A world of opportunities

SOME of my earliest World Cup memories are of that legendary Brazil team of the 1960s, in which Pele dazzled the world. I'll never forget the classic encounter in England 1966, when Hungary actually beat them. The Magyars then went on to lose to the Soviet team, who had the great Lev Yashin performing heroics in goal. Those were games full of intrigue.

I think that what we will see in Germany is not a parade of individual stars, but a parade of collectives, out of which new stars will be born. And the truth is that there are no longer any weak teams at this level. The names of players like Beckenbauer, Breitner, Littbarski and Schüster burn brighter than ever. But I'm not convinced that the current generation will be any weaker than previous ones.

Looking at Germany's first match against Costa Rica, I'd say that their coach should be concerned not with how many they scored, but with how many they conceded. He has some food for thought there. The Costa Ricans didn't play with much discipline in defence, and they gifted Klose two goals – the perfect birthday present! But this is just the start – and Costa Rica still have time to put their mistakes right.

I remember going to Costa Rica about ten years ago, as I was sponsor of a basketball tour of a Lithuanian veterans team – we ended up losing the final to the Americans. It rained for three days, and I asked when it would stop, only to be told that it had just begun, and would carry on for another three months minimum! I decided to set off on a 400km tour of the country. Two things really struck me – the rich natural beauty of Costa Rica, and their passion for football.

That was when I understood that basketball can never be compared with football. To undermine football as happens in certain countries is a deception and a crime against society. The threat of this happening is real if we leave things to those who try to feed off our sport and turn it into a show. In order to protect football the state needs to compete with these “show-businessmen” who are producing an artificial substitute for real sport and harming the state itself.

I've noticed that commentators today tend to speak a lot without bringing the game to life. However, their contribution to football over the years has been immense for all those unlucky enough not to be in the stadium. I remember the days when the match coverage was much better. In those days, when we had no tickets for the game and no TV, we'd stand by the stadium and listen to the radio commentary. As the commentators described the game, we were so caught up by the emotion of the thing that we would storm the fence in order to get into the stadium! When the great football and ice hockey commentator Ozerov died, people queued, myself included, all day to lay flowers at his funeral.

As for Friday's other game, Ecuador against Poland was of a higher class. Ecuador have a couple of gems who I would gladly sign tomorrow. Having said that, the Poles were incredibly unlucky, as they hit the woodwork twice, though it was a shame Maciej Zurawski disappeared from the game. Exactly the same thing happened in the SPL when opposing defenders closed down his space

Earlier this week, I watched France play China. It's already quite clear to me that new stars are emerging in the east. I'm absolutely convinced, in fact, that the future of football lies not in Brazil, but in China. Some might say it's too soon to be making such predictions, but it's better to be able to spot these trends early than too late.

My coaches often tell me that you should never have more than two Georgian players in the team, and I think perhaps there should be a limit on the number of Brazilians. The basis of any team should always be made up of local players, who can provide a solid backbone and absorb the foreign players without diminishing the collective.

The point is that if you don't have players like Pressley, Hartley, Nielson, Gordon and Elliot, any imports that you bring in are not going to be as effective. I'm always amazed that other clubs aren't more interested in trying to secure their services; but then, perhaps they are too busy chasing after Brazilian stars.

The other thing is that when the style of play reduces things to a rugby-style brawl it is hardly a good advert for the Scottish game. The notion that Scottish fans just want to see this kind of physical football is a false one; fans here have a great understanding and appreciation of the game as it should be played.

Brazil, despite modest financial resources, continually manages to give birth to new stars. In Europe, the opposite is true. The bigger the budgets of the football schools and academies, the fewer the stars they produce. And when they are asked where are all the footballers, the penpushers in charge reply slyly that their job is mass production and not the development of high class masters. That, in my view, is a downright deception. It's high time that we tied the salaries of these people to their results. It's because they aren't producing enough talent themselves that clubs are forced to go looking in Africa or Brazil for players.

I'm never impressed by coaches who blindly stick to one system. A coach who is always searching for answers will always take into account the players at his disposal to come up with creative solutions for a given match. Only then does he have any chance of creating a real “masterpiece”, something unique – a football triumph that marries intelligence and passion.

Finally, there has been a lot of talk about the Wayne Rooney injury. If it was my decision, I wouldn't risk rushing him back into the team. He is only 20, and it is not as if this is the last year he will be playing. The issue of who pays his wages is irrelevant – we are talking about the professional future of the player, and also about the long-term hopes of his national team. The again, if England were really keen to get Wayne fully fit in time for their first game, all they needed to do was send him over to Kaunas. Our specialists there would have had him back on his feet within a week.

Taken from the Scotsman