So the Scottish FA president reckons that Chris Ilewumo's miss against Norway at Hampden is the reason for Scotland going into their last group match with the Netherlands needing a victory to stand any remotely realistic chance of qualifying for the Play-Offs in November, does he?
Check out our recent post after the reverse Norway game for an outline of some of the Real reasons that the Scots are not going to South Africa (see: http://footballisfixed.blogspot.com/2009/08/butcher-and-burley-footballing-bradford.html).
And it continues...
Take Group 3, which following Sweden's victory in Hungary has emerged as the prime Group alongside Group 9 for the unlucky place in the 2nd Spot Musical Chairs Play Off Qualification tangle.
Both of Wednesday's matches in Group 3 are concurrent to avoid any advantage to the teams kicking off later.
There are two further rounds of games in Group 3.
Last Saturday in their penultimate round, Scotland and the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia could have demanded that the Iceland v Norway match kick off at the same time to produce a level playing field.
The reason that the Scottish FA chose not to do so, we are informed, is that ######
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Even more short-sighted was the agreement on the fixture list.
By finishing Group 9 two rounds of matches ahead of the other eight groups, the Scottish FA have given the opposition a target figure. Even should Scotland defeat the Dutch, the other nations will understand EXACTLY what they must achieve to qualify for the next stage.
Two days after his subliminally racist faux-pas (just how many Black players are there to blame in the Scottish squad?), Peat apologised.
So, that's alright then.
Scotland must beat their fellow orangemen tomorrow.
And even that might not be enough.
As we pointed out in the previous post, the 0-4 defeat in Norway is the Real reason that the Scots will struggle to qualify as goal difference is the second derivative divider if points totals are equal for the 2nd placed outfits.
With both Rangers not having bought a player for over a year and Celtic looking to offload players via transfers or loans in the wake of the excessive mismanagement of the takeover of Setanta's rights by BSkyB, Scottish football is in proper trouble.
If the Big Two are financially compromised then one may rest assured that Livingstone are not the only other crisis club in the country.
Obviously the various footballing hierarchies in Scotland are dysfunctional but glance at Dublin or London and the view is no different.
But Scotland does appear to punch above its weight in the dysfunctionality department and the rancid nature of the inappropriate power links extend to the club owners, some referees and the primary agents who are all, in effect, shafting the Scottish game for personal aggrandisement.
For example, one of the very few things of consequence that I learned in my meetings with Scottish agent John Colquhoun was that Hugh Dallas, the man who disgracefully head-butted the monarch, has two referees "under his wing".
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What does this one minor piece of information tell us about the links and absence of weights and balances at the top of the Scottish game?
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