by Rab Bruce’s Spider

Mastodon: @RabBrucesSpider1@Mastodon.Scot

X / Twitter: @RabBrucesSpider

I do hope that this rambling piece doesn’t come across the wrong way. I write it not to cock a triumphalist snook at our nearest neighbours and rivals but to highlight once again the fragility of the UK media when it comes to their sense of Britishness and their fear of Scotland becoming a normal country. This fragility is shown in many ways, but one is by omission of information from what should be fairly standard news reports. The reason for this, of course, is to prevent Scots from gaining any pride in their national identity, a goal which the UK media seems to be missing but which they persist in pursuing.

I am talking football here. Many south of the border cannot understand the Anyone But England mentality which is so rife in Scotland. They insist that they support Scotland in international fixtures, although many Scottish football fans find that a little patronising. Our desire for England to lose is based not on ethnic hatred but on sporting rivalry. Which fans want their closest and greatest rivals to succeed? Above all, though, it is the smug superiority of the English media which really riles us up. The problem here is that Scottish football fans are often compelled to listen to English perspectives on games. I am pretty sure that our own commentators can be just as biased as any, but the point is that we don’t often get a chance to hear them since our football is provided through a British, aka English, prism.

At the same time, I don’t think anyone would deny that England have a great many tremendous footballers available for their national team, and it must be admitted that their Premier League is probably the best in the world, with players from all around the globe competing at the highest level.

We all enjoy watching English football. Some of the teams and players are terrific, and the amount of TV coverage allows viewers to watch a great many games. The money this generates has made some English clubs among the wealthiest in the world. As a consequence, it is no wonder that Scotland, with its much lower population and paucity of TV money, fails to compete. Even our best club sides have often struggled in European competitions in recent years.

But now, having set the scene, let’s get to the point of this article. UEFA have just released the figures for the 2023 season, detailing attendances in the top leagues in each country on a per capita basis. Many media outlets reported that Scotland, with a magnificent 18.36 people per 1,000, tops the table for football attendance by a very long way indeed. Portugal were second with 10.23 people per 1,000. That’s a considerable gap.

There are probably several reasons for Scotland’s stunning attendances, some of which will relate to social attitudes, to our history of football being our national sport, and to the relative lack of TV coverage. But our fans are the lifeblood of our game, and it is very pleasing to see such support, although it must be noted that every nation at the top of the list produced a slightly lower figure than the 2022 season when Scotland’s attendance was at over 20 people per 1,000. Still, our attendances, while perhaps not huge in absolute numbers at some individual games, remain very high indeed overall.

However, on reading these reports, I became a little suspicious that there was no mention of England except that one report did say that they came 4th in the list behind Netherlands. There was no mention of the figure, and I had to go hunting for it. It transpires that the attendance per 1,000 in England was only 6.77, just over a third of the figure achieved in Scotland.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, I do not cite this in order to claim that Scottish fans are somehow superior to those in England. There are many reasons why support in England is lower on a per capita basis than in Scotland. The distances fans need to travel, the huge cost of tickets, the availability of TV coverage, the more diverse ethnic population mix, and the plethora of competing sports facilities will all have something to do with it. This is simply a reflection of how fans consume their football, and there is nothing to gloat about. Yet Scottish fans often seem to turn up at games in spite of the poor facilities, and often a rather poor product on the pitch. Scotland, I’d suggest, could attract even more fans if there was a lot more money in our game.

But the big question is why the UK media in Scotland were so reluctant to reveal the figure in England? That, I think, is the real issue here. We are often provided with comparisons between Scotland and England, but only when Scotland looks worse, even if the statistics in question are massaged to achieve this effect. Yet when Scotland compares favourably, the media goes silent, even on something as relatively trivial as attendances at football matches. Quite honestly, I think that is rather pathetic. Yes, some Scots would undoubtedly crow about it because England are, after all, our greatest football rivals on the international stage, but if the UK cannot cope with some sporting banter, just how fragile is their sense of Britishness? Whether it is fear of Scotland going its own way, or whether it is simply a continuation of the colonial mindset which pressurises journalists into always talking down Scotland, the effect is the same. Our media or, rather, the UK media in Scotland, is not fit for purpose.