SFA determined to go their own way in bid for blueprint to improve the future of our game

Asked how a small nation like Belgium managed to produce a gifted golden generation of footballers, Vincent Kompany offered the one explanation no one had really considered.

‘Luck, pure luck,’ proffered the former Red Devils captain, now the coach of Bayern Munich.

Not everyone agreed that Belgian success was down to good fortune. In August 2012, Mark Wotte, the former performance director of the SFA, established Performance Schools with one clear goal. Ripping off the blueprint developed by former Belgian FA counterpart Michel Sablon, Scotland would strive to be the new Belgium.

While the emergence of young, talented footballers such as Billy Gilmour, Nathan Patterson and Ben Doak suggest that the performance schools held some merit, Wotte was quietly removed from the building to allow Scotland to shift focus before Steve Clarke arrived and started qualifying for tournaments again.

Speaking in the clubhouse of Pollok United yesterday, SFA president Mike Mulraney announced the latest plan for Scottish football. Adopting the mantra of Shoeless Joe in Field of Dreams — ‘Build it and they will come’ — the governing body plan to raise £50million over the next few years via a new ‘Pitching In’ initiative.

Setting the ball rolling by donating £5m, the SFA will work with public, private and charitable bodies to address a shortfall in quality facilities.

SFA president Mulraney and chief executive Maxwell unveil their initiative to improve facilities

Former SFA youth supremo Mark Wotte was instrumental in bringing in Performance Schools

Kevin De Bruyne and Vincent Kompany were part of a golden generation of Belgian talent

By upgrading 75 existing changing facilities, 50 existing, aging 3G pitches and building 40 brand-new 3G pitches, former Alloa chairman Mulraney believes Scottish football can buck the trend of cash-starved councils bolting padlocks on the doors and find what he describes as a ‘Scottish answer to a Scottish problem’.

‘While we need to look at other countries for inspiration, we can’t ever be in the situation again where we look and think: “We are going to copy those plans”,’ he continued.

‘We can learn from other countries like Holland and Croatia, for example, but for as long as I am involved with the SFA’s PGB (Professional Game Board), we will never again go: “We are going to copy country X” — because I think it is a fundamental mistake.

‘The answers will be informed by success elsewhere but we need to accept that some of the things they do, we cannot. Our environment is such that our fans will not accept things that other countries will.

‘We are always working to improve things. We have our own culture, environment, infrastructure, etc, and we need to look at that, along with our own excellence, character. We need to get our own answers to our own problems.’

In the last two months, Scotland’s national teams have struggled at almost every level. The Under-17 and Under-19 teams failed to reach the elite stage of Euro qualifying, the Under-21 team crashed out after losing to Kazakhstan, Pedro Martinez Losa paid the price for the failure of the women’s national team and Clarke’s men’s team narrowly avoided automatic relegation from Pool A of the Nations League, after missing out on the last eight.

While improved facilities offer no guarantees of world-class players, this much can be said with relative certainty: Without them, the task of improving the number of young Scottish footballers playing first-team football becomes almost impossible.

‘I want to win at every level,’ added Mulraney. ‘I can’t stand getting beat. None of us can. I hate it. At every level, at every event. Even Tiddlywinks.

Pedro Martinez Losa paid the price for the failure of Scotland’s women’s team

The SFA have committed an initial £5m to a project they hope will boost the grassroots game

‘So, nobody that’s on the board of the SFA wants to see any of our teams getting beat. But this is what we need to do to afford the opportunity to excel right the way through our age groups and our senior team.

‘If we don’t have facilities, we can have a debate — the media, the board, the managers — and opinions about how we make it happen from a soft side. 

‘How you set up the development, how you set up the training systems, whether you have B teams, whether you have youth programs, we can have all that debate. 

‘And people who follow us in your industry and in our industry will continue to have the debate.

‘What there’s no debate about is if we do not have infrastructure, it’s white noise. It’s like four baldy men arguing over a comb.’

The UK Government have already invested £21.1m in grassroots-specific facilities to impact on 100 projects up and down the country.

‘It’s never traditionally been in our remit as the association to worry about facilities and installation of facilities or operation of facilities,’ added Mulraney. 

‘Obviously, the Scottish Government have their own financial challenges, local authorities have their own financial challenges.

‘We could either go: “Well, it’s not our problem, somebody else has to fix it” — or go: “Well, if nobody’s fixing it, what can we do to try and make a positive impact in that space?”

‘We’re starting with £5m and that’s been announced today, which is off the back of an incredibly successful year for the association, and we’re delighted to do it. We need to go and raise the other £45m, which is the challenge.

‘But, from my perspective, it’s actually a really exciting part of my tenure, because it’s totally new, something we’ve never done before and something to really go and get your teeth into that you know is going to make a real meaningful change.

‘If there’s no infrastructure, it doesn’t matter what our opinions are. We’re not going to be able to produce the best youth systems and the best kids. It’s the foundation.’