1963 Freeze
Wembley 75
Contracts
Cup Wins


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


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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