I Ask A Question

I AM NOT a farmer, but, I do have a few friends who are and to a man and woman they are driven by the core aim of everyone who ever took on, either as land owner or tenant of any farm – to leave their land in better condition than they found it.

In general business matters, we have the issue of “the three generation rule”. This says:

• The first generation starts a business

• The second generation builds it up and expands it

• The third generation blows the whole shebang

However, if you look at the Scottish Rugby Union as a business – and whether or not you agree with this title – in 2024 the last year of which it has published its balance sheet, the SRU had a turnover of just under £74 million; so by any standards, it is a considerable business: it could be said to be entering its third generation.

The long-lived first generation was the Amateurs for whom the game was everything. Guys such as James Aikman-Smith and his successors took a game which was the product of the belief in 'Muscular Christianity' of the likes of Dr Thomas Arnold at Rugby School, they organised it, gave it form, made it popular and ran it as a strictly amateur enterprise.

Then, in 1995, the game went “Open”. By this move, players had to be paid, and, if the players were being paid, obviously the coaches and the backroom staff who enabled them had to be paid too. So, the administrators became the second genertion and were forced to expand the game's boundaries, particularly financial.

We are now 30 years into the Open Era, time for a new generation to take over – so, need we – with the three generations rule in mind – need we be worried? I know I am.

I am frequently told, whenever I bring-up this issue: “but Aristotle, they're different, you're comparing apples and pears”. This happens when I compare the governance model of the Scottish Rugby Union and The Scottish Football Association. These two bodies are responsible for the governance of Scotland's two premier winter sports. Two codes of Football – but very-different games.

Football was over 100 years ahead of Rugby Union in tackling the particular problems of the introduction of professionalism. They might not have got every decision correct, but, perhaps some of the moves Football has made since those far-off Victorian days, can have a bearing on things in Rugby Union in this age of the third King Charles. Rugby Union, however, has the advantage of the lessons of the things they, and Football's rulers, got wrong.

For instance, as my old mucker Bill Lothian pointed-out, in a rare forray onto the BTL comments on an Offside Line story over the Summer: “It is not the job of the national governing body to run leagues”. The SFA was formed in 1873, but the Scottish League now the Scottish Professional Football League, wasn't formed until 1890.

The SRU seems determined to run a broad church – a sort of Church of Scotland with dirty knees – at a time when in every field, from politics to the churches themselves, “broad churches” appear to be going out of fashion and are deemed “no longer fit for purpose in the modern age”.

The SFA is the National Governing Body for their code of Football, just as the SRU is for its. But, whereas every Rugby Club in Scotland is either a full or associate member of the SRU, in Football, the various clubs are members of their particular leagues or local associations:

• The SPFL looks after the interests of the 42 “Senior” Clubs

• The Highland League looks after its 18 Clubs

• The Lowland League looks after its 18 Clubs

• The East of Scotland League looks after its 59 Clubs

• The South of Scotland League looks after its 11 Clubs

• The West of Scotland League looks after its 80 Clubs

• The Scottish Amateur Football Association represents 50 Regional Associations, running 67 Leagues across Scotland

• The Scottish Youth Football Association has a similar remit covering football up to Under-18 level, across Scotland

• The Scottish Schools Football Association looks after football in Scotland's schools.

• The Scottish Women's Football Association does what it says on the tin and organises and runs Women's and Girls' football in Scotland.

Clubs below the professional level SPFL can like the 42 clubs in that elite league become full members of the SFA, but only if they achieve certain standards as regards ground infrastructure and club governance. Around ten years ago, the SFA introduced an English-style pyramid for league clubs. The likes of The Old Firm and Hearts and Hibs are Level One, The Championship teams are Level Two, League One is Level Three, League Two is Level Four; the Highland and Lowland Leagues are Level Five, with the various divisions in the East, South and West of Scotland Leagues forming Levels Seven to Ten.

The Amateur FA clubs, provided they can meet the infrastructure and governance criteria, such as having a fully-enclosed ground, can also join the pyramid, indeed a handful already have and have moved up the levels, while the Youth, Schools and Womens FAs are largely left to run their game as they see fit.

Another difference between Rugby and Football is, while the SRU only has one Annual Meeting per season, where any member club can raise any issue, the SFA has its Congress, which meets quarterly. The current Congress members are:

• SFA Office Bearers: SFA President Michael Mulraney

• Scottish FA Chief Executive: Ian Maxwell

• Scottish Professional Football League: Andrew Dickson, Neil Doncaster, Leeann Dempster, Alan Burrows, Calum Beattie, Michael Nicholson

• Scottish Highland Football League: David Dowling

• Scottish Lowland Football League: Andrew Waddell

• East of Scotland Football League: Alistair Wilkie

• South of Scotland Football League: Richard Shaw MBE

• Scottish Amateur FA: Iain Cowden

• Scottish Junior FA: Alex McDowall

• Scottish Schools’ FA: Alex McMenemy

• Scottish Welfare FA: Chris Connelly

• Scottish Women’s Football: Vivienne MacLaren

• Scottish Youth FA: Gavin McIntyre

• Scottish Para-Football: Ashley Reid

• Scottish FA Youth Ambassador: Kira Henry

• PFA Scotland: Fraser Wishart

• Managers and Coaches Association: Billy Brown

• Scottish Senior Football Referees’ Association: David McGeachie

• sportscotland: Mel Young

• Media: Chick Young

• Supporters Direct Scotland: Alan Russell

These 26 Congressmen and women pretty much cover the entire spectrum of Scottish football. You will note, the professional players have a representative in Fraser Wishart, Billy Brown speaks for the Managers and Coaches, while Charles Young Esq speaks on behalf of the Fitba media (If the SRU ever adopts Congress, I want Chick's job in Rugby). Hell, even the official Scotland Supporters – the Tartan Army – has a representative on Congress.

Imagine a similar body in Rugby Union – the good it could do. Nah! Forget it, the Murrayfield Junta would never allow such democracy.

But, it is quite clear, the current governance model in Scottish Rugby isn't working and needs to be changed. Are the current High Heid Yins going to be like a farming generation, leaving the game in better shape than when they inherited it, or are they going to be the wasteful third generation?