Iran friendly in doubt

Bad news for our reader Ali … looks like this one’s off, mate.

The proposed friendly between Scotland and Iran on May 28th looks to be in serious doubt, after George Burley made some comments today all but ruling out the fixture. My main issue is the reason he’s giving.

“We have a problem in May in that it looks as if the Old Firm are both going on tours so we could be missing six or seven players.”

Going on tours? As I’ve said before, one of the things that excited me about the appointment of Burley to the national job was the fact that he isn’t another Old Firm man. After two ex-Rangers coaches in a row, it was a nice idea to have a national coach that put the national team before Celtic and Rangers. It’s one thing to have a conflict between a club’s league fixtures and an international friendly. But their post-season “tours”? The Scottish Cup final is just four days before the fixture date, and that seems like a legitimate problem, but “going on tours” is not. I know that we need the national coach to work with the Old Firm, because that is where many of our best Scottish players are, but so far, he’s been more than cooperative - he’s been beholden. There’s still great hope for some friendly on May 28th, and I hope Burley can manage to make it at home, because of the Scottish Cup time crunch, but we need to stop letting the Old Firm decide which dates are available for friendlies. There are only a few more open international fixture dates available before September 6th, when Scotland travels to play Macedonia (probably in Bulgaria), and we need to take advantage of them.

You’re a good coach, George, and a strong coach. Don’t let them bully you.