From great games to the game's greats. If
you have a query concerning Scottish football, this is the place
to send it to. We'll answer as many as we can but regret
that we cannot respond individually to requests. So bookmark
this site and look in regularly as questions and answers are frequently
updated.
Q Why
SFAQs? What does that mean?
A FAQs (Frequently Asked
Questions) can be found on many websites, mostly relating to
technical matters and SFA stands for (amongst other things)
Scottish Football Association. So a neat amalgamation of
acronyms gives us SFAQs which means Scottish Football
Answers (to) Questions.
Q From Randy
who asks "When a Scottish or Premiership club gets relegated
do the star players have clauses in their contracts that they must
be sold? Can a relegated team keep all their players?"
A In a word no. There
are no automatic clauses in players contracts as such. What can,
and does, happen is that star players may well have an individual
clause in their contract insisting they are transferred if their
club is relegated.
Also, any player is entitled to enter into discussions with any
club six months before their contract expires.
What usually happens is that a relegated club loses out financially
as a result of poorer crowds, reduced season ticket sales and fewer
TV appearances. This leads to player sales in order to offset the
loss. Naturally, the most saleable players are the best.
So a relegated team can keep all their players in theory (if
they are all still under contract) but in practice it rarely
happens just as it is unusual for any team to keep all their players
from one season to the next.
Q Chris Turnock asks:
"After Celtic and Rangers which team has won the Scottish
Cup the most times?
A Queen's Park with ten
victories, the last of which was way back in 1893. Next in
line are Aberdeen with seven, all after 1945.
Celtic have won the most with 31 to Rangers 30.
The Old Firm also lead the way in the number of Finals contested.
Celtic with 50 to Rangers 47. Then come Aberdeen
with 15, Hearts and Queen's Park with 12
each and Hibernian with 11.
For old SFAQs click here
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Q From Kate
Stephen: "Did Rangers play Celtic on New
Year's Day 1963?"
A They certainly did. The Gers
won 4-0 at Ibrox with goals from Harold Davis, Jimmy Millar,
John Greig and Davie Wilson sending the bulk of the 55,000
crowd home happy and keeping Rangers top of the League, a point
ahead of Partick Thistle. (Yes, I said Partick Thistle).
This was the year of the great freeze which I suppose prompted the
question. But the bad weather didn't really kick in until a day
later. Seven of the nine First Division Ne'erday fixtures
went ahead but only three were played 24 hours later when
there was also a full card scheduled.
The weather played havoc with football after that. The first round
of the Scottish Cup, due to take place on January 12th
wasn't completed until March 11th. The Old Firm fixture was
the last competitive match at Ibrox until March 16th!
Worst affected teams were Hearts and East Stirling.
After their matches on December 15th, this pair didn't play
another League game until March 9th. And those who think
today's players face too many matches should consider that East
Stirling's part-timers not only completed nineteen League
games in just over nine weeks, they even won promotion!
Rangers season extended two weeks beyond that and they played a
total of 23 matches from March 9th onwards (sixteen League,
seven Scottish Cup) ending the season with a League and Cup
double.
I wonder what the likes of Arsene Whinger would have made
of that?
Q Kevin Alexander wants to know
"Who was in goal for Scotland when England
won 5-1 in 1975?
A Stewart Kennedy of Rangers
was the poor soul concerned in the match at Wembley on May
24th 1975. His team-mates were Jardine (Rangers), McGrain
(Celtic), Munro (Wolves), McQueen (Leeds), Conn (Spurs), Rioch (Derby),
Dalglish (Celtic), Duncan (Hibs) (sub Hutchinson (Coventry), Parlane
(Rangers), MacDougall (Norwich) (sub Macari (Man Utd)
Scotland were two down in just eight minutes through goals from
Gerry Francis and Kevin Beattie. Five minutes from
half-time Colin Bell added a third but a Bruce Rioch
penalty a minute later briefly restored some hope. That was snuffed
out midway through the second half when Francis scored again. David
Johnson added a fifth a quarter of an hour before the end.
It ended a run of seven away matches undefeated (two wins
and five draws) including the 1974 World Cup. On a personal
level this was the first time this writer had watched this fixture
on English soil. Not exactly a happy occasion for the first outing
of the Tartan Army's Teesside division but the next couple of seasons
were to bring more joyous times!
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