Post by Marky on Dec 13, 2004 10:14:23 GMT
Please find undernoted a brief summary of the WESTA St Andrews Night/Player Of The Year night at the Iron Horse ..........
Guest Speaker Eric Caldow was the first inductee to the WESTA Hall of Fame and gave an entertaining account of his career with Rangers/Scotland.
WESTA member then gave an overview of our home/away meetings with St Galmier Tartan Army which was followed by a 90 minute Q&A session with SFA Chief Executive David Taylor. The salient points of this discussion were as follows-
*No friendly in February [all candidates for the managers job had indicated that they would prefer a squad get together as opposed to a friendly international]
*The forthcoming WC Qualifier against Italy looked likely to be in either Genoa/Lecce [DT stressed that,despite protests from the SFA, the Italian FA will not confirm this until late January]
*Scotland suffered from more call offs than any other European nation in recent friendlies! Berti Vogts had called a meeting with all SPL managers on this matter but only Jim Duffy and Craig Levein attended!!!
*Crowds under BV had risen. DT cited the example of 48,000 v Norway as opposed to 38,000 v Belgium.
* The STC was changing to the Scotland Supporters Club and,although the initial joining fee would be more expensive, it would offer discounts on merchandising, members website etc.
* The SFA were now hiring ex players as football development officers to introduce a long term strategy at grass roots level.
*DT felt that there was a stronger list of candidates for the managers job this time around and that the successful candidate would have a contract until the 2008 Euro Championships with a bonus if we qualified for 2006.
David Taylor was extremely candid on the night and stayed answering members questions until 11.30pm.
Feel free to comment on the evening at the WESTA website [www.westa.org.uk]
Finally, the Committee will be meeting next week to programme all meetings/events for 2005...all suggestions welcome!!!!
The WESTA AGM/Burns Supper will be Sunday 30th January and any WESTA member that wishes to stand for committee should notify the club secretary by 31/12/04
Tam
Tam Coyle
Secretary
WESTA