Its taken 10 years of very poor qualification results to finally put Scotland into pot 4 - where you will face unfavourable draws. For Euro 2004 the modest teams to challenge you for a play off place were Faroe Islands, Iceland and Lithuania.
But for the next finals you might face the disastrous group of death scenario of France, Italy, Denmark, Scotland, Wales, Belarus and *s***** the Faroe Islands. In such a group Scotland would struggle to finish 4th - and this brings a catch 22 situation - if you face such tough groups time after time - how will you ever boost your ranking and qualify for a major finals?
The best case scenario for Scotland would result in Greece, Poland, Bulgaria, Scotland, Iceland, Cyprus and Luxembourg. But even that group would look impossible to conquer - only an outside chance, in my opinion, of achieveing second place.
In order to break out of the European wilderness I think Scotland needs to produce, in the next 10-15 years, a "golden generation" - but with your Junior Football system the way it is (or the way Im lead to believe) how is this going to happen? Certainly, the back door option to the World Cup has been well and truly closed - no possibility of lucky or favourable draws.
Easy......we will hold the fcuking tournament. Qualification guarenteed!! Second thoughts, I think they are changing that rule.....b'stards.
We can increase our seedings by playing more friendlies and winning them. Out with that I would rather Scotland came up against a few better sides in qualification, as it is the so-called lesser teams that we seem to trip ourselves up with.
