WeKnowSFA

10th Mar2010

Falkirk fan in the WeKnowSFA spotlight: Part 4

by WeKnowSFA

From Brockville to a beat combo

In the previous interview with Graeme Black, Falkirk fan and guitarist with State Broadcasters, we were talking about the state of the game and we’ll stay on that theme to start with.

There has been a bit of added focus on Scottish football of late because of the Robbie Keane signing, what do you make of it?

GB: Well, its obvious that Keane is not a Tony Mowbray signing but Mowbray will be happy with it and I’m sure the manager would have to have signed it off. Whether it is good for the game, I’m not too sure. Apart from selling shirts, is it even that great for Celtic?

How many more goals is it actually feasible for Keane to score than any other forward? Can it be value for money? How much merchandise do they have to sell to recoup the wages of Keane?

They say it is good for the Scottish game but I’m not so sure. And even if Killie fans were giving him dogs abuse on his debut when Celtic lost, is that really good for the game? If you have better players, it can inspire others to raise their game but he is only here for a few months, will that raise anything. He’s not like a Larsson or a Laudrup here for a few seasons.

We brought Simon Stainrod to Falkirk, a fedora top hat wearing guy, a gifted footballer and we had a striker called Sam McGivern, a wee red haired guy and he was pretty bad. However, in the First Division, playing alongside Stainrod and he got goals.

Stainrod could have had the cigars out, as could have Latapy. Waddle may have managed that but he was only there for four weeks but then he got injured. However, it was tangible for Falkirk as we put an extra 2,000 on the gates. Much like Best at Hibs, which is why they signed him. My uncle went to see Falkirk play Hibs and the crowds were just there to see Best…and at that time, he was crap!

If you could change anything about the game, what would it be?
GB: Something needs to change with regards to the offside. It has to be a black and white thing. We need to get the interpretation out of these decisions. Linesman have a thankless job but it is almost impossible to get it right these days.

With regards to television evidence or getting another opinion, I don’t understand why they cant do it already. There is usually a refs supervisor in the stands and the higher level have all the games covered. If you never changed the rules because of all levels, then you would never change the rules. For certain things, yes, you know goals or if the play was already stopped.

I want to see less appeals from players and managers. I would love this. The ball went out last week and it was a Falkirk throw-in but the Aberdeen player put his hand up. The ref should ask him what he is claiming for and if he can’t explain it, book him.

That level of interpretative power for referees should not be encouraged. Can you imagine a ref asking a certain player a question and then booking him? The fans would go mad!

GB: It would be funny though wouldn’t it? Haha, that’ll stop them claiming. Okay, it is trained into them and this can be moralistic but they have to stop shouting at refs. Players and managers need to agree to stop this now. This is more of an attitude change than a rule change.

I find the World Cup is where everything escalates and the chat back to refs is likely to get a lot worse this summer. Maybe the rugby rule of moving the play back ten yards for backchat could work. Its embarrassing but there is no panacea is there?

I think another worry is when you tinker so much, you ruin it. An attitude change has to be brought in but that is so much harder to make it stick. The rules themselves, other than offside, not much needs to be changed, just keep it flowing quickly.

The contentious decisions are part of the game and you would miss that, as long as it isn’t your team. And especially when someone like Sepp Blatter is in charge, you don’t want too much tinkering!

We’ll be back tomorrow when Graeme tells us his hopes for the rest of Falkirk’s season and his thoughts on ex-boss John Hughes. After that, its his opinions on the national team and some football and music mash-ups….and then that should be him!

Phew!