Kenny Miller has claimed that Scotland’s World Cup campaign was doomed from the start because the SFA agreed to a “shambles” of a fixture schedule.
The Rangers striker has also revealed he was personally hurt by how his friends, Barry Ferguson and Allan McGregor, were treated by the governing body over “Boozegate”.
Miller said he was baffled why a programme of qualifying ties was agreed which meant Scotland played only two of their four Hampden games on a Saturday afternoon, as well as going to Macedonia and Norway at unfavourable times. Playing Holland in midweek reduced the chance of an upset, said Miller. Scotland’s failed campaign to reach the 2010 World Cup petered out when the Dutch won 1-0 in Glasgow on Wednesday, September 9.
The 29-year-old, while admitting that the schedule of games was not an excuse for poor results, insisted that the sequence and dates of the games had undermined Scotland’s prospects. “I think a lot of it comes down to the organisation of the fixtures,” he insisted. “I don’t know if the manager has a say in the fixtures, or if the SFA go and do it, but our campaign this time was, I felt, a shambles from day one.”
The fixtures were agreed by SFA chief executive Gordon Smith and president George Peat at a dates meeting with the other Group 9 nations in Amsterdam, nine months before the campaign began. The dates were in place several weeks before manager George Burley was appointed. There was subsequent criticism for agreeing to play in Macedonia in September, when the conditions were predictably hot and uncomfortable, and for agreeing to a fixture in Norway before players were fully match fit at the start of this season. Scotland lost both games.
“Maybe it’s not the manager but, whoever does it, the blueprint was there from the time before, and from all the time I can remember being involved with the national team. All of a sudden we were coming into this campaign and we’re playing in Macedonia when it’s 40°C. Then we had Holland away on a Saturday, Iceland at home on the Wednesday, and then we’re playing a game before we’re even ready. The blueprint has always been there, every campaign. I don’t know why it was changed.
“All the big results we’ve had against big teams at Hampden have been on a Saturday. The fans are blazing in the crowd, loving it, creating an incredible atmosphere, getting right behind the team. That gives the players that extra wee burst. That wasn’t there in this campaign. On a Wednesday night it wasn’t even full. You’re sitting there thinking ‘this is no’ right’.”
Miller also admitted his sympathy for Ferguson and especially McGregor, who will no longer be selected for Scotland after making v-sign gestures to photographers at Hampden four nights after a drinking binge in the squad hotel. “They are team-mates and friends of mine. Every day of your life you’re with them so it becomes a wee bit more than just a working relationship. So it did hurt, the way ‘Fergie’ and ‘Greegsy’ were treated.
“I feel really sorry for Allan because he’s a top, top goalkeeper and he should be playing on that stage. Obviously because of what happened at Cameron House Hotel after that game he’s not going to get the opportunity to show his talents at that level again.
“It was a silly, schoolboy thing to do but it was totally blown out of proportion like things like that always are. Then the manager or the SFA had their hands forced to act on it. As a nation we can’t afford to lose players like that.”
Last night SFA chief executive Smith reacted to Miller’s criticism of the fixtures by defending the scheduling: “I don’t think the fixture schedule was anything to do with our failure to qualify. I asked three previous Scotland managers for their advice before negotiating the fixtures. When they were announced I got a text from Craig Brown saying ‘well done, the fixtures are good’. People who criticise the fixtures have no idea of the difficulties and the problems there are in agreeing the schedule.”
Smith insisted the schedule was the best-case scenario Scotland could have had considering the conflicting demands of all the other countries. He added dryly: “I suppose the one thing I didn’t manage was to get all eight games at home. I was trying to get all eight fixtures at Hampden so, yes, I failed in that . . .”
Meanwhile, Burley is almost certain to be without Rangers’ Steven Whittaker for Saturday’s game against Wales after he aggravated a hamstring injury against St Mirren yesterday.
“He had it in Bucharest and it was tightening up as the first half went on,” said manager Walter Smith. “I haven’t managed to find out from the physios exactly what the situation is but I imagine it would cause him to pull out.”
©2009 Sunday Herald
Related posts:
