The "Suits" Should Forget Empire Building And Turn To Pyramid Building - Then We Might Like Them

IT MAY not be received wisdom, but, there is a belief in sports, particularly team sports, that a pyramid is the best governance system. One of the best known pyramids in that in English football: an 11 level pyramid, from the likes of the two Manchester clubs and Liverpool at the peak, Level 1, right down to nearly 800 clubs playing at the lowest layer – Level 11; the entire edifice encompassing some 2000 clubs the length and breadth of England.

 If the Great Pharoh Dodson built one of these, we might remember him fondly

In many ways, Scottish Rugby has a pyramid system – the two full-time professional clubs, Edinburgh and Glasgow, under-pinned by the ten BT Premiership clubs (soon to be reduced to the six “Super” clubs); below them the three National Leagues, and underneath them the various Regional Leagues in Caledonia, Edinburgh and the West.

Now, Scottish Rugby's “pyramid” has never been officially graded or named as such, far-less been organised as a proper pyramid might be, but, it can be argued it is there. It could also be argued, instead of tinkering around the upper levels, with Stupid 6 – a top-down mainly cosmetic exercise, implemented without consultation, and on the most-spurious of grounds - the SRU might have been better doing a thorough and complete overhaul, consulting the clubs as to what they wanted.

However, the Ayatollahs do not consult, they ken better than the rest of us.

One of the “benefits” we are told, of Super 6 and its companion initiative, Agenda 3, will be: “fewer but stronger clubs.” Will this really be a benefit? Will a slimmed-down Scottish Rugby be any better? Surely, weakening the base will weaken the whole pyramid.

I could perhaps get behind Stupid 6, if Murrayfield could come-up with some sensible justification for implementing it. But, it seems to be based on at best a whim, at worst a power grab, and will, I fear, crash and burn and do huge damage to the game up here. But, by the time this is realised, there is every chance the carpet-baggers behind it will have shot the craw to pastures new, leaving someone else to clean-up their mess.

I could see benefits if, as has happened in football, there was a club licensing scheme, whereby, if you wanted to play at a certain level, you had to have certain facilities and systems in place. To some extent, this will happen with Stupid 6 - and further down with the proposed Gold, Silver and Bronze club gradings. The successful franchises will require to have a 3G pitch, strength and conditioning facilities and various other things, but, I feel, in no-way does what the SRU is demanding, and to be fair, promising to help fund, come close to the demands made on football teams seeking to rise through the English football pyramid, or even the Scottish Football one.

I seldom see games below Premiership rugby level, but, friends who do go along to say Regional League games tell me, one of the biggest problems these lower level clubs have is a shortage of players, with, in some lower leagues, teams being kicked-out, because they are unable to raise teams to play fixtures. In particular, the demands of “front row experience” are proving very hard for some clubs to meet.

The Art of Coarse Rugby Is Due A Revival

There are suggestions, buried deep in the verbiage of Agenda 3, that some sort of recreational rugby be allowed. Didn't we call that “Coarse Rugby” when I was a boy and it was played at second or third XV level?

I could live with that, however, for it to work, Murrayfield would need to slacken the grip it has on the throat of the game. Let me explain, using Scottish football as an example.

At one end of Scottish football, we have Celtic and Rangers and the other Premiership clubs; below them there are three further divisions of the SPFL, while below them are the Highland and Lowland Leagues. That strata covers the 42 “Senior League” clubs and the 34 “Non-League Senior” clubs – the 18 Highland and 16 Lowland League clubs.

These 76 clubs are full members of the SFA and are administered by the SFA's 'Professional Game Board'. Every other officially -recognised football team is the responsibility of the 'Non-Professional Game Board'. This covers the clubs in the East of Scotland and South of Scotland Leagues, the various Junior Leagues within the SJFA, the many amateur leagues within the SAFA, and the many other “recreational” leagues and teams within the Scottish Welfare FA, plus the Under-21 clubs within membership of the Scottish Youth FA, and the Scottish Schools FA, not forgetting the Scottish Women's FA – all these lesser associations being affiliated to the SFA.

Then there are the Futsal players, the guys playing five-a-side every week, and the growing numbers of older people playing Walking football.

(A wee diversion here – we've got walking football and walking hockey – why not walking rugby for us coffin dodgers?)

The SJFA's Tom Johnston - the SRU could learn from him and how his grade of football is organised

I must admit, I am not au fait with how the likes of the SAFA, or the SWFA or SYFA run things but, I do know, Tom Johnston, the excellent General Secretary of the SJFA manages to keep the lid on the eternal clan wars among the 160-plus junior clubs with the assistance of one secretary and two or three days per week attendance in their Hampden office of Treasurer Iain McQueen, elder brother of former Scotland legend Gordon.

The three Regional Junior FAs, in the East, North and West, run things week-to-week with volunteer officials, and it works. I assume similar models work for the other affiliated FAs within the SFA.

Can anyone tell me what, other than Murrayfield's reluctance to release their hands from what Dodson has called: “the levers of power” is stopping the SRU from devolving power to run the lower levels of the game to somewhere closer to the clubs.

The SRU is, according to one of the faithful, who has posted a load of shite on David Barnes's excellent The Offside Line site recently: “A £50 million per year operation with over 200 staff”. Well, given that staff includes the 90 or so Edinburgh and Glasgow players plus their support staff, and the staff in the Academies, I reckon that leaves somewhere above 150 other staff. What do they all do?

Or is it a case of the old joke we used to hear down here in the East Ayrshire coalfield: “Hoo muny work at Lugar Works?” (the local NCB area headquarters).

“Ah think, aboot hauf o them.”

Might that story be relevant to Murrayfield today?