[Trusevich]

It used to be the case that the poorer nations ended up having the best players, simply for that reason alone - no money/facilities to do anything but kick a ball of rolled-up socks/whatever about.

Kids learnt to play in many-sided kick-abouts on the streets. If you - individually - lost possession it'd be ages before you'd get it back again, so if you had the ball you quickly learnt to keep it. It's where we got our old 'tanner-ba' players from too.

Nowadays, football giants like Germany, Holland and Spain (who have always had the numerical advantage over Scotland etc. anyway) have even greater advantages simply by training their young kids properly, focusing on ball retention and personal skills. We need to do the same.

If we can't go back to the days of 3-hour 20-a-side street football, and we can't import a favela or a barrio or two, then we have to recreate that learning environmental that we've lost and ignored for far too long in other ways.

Again, the SPFL don't know what they're doing. These people aren't 'football' people, they're idiots that run football clubs and use the SPFL for self-interest and nothing more.

[St Charles Owl]

I think the problem is societal - that's right audience another football related item that isn't necessarily football's fault.

Kids have a lot of choice and no choice at al these days: if they want to compete  there is a multitude of sports available and the opposite is also true, if the can't be bothered there are a host of ways to occupy yourself without taking part in sport.

Historically - and I include myself in one of the last generations to "suffer" this - working class (read little disposable income) kids in Scotland had no outlet for physical activity other than kicking a ball about. All day, everyday.  The much vaunted "contact time" with the ball was all you had. I played football before, during and after school. That was it. Occasionally I'd go somewhere on my bike and play football there.  That's what there was.

When you read the reports on the state of the nation's health etc - across all age groups - it's no surprise that we aren't as we once were.  Decadence.

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/09...#res485546

From the stats in that Scotland is not raising a nation of athletes.

I agree with what you say here but surely this isn't just a problem for Scotland??  I would imagine kids in the countries that were mentioned have essentially the same choices with what to do with their time?  I wonder if a switch to summer football would eventually benefit the game as more kids can go to games, get excited about it and maybe go home and kick a ball around themselves while the weather is decent.

[supercooper]

Maybe in the developed countries Sco, but countries like Brazil have abject poverty therefore kids will in turn play sport for amusement. Schools could be a bit more proactive, possibly bringing coaches in to actually teach the fundamentals of the game. There must be ways of making it fun yet improving skills. Tennis has done it by using softer balls to slow the game down, it would surely work to a similar guise for football.

[TheWorthinGer]

I think the problem is societal - that's right audience another football related item that isn't necessarily football's fault.

Kids have a lot of choice and no choice at al these days: if they want to compete  there is a multitude of sports available and the opposite is also true, if the can't be bothered there are a host of ways to occupy yourself without taking part in sport.

Historically - and I include myself in one of the last generations to "suffer" this - working class (read little disposable income) kids in Scotland had no outlet for physical activity other than kicking a ball about. All day, everyday.  The much vaunted "contact time" with the ball was all you had. I played football before, during and after school. That was it. Occasionally I'd go somewhere on my bike and play football there.  That's what there was.

When you read the reports on the state of the nation's health etc - across all age groups - it's no surprise that we aren't as we once were.  Decadence.

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/09...#res485546

From the stats in that Scotland is not raising a nation of athletes.

I agree with what you say here but surely this isn't just a problem for Scotland??  I would imagine kids in the countries that were mentioned have essentially the same choices with what to do with their time?  I wonder if a switch to summer football would eventually benefit the game as more kids can go to games, get excited about it and maybe go home and kick a ball around themselves while the weather is decent.

The problems with the nations health are related lack of exercise and poor diet.  Scotland is developed nation but when you look at the stats vegetables and fruit are not at the forefront.  And while when I was a boy you didn't have the abundance of choice you have now in the fruit and veg department what we did have was cheap and available - the only things i remember coming out of a tin were butter beans and sweetcorn, everything else (potatoes, carrot, cabbage, turnip, broccoli, cauliflower) was fresh.

Pizza, burgers etc were occasional things.

Oh well, just showing my age I guess.

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And all we did in the summer was kick a ball. You didn't need the pro game to encourage you to do that.

[supercooper]

Maybe this Government will address that. No sniggering at the back.