Blethering about football, from Scotland and across the world
Over the past year, I have travelled and paid to watch football at a variety of different levels. These include Scottish Championship, Scottish Premiership, Scotland International (and England International), English Premiership, Czech First league and the Second Tier of Czech Football. I have previously written about my Dilemma in terms of swapping regular attendance at... Continue Reading →
Amid yet more horrible weather conditions for this time of year, I travelled to Huddersfield for another football weekend involving catching up with friends but also taking in a game involving the local side. Huddersfield itself is a large scale town, home to approximately 160,000 inhabitants. Located roughly equidistant from the larger centres of Manchester... Continue Reading →
Escaping the "Beast from the East" weather front which had hit the UK hard at the beginning of March was touch and go for most of the week. Strong winds and high volumes of snow had bombarded the country for a few days, leading to substantial travel disruption. It was a great relief therefore to... Continue Reading →
Sparta Prague are one of the most successful sides in the Czech Republic. With 33 domestic league titles to their name, 14 Czech Cups, 2 Czech Supercups and a Mitropia (Central Europe) Cup from the 1960's. A success record only rivalled by their city neighbours Slavia Prague. Based to the north of the River Vltava,... Continue Reading →
Thursday 8 March marks the first round of ties in the last 16 of the Europa League. One tie which stood out immediately for thefootballblether was Viktoria Plzen (who we have written about before: The Tribute of the Plzen Juggernaut ; Bohemian Armchair Football ; Czech First League – Mid Season Review ) being drawn... Continue Reading →
Sunday morning in Prague, walking through the trendy Vršovice neighbourhood with it's nice coffee shops, filled with fashionable well dressed couples and families who are all enjoying a bit of brunch on this sunny but cold morning. While a nice warm coffee accompanied by a tasty wee croissant is extremely tempting, we have a different... Continue Reading →
Bohemians hosted Dukla Prague in what many would label as a lesser known capital city derby on a freezing cold Friday at the beginning of March. I had landed in Prague that morning, having (just) escaped "The Beast From The East" late winter adverse weather which had hit the UK hard. Visiting fellow thefootballblether.com author,... Continue Reading →
Looking ahead to the Europa League round of 32 fixtures kicking off this week, with the majority of ties being played on Thursday 15 February (Red Star Belgrade face CSKA Moscow at home on earlier in the week, due to their arch rivals Partizan also playing in Belgrade in the first leg of the competition... Continue Reading →
Scottish Football is in a state of despair flux at present. At the time of writing there is no Manager, no Chief Executive, No summer tournament (again) and no real idea or agreement from those remaining in charge as to the correct way forward. It is by no means a lost cause, nor should Scotland... Continue Reading →
On the face of things and despite mass unrest, there appears to be no smoking gun, no hangman's noose. Stewart Regan, now former SFA Chief Executive is out of a job after walking, apparently, of his own volition. Whatever way you look at it, he has departed and many would say that the writing has... Continue Reading →
A story foretold. Of a young Scottish footballer who signs for a reputable European club only to make a handful of appearances from the bench before disappearing from the public eye and then, many months later, surfacing at some English lower division team or middling Scottish Premiership side some time later. Allan Johnston at Rennes,... Continue Reading →
Since roughly 2001, as a fresh/acne faced teenager I have been making the trip to Hampden Park for Scotland home games. Initially with a large group of friends, taking the train through, blagging our way into Vicky Wine for a few cheeky pre-match cans and revelling in being part of the "Tartan Army" with all... Continue Reading →
Downstairs in the impressive, vast, modern transport hub that is Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Hbf), the 09.17 Euro City train rolls onto the platform on its way through to Budapest. The train is, uncharacteristically for European transport, a few minutes late but that doesn't seem to bother any of the passengers waiting to board, ahead of trips... Continue Reading →
A popular theory as to why the Scotland national team has been in decline for the last twenty years plus or so is that Scotland are no longer producing top quality players. As a Hibs fan, I disagree with that as in the early 2000s there was a conveyor belt of good young Scottish players... Continue Reading →
April 23rd 2017 will forever be remembered as a tragic day for Czech and indeed Turkish Football. The events of this day shook the Turkish city of Gaziantep and reverberated back to the Czech cities of Plzen and Příbram. The Turkish Football Club, Gaziantepspor, were training when players noticed that their Czech international teammate František... Continue Reading →
As with much of Europe, the Czech First League is in the middle of it's winter break and on recess until February. The top level of Czech Football, consisting of 16 teams competing in a 30 game season, is a highly competitive and entertaining league made up of a mix of larger and smaller scale... Continue Reading →
At the time of writing, it is almost 3 months since Gordon Strachan left his post as Scotland Manager after another failed attempt to qualify for a Major Tournament in October 2017. Since that point a small number of names and candidates have been mentioned with regard to potentially filling the vacant post, without very... Continue Reading →
The Scottish Football Association have recently announced their plans to review their current lease on Hampden Park, due to expire in 2020. The review has come amidst outcry from owners Queens Park FC, fan opinion and of course the background of a “business” decision with regard to what is best, financially, for the organisation. At... Continue Reading →
The Scottish Premiership is not a league without its detractors. Whether this be due to the one sided (two sided before Rangers' implosion) nature leading to an overly predictable end result; or the number of meaningless games for clubs safe from relegation at an early stage but without the staying power and/or stamina to challenge... Continue Reading →
As is well documented within this blog and as is common knowledge, Scotland have a recently woeful record of qualifying for Major Tournaments such as the World Cup or European Championships. Reasons behind this including bad managers, bad players, bad luck, lack of investment, lack of youth development and even the break up of the Soviet... Continue Reading →
On Monday 11 December 2017, the draw for the last 16 of this season's Champions League took place. Amid the fanfare and over-hyped ceremony, the draw threw up some intriguing and exciting ties, but also an insight into the future and potential problems or issues that we may be faced with in the coming years.... Continue Reading →
The amount of free to air football on television has decreased significantly over the last few years, accelerated by the well documented riches provided through multi million pound/Euro TV deals spanning most major European Leagues , European club, International and worldwide competitions. Many arguments could be made both for and against the power of television... Continue Reading →
For a number of years now, encompassing World Cup and European Championship qualifying campaigns where Scotland have failed to qualify, much focus or source of worry for fans has been the lack of any top quality, reliable centre backs within the Scotland team and even the Scotland squad. In the most recent qualifying campaign, Scotland's... Continue Reading →
A lot has happened since May 2015. We have had two full football seasons, an international tournament at Euro2016 and Scotland have (again) failed to qualify for major international tournaments in the aforementioned Euro2016 and the upcoming Russia2018 World Cup. May 2015 did however offer a clear illustration of how football and indeed other cultures... Continue Reading →
Football fans need rivalries. Whether watching teams at the lower end of the league system such as Linlithgow Rose v Bo'Ness United or games at the very top such as Barcelona v Real Madrid; rivalries add to the fan's experience, add interest, add passion and add a point of reference as well. Scotland have England.... Continue Reading →
There is a distinct irregularity to my attendance at football matches. There is no routine to speak of, no club football season ticket offering the same surroundings every second week, the same weekly or fortnightly pre match ritual or the same religious focus on a single team throughout each season. This is due to a... Continue Reading →
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