Three weeks ago, I wrote a blog expressing concerns about the 14s League Cups draws in Central, West and, especially, the East region. The ties which were contrived as a result of those draws were played on Saturday 27 April 2024 and the results, particularly in the East, were just as I had predicted. Actually, they were worse.
As you’ll recall from the earlier blog, in the most one-sided draw since the Lions took on the Christians, the 14s East League Cup draw consisted of one bye and 16 ties (instead of the conventional 1 tie and 15 byes) and the SWF, in their infinite wisdom, decided to give* the Tier 1 teams a distinct advantage by not only ‘seeding’ them, but giving them all home advantage and then, just to make sure they got the results they wanted, had them all playing Tier 3 teams (bar Arbroath Youth Yellows and Dunfermline Athletic Whites, who got the only bye). The Tier 3 teams also had the additional expense of travelling. (*I say “give” rather than “‘draw”‘ because in the traditional sense of the word this was nothing like a proper draw. A draw would indicate some form of randomness, like balls being drawn out a receptacle of some sort. This ‘draw’ was contrived and manipulated to get a particular set of results. It worked but at what cost to those players who suffered humiliating defeats?)
The results were predictable. While you’re not supposed to show more than a 9-goal winning margin on social media, I shall give you an insight as to the scores as I was given them, but I won’t assign them to the specific matches in which they occurred. The ten ties featuring Tier 1 versus Tier 3 teams resulted in scores as follows: 23-0, 15-0, 15-0, 15-0, 15-1, 14-1, 13-0, 11-1, 7-0 and 4-1. I attended one of these matches. Before the game, one of the visiting coaches informed me that as a result of two heavy defeats during the pre-season grading friendlies, they had lost three players who simply quit the sport. At half-time in the same game, the visiting goalkeeper was in tears. I, along with another parent and the home goalkeeper, spoke to her in an attempt to raise her spirits. My own daughter had been a goalkeeper so I know how tough that position is. While she conceded another five goals she also saved just as many and pretty much saved her team from suffering an even worse defeat.
I heard from coaches at other games who, in an attempt to keep the scores down, placed ‘conditions’ on their own players in terms of how they played so as to keep the score down. Without those conditions I’ve no doubt the 132-4 aggregate score would’ve been a lot worse. The only other Tier 1 team to play – Arbroath Youth Yellows – were given a home tie against a Tier 2 team. That also resulted in a “9-0” win.
When you have strong second year teams playing new first year teams there’s always the possibility of a big score. While the consolation of knowing the score will only be posted publicly as 9-0/10-1/11-2 etc, there’s still the long-term damage done to the players suffering such defeats. Are the SWF trying to drive girls out of the game? Because they’re going the right way about it. Whoever was responsible for this insane draw must take some of the responsibility. Did nobody check it? Did nobody look at that draw and think “what the hell is this?” In all my years of following girls and women’s football and collating and publishing scores I’ve never seen a draw like it, let alone the set of scores that resulted.
One explanation given was that the draw was done to ensure the right number of teams for the Plate competition, but that explanation doesn’t hold up. It just sounds like more doubling down to cover up for a bad draw in the main Cup. With all due respect to teams taking part in the Plate, that is a secondary competition compared to the League Cup. Yesterday the 2nd Round of the East League Cup was drawn, with 1 tie and 15 byes, to squeeze in the extra round this Saturday! Ironically, the solitary tie can’t be played this weekend due to one of the teams playing in a tournament in England. Two rounds in and Dunfermline Athletic Whites haven’t played a game yet! Not their fault, of course.
I stand by my assertion that the draw was downright lazy. They would’ve been just as well to pick who they wanted to go through and not bother with the matches. It would’ve had the same effect but without the expense incurred by the away teams, let alone the trauma suffered by many of their players.
I should point out that the four Tier 1 versus Tier 3 ties in the 14s West League Cup had scorelines of 13-1, 11-1, 6-0 and 6-1. The other four Tier 1 teams were handed the only four byes.
As for the 14s Central League Cup draw, the SWF still hasn’t responded to my two requests regarding the lettering or numbering of the eight groups, so I’ve had to allocate my own. Have you ever known a competition drawn into groups where the groups aren’t given numbers or letters? In the men’s Euros, Scotland are in Group A. In the women’s 2025 Euros qualifying competition, Scotland are in group 2 of League B. In the 14s Central League Cup, eh, well, we won’t bother… I did ask publicly if anyone knew the numbering or lettering, but nobody came forward, so I assume they were drawn without numbers/letters.
As a related aside, don’t get me started on my personal bugbear of draws being put into alphabetical order before being issued. Is it really too much to ask that draws are published as they’re drawn out? How many nanoseconds are you saving people who can’t be bothered to look though a draw for their team by putting them in alphabetical order?
I suspect that the SWF hasn’t responded to my emails because they’ve decided to stop engaging with me. One individual decided to screenshot some of my posts on my Twitter/X feed and send them to the SWF. As a result, I posted, “I’d invite this person to speak to me privately, like an adult, instead of scuttling off to the headmaster like a playground tattle-tale.” Not surprisingly, the coward didn’t get in touch and the SWF wouldn’t tell me who the individual was. The SWF didn’t like some of the comments made by me and other contributors. They said, “If you have questions and want to share factual information rather than speculation, I am happy to speak with you. Some of the comments that ive been shown in response to your posts also aren’t truth, it’s a little disappointing to see.” I asked them “to clarify any points I may have made that you think aren’t the truth”. That was 19 days ago. Still no reply.
It seems my love-hate relationship with the SWF shows no sign of abating, but I will continue to call them out on any issues as I see them. If the SWF doesn’t want to discuss them privately by email, I’ll continue to address them publicly via blog posts and tweets. Meanwhile, let’s hope we haven’t lost more girls from the game as a result of the weekend’s one-sided fixtures.
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