street Park, Inverness, is an unprepossessing little ground, tucked into a housing estate and only a couple of hundred fans had given up their afternoon to be there with the counter-attraction of the Scottish Open just along the road, but we were royally entertained as the SPL newcomers eased to a 3-0 win over their hosts.Ross County may have achieved that new status among the big boys, but this was a grass-roots football experience and with Clach themselves having gone into administration a few years ago, it put the lie to the dross we have been hearing about Scottish football dying if Rangers do not play in the right league next season.Setting aside the fact that my own club, Dundee, and that city generally will benefit hugely from the reintroduction of regular derby matches – for a season at least – this is a chance for Scottish football, but more importantly Scottish sport, to redefine itself in a way that properly benefits our communities. Therein lies the issue. Night after night over the past five months the national radio station has been clogged with the same opinions going round in circles as sportswriters and broadcasters ponder, pontificate and lambast one another for failing to see "the big picture".Perhaps, among the hundreds and hundreds of hours devoted to the subject, I have missed it but, until they start talking about looking at the way forward for the sport and, indeed, Scottish community life as a whole, then they are all missing "the big picture".I have made the point before but there is a reason that, with a smaller population, the Republic of Ireland is doing a much better job of producing rugby players, golfers, cricketers and, indeed, footballers, while the home-grown sports of hurling and Gaelic football continue to thrive.This is a country that has decided what is best for its communities, has invested accordingly and, for all that rugby has a few imports in each province, places the emphasis firmly on its youth rather than wasting vast sums bringing in people who have little or no long-term interest in the country.We should also be calling upon our politicians to start properly scrutinising just how public money directed towards sport is being spent. Having covered rugby during an era in which the Scottish Rugby Union staff has been built up from a humble few to a great phalanx of support people with no discernible growth in the sport while Scotland has tumbled down the world rankings, I have long contended that an audit is required to assess just how much public money goes into sporting administration rather than participation.This is the right time for that, and not just because Rangers have got themselves into a mess.In this Olympic summer we are reading about people who have barely been mentioned in the past four years, if ever before. More than 50 Scots will be involved and, for those sportswriters prepared to broaden their horizons beyond the likes of football and rugby, these can be joyous times.Rather than preening and pampered, media-trained prima donnas, we are dealing with people who have made genuine sacrifices to earn the opportunity and who, for the most part, do it for the love of their sport.The emphasis on football means that all bar a sprinkling of our youngsters do not see sporting success as achievable, and our culture has evolved accordingly.Turn that round and offer every youngster in the country the chance to find a sport which they can love and, perhaps, excel in and we may be surprised at how quickly we create the critical mass required to change what is cool for too many of our youngsters from unmotivated idleness to the sort of enthusiastic participation that keeps clubs like Clachnacuddin alive.On which note, I saw a couple of lads last weekend who might once have had the potential to play at international level, but only if, a decade or so ago, someone had set their sights on Murrayfield rather than Hampden.

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Build the right infrastructure and the youngsters will respond

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