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Daily Mail
22-06-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
In Case You Missed It: Battles from the last football season spill into summer but there's plenty of reasons to be cheerful in the world of Scottish sport
After last weekend's US Open came to an end, with Scotland's own Robert MacIntyre lifting golfing spirits having finished in a solo second place at Oakmont, things returned to normal in the wacky world of Scottish sport. The week began with Rangers leaping to the defence of club legend John Brown after he was charged by the SFA following his claim on club commentary for a match at the end of the season against Hibernian, whereby he claimed that the officials on duty were 'corrupt'. The back and forth between club and governing body continued, when on Friday, the SFA accused Rangers of 'misleading comments '. The Ibrox side had previously claimed that they 'had flagged numerous examples of similar incidents on other club channels' but the association hit back, suggesting that potential breaches weren't considered serious enough to merit more than warnings. To matters on the pitch, Rangers unveiled Lyall Cameron with the former Dundee star announcing that he wants to get the club 'back where it belongs' and new manager Russell Martin told fans of the Ibrox side that the team will be strengthened ahead of their Champions League qualifier against Panathiniakos next month. Though there has been plenty of build-up towards the British and Irish Lions tour kicking off, in the end with a 28-24 loss to Argentina in Dublin in the first warm-up match, there has been lots happening on the Scottish rugby front too. Scottish Rugby chief Alex Williamson admitted that the SRU are keen for head coach Gregor Townsend to remain in charge of the team, despite a disappointing Six Nations. The former Scotland star has been at the helm since 2017 and has overseen one of the most talented squads in a generation but many feel that the squad have fallen short in major tournaments. Williamson also spoke about the state of Scottish Rugby's finances, revealing the organisation are on track to cut losses with the addition of more concerts at Murrayfield, while revealing they are upgrading the toilet system and would be open to holding other sporting events at the national stadium - though football isn't one of them. Towards the end of the week, news broke that Rufus McLean had been called up by the USA and could face Scotland in the Autumn Tests. The former Glasgow Warrior was sacked by the SRU after receiving a 120-hour community payback order by Sheriff Matthew Auchinloss following charges relating to a two-year campaign of abuse against his former partner. There was joy for Scotland at Royal Ascot, though, when Jim Goldie ended a 17-year wait for a winner trained north of the border when American Affair stormed to success in the King Charles III Stakes. On another positive note, following that second-placed finish at Oakmont, there is now a real feeling that Robert MacIntyre will end Scotland's wait for the country's first major winner since Paul Lawrie triumphed in The Open at Carnoustie in 1999, and the Oban left-hander insists he is capable of doing just that.
Daily Mail
15-06-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
In Case You Missed It: Scottish sport under the microscope like never before as alarm bells sound for the future
The current state of Scottish sport has been a hot topic in Mail Sport this week, with rugby, tennis and football all coming under the microscope. The week began, of course, with the nation feeling rather glum in the wake of that Hampden humbling against Iceland, with the prospect of a meaningless — yet dangerous — friendly in Liechtenstein failing to get anyone excited. Such was the sense of hopelessness that our very own Calum Crowe sounded the death knell for our hopes of reaching the 2026 World Cup before a ball has even been kicked in our qualification campaign. The subsequent 4-0 cruise in Vaduz at least managed to turn down the heat on manager Steve Clarke, with Che Adams' hat-trick a welcome sight and hopefully a sign of better things to come. The path to the Americas begins in September with daunting away trips to Denmark and Belarus — albeit the latter fixture will most likely take place in Hungary — and SFA supremo Ian Maxwell did confirm that it is unlikely in the extreme that anyone other than Clarke will be the man at the helm. While football fills us with frustration, rugby is facing something more akin to rancour following Mail Sport's exclusive this week about the devastating cuts Scottish Rugby are imposing on the developmental game. Murrayfield chiefs have been accused of showing 'disrespect' and a 'lack of care' towards young players after announcing major changes to their academy system, with some age-grade teams having seen their number of official academy players cut in half. All this comes at a time when SRU performance director David Nucifora is still based in Australia and only visits Scotland during certain periods of the year. While so many people are affected by the drastic upheaval, Nucifora is essentially, as Calum Crowe put it so well, phoning it in from Bondi Beach. To compound a week of worry for the Scottish sporting landscape, Mail Sport's exclusive with Judy Murray was particularly ominous. On the back of the Scottish government's failure to build on the legacy of her superstar sons, Andy and Jamie, Judy accused Holyrood of continuing to fail sport in this country and revealed her fears that it is becoming a two-tier system of the 'haves' and 'have nots' in schools. Murray spent 11 years working on the failed Park of Keir project which she hoped would allow the nation to build on the Grand Slam and Olympic successes her sons achieved. Now she fears there will be no Scots in the Wimbledon juniors this year, a state of affairs she finds unacceptable. Scottish numbers dwindled on the Lions tour, too, with Zander Fagerson's withdrawal from the squad which will travel to Australia this summer officially confirmed. On the plus side, Scotland coach Gregor Townsend selected a strong squad for his side's own tour Down Under and he fully expects that some of his men will be drafted in by Lions coach Andy Farrell as injuries start to bite. On a more positive note, our intrepid groundhopper Hugh MacDonald entertained us in the absence of live football by taking us on a journey back to the times of the coal mines, exploring the inextricable links between the pit and the pitch. The legendary managerial trio of Stein, Shankly and Busby all had mining links, but it was the stories of the less heralded names, the men who would emerge from the darkness to compete for their clubs — and sometimes at a high level — that stood out from our look-back to a time that must seem so alien to many among the younger generation. Finally, if it's a more irreverent offering that you are hankering for, John McGarry's A-Z of the Scottish football season just gone is a must-read. As, of course, are our Rangers and Celtic Confidentials, available every week on Mail+.
