By Thomas McGuigan

Smith is pleased with the Scottish FA's youth development

Scottish FA chief executive Gordon Smith insists there should be no knee-jerk reaction to a poor showing in Europe from Scottish clubs.

The five teams involved have failed to register a win in 14 ties this season.

"It's disappointing and it's not good for our game," Smith told BBC Sport.

"If it happens again next year we should look at it and see if it's a problem that's developed within our game. If it doesn't then we'll look at it as a one off."

Celtic exited the Champions League last week after defeat away to Danish side Aalborg.

Gordon Strachan's side have managed just two home draws from their five group games so far, while Rangers failed to qualify for the tournament following defeat by FBK Kaunas.

Motherwell and Queen of the South struggled in the Uefa Cup and Hibs were well beaten in the Intertoto Cup.

Despite the discouraging displays, Scotland is still ranked in the top 10 countries for European competition.

"You should always be looking to improve, even if you'd had a good spell," added Smith.

"If you take 2008, we're talking about how poor the game is in Scotland and how badly our teams have done in Europe but in the same year we had a team in a European final and had two other teams involved beyond Christmas.

"We are very bad for negativity in Scotland. It's easy at times to overreact and I think it's important to be positive."

And Smith believes there are reasons to be cheerful, given the efforts of his team of coaches at the SFA.

"There's a lot of good work being done at youth level," he added.

"The guys are trying their very best to bring in ideas and practices that are going to improve the game in years to come.

Rangers failed to reach the group stage of the Champions League

"In the last couple of years we have been developing a lot more teams and a lot more players and that's down to the fact we are bringing in more volunteers as coaches.

"I think that can only help develop the game in the future."

Smith was talking to BBC Sport at a Hampden gathering for coaches, with World Cup winning manager Carlos Alberta Perreria the guest speaker.

The Brazilian was offering tips on how the game can improve and Smith would like to see more emphasis placed on ball skills.

"I'm very much in favour of developing more technical players," said Smith. "I think we should spend a lot more time on that aspect of the game.

"I'd like to change the season for kids football and make it March to December.

"I just think if we play on better surfaces and play in better conditions we can concentrate on better technique because we've always had great spirit and great determination."

Perreria, who has taken four different countries to the World Cup was taken to a Scottish Premier League game on Saturday and Smith revealed one of the flaws picked up by his guest.

"He talked about too many long balls from the back and sometimes that can be a problem," he added.

"We should take that on board and try to make the game a lot better from a technical point of view."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version