Mike Mulraney is no shrinking violet, that’s for sure.
The Scottish FA president has a cocksure bullishness about him that makes it hard to determine whether his motion to double the pay of the Scottish FA board at yesterday’s AGM went uncontested because members agreed they were doing a bang-up job, or because they were scared of him.
He would contend that it was most certainly the former. And he is more than willing to show his working.
Yesterday, he could point to the ink still drying on a freshly agreed record broadcast deal for the Scottish Cup as evidence of the job they are doing, a 33 percent increase in terms which he believes flies in the face of the prevailing winds in the industry, and proves Scottish football is ‘flying in the face of the negative doomsayers’.
What’s more, he isn’t afraid to put the money that the Scottish FA brings in where his mouth is, posting an unprecedented pledge to reinvest £50m of commercial revenues into football facilities throughout the country over the next five years, after investing £30m over the previous few.
Such ambitious targets would not be able to be considered without such deals as that new agreement with BBC Scotland and Premier Sports, he says, and without the work of his board.
One thing which cannot be doubted, is Mulraney’s passion for the Scottish game. His years as chairman of Alloa Athletic would seem proof enough of that.
His message of positivity about Scottish football – the record attendances, the unique environment - is one that he wants to trickle down throughout the governing body’s staff throughout his tenure, and one that he also wants them to carry out into the world.
That is how, he believes, such deals are made. And how investments in the future follow.
“I make no apologies for my views, my views are clear, most of the people who talk down Scottish football talk down Scotland,” Mulraney said.
“It’s a very Scottish character trait, which is disappointing, and I don’t share that character trait.
“We’ve got a great product. We are not the English Premier League, so don’t try to be. We are the Scottish Premiership, we are Scottish football. We are not the English Cup or the German Cup, and we don’t want to be. We want to be the Scottish one and we want to be the best one that we can for our nation.
“I don’t want to mimic any other nation. I want to understand what they are doing, and so do the team here, and then we will make a value decision on how we implement that to best suit our nation.
“We are not Germany, we are not France, we are not Sweden, Norway, Spain or The Netherlands. We’re Scotland, and I believe that balancing act [between protecting attendances and broadcast rights] that we don’t always get exactly right, we are broadly getting right.
“It’s reflected in the fact that people want to pay to walk through the doors of the game, it’s an exciting product. The SPFL viewing figures were released [this week], and just wow. Once again, that flew in the face of everybody who is a negative doomsayer. They’ve blown it out the park.
“We had 6000 Scotland fans watching a training session in the rain on a Thursday morning.
“We are flying in the face of the doomsayers, it’s a fantastic place to be.”
What critics would say, and have said about the most recent SPFL TV deals in particular, is that restricting the number of matches shown, or the companies that can bid for them, doesn’t lead to the best deal for Scottish football at all.
They would also contend that there is little evidence from elsewhere to support Mulraney’s assertion that crowds would drop if every game where made available to air. But he says such gripes come from an uneducated position.
“In a market where TV deals are getting harder throughout Europe and the world, where incomes are dropping with TV deals, and everybody knows you are having to give more for less, Scotland is in a position where our guys have negotiated a 33 percent uplift over the five-year period,” he said.
“That’s unprecedented. It’s incredible when you are lifting that kind of money. It’s bucking the trend, and I think it’s reflective of where Scotland are as a nation and where our football is.
“Anyone who thinks that isn’t good news in the current climate doesn’t understand the current climate, because the current climate is incredibly difficult.
"Criticism is easy for folk who don’t understand what they are talking about. If you don’t understand the marketplace and the environment that you are talking about, then it is easy to level criticism.
“The bottom line is that we are not only doing well, but we are doing well in an environment where everybody else is struggling. And the team have not only just done well, but they have hit it out the park.
“We’ve built stability for income flows, we’ve built stability for the fans who support our game.
“The income flows are only there because they buy the TV [packages], giving confidence to the marketplace, backed up by the enormous UEFA contract we have got because we had the faith in UEFA negotiating on Scotland’s behalf.
“The quantum of the money that comes from them is formidable, we have benefitted hugely because of that, and that allows us to put young football boots onto astroturf and onto grass.
“Without the money, we cannot do it, and that is the big win for Scotland. And that is the big win for us having considered media contracts, and this one is not just considered, it’s an economy buster.
“It is going against the tide of everything else that is happening in Europe. It is great news for Scotland.”
Great news for Scotland in the short term would be a successful European Championships for Steve Clarke and the national team, something that Mulraney, like any Scot, would love to see.
But the feelgood factor that would create would all count for little, in his view, if the facilities aren’t there to capitalise on it.
“What the national team is doing, historically, you look at the legacy they achieve and you look for a sporting legacy,” he said.
“What I am saying is part of that legacy can’t just be about the sport, it has to be about the facilities. If we do not build the facilities, there will be no sporting legacy.
“So, what the national team does assists us on our journey, in our mission, to rebuild the facilities in Scotland, to rebuild the sporting infrastructure to stop the decline, and I have said it repeatedly, what we have we hold, what we hold we improve, and what we don’t have we build.
“It’s pretty straightforward. The board is on song with it, everyone is agreed, and we’re doing it.
“Because what Steve is doing with his team will build a legacy on the park, and it will build aspiration for our young guys. And it’s the same with the women’s team, it will become an aspiration for the girls of today to become the footballers of tomorrow. But without facilities, they not only won’t, they can’t.
“So, him (Clarke) winning all the games in the world, if they can’t onto the grass and artificial surface and they can’t kick a ball, then quite frankly it will be great and everyone will feel good for a summer and then it will dissipate into the sand.
“The SFA will build. The foundations of our sport need refreshed and rebuilt. That’s what we’re doing.
“I accept £50million is an incredible figure. But I told my members that’s it, there’s no: ‘We’re going to find £5million somewhere.’ We’re going to find £50million in five years.
“We’re not just building for football, we’re building for Scotland.”
