Scottish football supporters chief blasts lack of TV coverage

It’s one of the consuming passions of Scottish society: a love affair which no amount of travails or tristesse can diminish.

Yet, there’s a real sense of frustration among football fans at the increasing lack of TV coverage of Scotland’s international matches: a situation which had led to the bizarre circumstances where STV screens England’s games, but nothing from their own team.

The BBC are in the same boat, with this week’s Europa League contests against Croatia and Portugal restricted to YouTube coverage with not even highlights available to those who can’t get time off work to travel to Hampden Park on a Tuesday.

It’s Ronaldo’s farewell to Scotland

That’s of course if they can afford tickets for these tussles in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis with plenty of supporters expressing concerns about escalating admission prices.

So, despite the fact that the great Cristiano Ronaldo is making his international swansong against Scotland in Glasgow, there will be no proper coverage of the kind which you might anticipate when people are paying tribute to a genuine superstar.

Instead, there will be action on Viaplay’s YouTube channel. Is this good enough? The chairman of the Scottish Football Supporters Association begs to differ.

Andrew Smith, chairman of the Scottish Football Supporters Association.

Inverness-born Andrew Smith – the brother of acclaimed author, Ali – believes there is nothing accidental or artful about the downgrading of these Europa League fixtures.

He said: “The starting point in any discussion about televising the Scottish football international team is to ask who does it belong to? For me and the SFSA, that is simple.

“It belongs to the nation and not the mandarins at Hampden who look after it on behalf of everyone. The current situation where England matches have been shown free recently on Channel 4 and now ITV, all over the UK, highlights a few dark facts.

Fans want to see matches free on air

“Both ITV and Channel 4 seem to value their English audience above their Scottish and Welsh and Northern Ireland audiences.

“This is quite disgraceful and should be high on the agenda of all Scottish MPs.”

Scotland boss Steve Clarke in the technical area in Zagreb where Croatia beat Scotland 2-1. Image: Shutterstock.

He continued: “If all Scottish international matches (and other home nations) were protected like the Olympics and Wimbledon, then the effect would be a significant and long-term boost for the game from the very bottom to the top.

“[A recent survey showed that] 98% of fans want these matches to be free to air. And when we have more than 25% of kids in poverty, we should ask on their behalf: why should they not be allowed to see their heroes play?

‘The campaign is just starting’

“Ultimately, the campaign is just starting and it has two real opponents conflating to stop real progress.

“First, there is the cancer of short termism which means that football fails to look ahead. And secondly, there is the overwhelming self interest that dominates our game and is exacerbated by short termism.”

There will be a minute’s applause for the late Alex Salmond at the Scotland v Portugal game.

The SFA has defended itself against allegations that it has allowed the rug to be pulled from under its feet when it comes to TV deals.

And the governing body was sticking to that line in the build-up to the Portugal game.

What does the SFA say?

A spokesman told the P&J: “The Scottish FA do not sell the rights to Scotland international matches. UEFA sell the broadcast rights through their centralised National Association media rights sales process.

“This has been in place for more than a decade, under which UEFA takes sole responsibility for the marketing and sales of broadcast rights for all 55 European nations’ matches.

Cristiano Ronaldo is among the Portugal stars who will be meeting Scotland at Hampden Park.

“Matches on free to air are always a possibility, should a broadcaster negotiate a deal with Viaplay/UEFA.

“The Scottish FA wants as many people within Scotland to watch Scotland men’s and women’s matches as possible.”

But the SFSA isn’t buying this

Yet, these words were met with scepticism by Smith and others on the domestic circuit.

He said: “If the SFA looked at the big picture, they would learn from the mistakes other sports such as cricket and golf have made [in selling most of their rights to satellite TV] and see maximising fan engagement as the real goal.

Scott McTominay puts Scotland ahead against Switzerland at the UEFA Championship. Image: Shutterstock.

“The SFSA is asking the SFA to see the bigger picture and for all our MPs and MSPs to fight for all home international fixtures to be free to air and ensure that this is not a gift to TV channels, but a serious and mutually profitable commercial arrangement.”

Is that really too much to ask?