Chamber and committees

Do other members of the panel want to come in on that? I suppose that my question is: if all the parties agree that Scotland has a right to self-determination, and yet there is no route beyond one party being able to say, “No, it’s not going to happen,” how sustainable is that?

—we’re gonna bring the world cup back from over thar. [Laughter.] So, “ola” rhymes with “thar”—there you go.

Anyway, as we look ahead, we now know exactly what awaits us in 2026. Scotland have been drawn in a group that will test us and excite us. Once again, we are playing our old adversaries, Brazil—I know that they were terrified of getting Scotland in the draw, but they have been unlucky once again.

We look forward to those matches, and they will give the tartan army two cracking destinations. Our opening matches will place Scotland on a global stage in two iconic cities: Boston, with its deep sporting culture and historic Scottish ties, and Miami, where I suspect that the tartan army will do its level best to out-sing the palm trees. Those are venues fit for a nation that is returning to the world cup with ambition and belief, and I have no doubt that the players will rise to the occasion, just as the supporters will.

However, our footballing spirit lives not only in history books or national anthems, but in grass-roots clubs, which are the lifeblood of our communities. Twice over the summer, I visited Sauchie Juniors Football Club, one of my local teams, to see the work that it does with young kids. Some of those kids are not even particularly interested in football, but they really value the time that they have, with some instruction, to be able to kick a ball around with their friends in some of the most deprived parts of my constituency. What Sauchie Juniors does is fantastic.

The same is true of Tullibody St Serf’s community club, also in my constituency—and I am sure that it will be true of clubs in many members’ constituencies. There are volunteers standing on touchlines in horizontal rain, washing kits, running minibuses and coaching young people who dream of becoming the next Andy Robertson or Caroline Weir—and let us hope that Scotland can succeed in hosting the FIFA women’s world cup in the future.

Without those individuals volunteering and carrying out so much of the work, there would be no national team, no Hampden roar and no world cup dream. That is why this qualification matters so deeply: it lifts spirits, inspires young people and energises communities. In Clackmannanshire and Dunblane, and across Scotland, people have taken real pride from our national team reaching the finals. It connects our past, our present and the future that we want for our young people.

I have written to Mr Infantino, the president of FIFA, to ask whether we can get the ball taken across to the United States and on to the pitch at the first match. The president’s son has already spoken very warmly of the fact that Scotland have qualified, so I am sure there will be a great deal of good will if he can do that.

Today, we congratulate Scotland’s national team and Steve Clarke and his staff; we salute the tartan army; we celebrate the clubs and volunteers who keep the game alive; we honour a history that stretches from Stirling castle to south America; and we wish our team every success as preparations begin for the 2026 world cup.

And if Shankland scores the winner in the final—well, even as a Hibs fan, I promise that I will cheer.

The cabinet secretary will be aware of the innovative transformation work that is under way in Clackmannanshire, supported by £1 million of investment from the Scottish Government, which puts community voice at the centre of designing local solutions. By contrast, does she agree that the United Kingdom Government’s top-down pride in place programme, which provides no funding for Clackmannanshire, undermines both devolution and genuine community-led initiatives such as those in my constituency? Is she concerned that, although Labour members of the Welsh Parliament have spoken out against that devolution grab by the Labour Government in Westminster, there has not been a squeak from the Labour Party here in Holyrood?

It is, of course, a genuine pleasure to open the debate. As a long-suffering Hibs fan, I want to say right at the start that if anyone had told me that one day I would be standing here celebrating a Scotland team that had qualified for the world cup thanks, in part, to a goal scored by Lawrence Shankland, given the team that he plays for, I would have said that they had spent too much time in the famous five stand hospitality—which is exactly what I did last Saturday.

However, football is full of surprises—and what a fantastic surprise this qualification has been for the whole country. It has given everybody a huge lift, and it will do so, I believe, all the way through to the group stages and beyond next year. For the first time in 28 years, Scotland is going to a FIFA world cup—and what a way for us to get there, with a 4-2 win over Denmark at Hampden. It was a match full of grit, flair and just enough nail-biting, buttock-clenching tension to confirm that—yes, once again—it was Scotland trying to qualify for a world cup.

I remember previous world cups; most of us will have our own memories of them. The first one that I remember was 1970, but the first one that Scotland qualified for was 1974, when Scotland went out without losing a match—the only team ever to have done so at that point.

For the 1978 world cup, I actually had a favourite manager in Ally MacLeod. It is not a popular view, but I think that having somebody who was very confident—perhaps overconfident—and positive about Scotland was a refreshing change from some of our previous managers.

In 1982, I did not see any of the world cup matches, as I was in the Falklands. I possessed a high-frequency radio, so many people came to me to find out what the scores were, but I never saw any of the matches until many months later.

However, I go back to that most recent match, with Scott McTominay opening the scoring very shortly after the start, and, to finish the job, the stoppage-time strikes from Kieran Tierney—I still think that that was the best of all the goals scored on that night; there were three fantastic goals to pick from—and from Kenny McLean, scoring from his own half, which sent Hampden into joyful mayhem.

The tartan army are the most passionate, positive and musical—and occasionally sunburnt—supporters on earth. From Mount Florida to Munich, they carry Scotland and our hopes with them. At the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee last week, we heard about the good job that they did for Scotland and its international reputation at last year’s European championships. We fully expect that they will do the same for us in north America next year.

As we celebrate this achievement, however, it is worth remembering that Scotland’s football story did not begin in 1872, or even in 1978 with Archie Gemmill’s hip-swivelling heroics. Our footballing heritage stretches back over almost five centuries. Just a few miles from my constituency sits Stirling castle, where, in 1981, workers repairing the Queen’s chamber found a small leather ball stuffed with a pig’s bladder wedged high in the rafters; it had been there since the 1540s. Today, it is recognised as the world’s oldest surviving football and is proudly displayed at the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum.

In 2006, that same Stirling football went to the FIFA world cup, even though Scotland did not. It was there not to be kicked about, thankfully, but as part of a special exhibition in Germany celebrating the origins of the global game. Even before our modern national team made its return to the biggest stage, a wee leather ball from Stirling castle had already flown the flag for Scotland at a world cup. Would it not be fitting if, at the next world cup, the oldest football in the world was once again piped on at the opening ceremony of the north American games?

It also speaks to something bigger: that Scotland has not just played, but shaped, football. Indeed, in my view, Scotland invented football. When the modern game began to spread around the world, it was often Scots who carried it. The so-called “Scotch professors”—players and coaches who travelled across Britain, Europe and south America in the late 19th century—taught the passing, team-based style that became the foundation of modern football.

One of them, Thomas Donohoe, even has a statue in Brazil to recognise his role in establishing the game there. It is quite something that, in the land of Pelé, they built a monument to a lad from Busby, and it is proof that Scotland’s influence on world football has been lasting, global and profound. I think that it is true to say that Pelé once said that Scotland invented football and Brazil perfected it.

It is a remarkable thing to stand in front of a ball that tells us that football in Scotland is not just a sport, but a thread woven through royalty and ordinary folk alike, through centuries of community life, long before offsides and the video assistant referee—VAR—and long before anyone shouted, “He’s no offside, referee—get your eyes checked” and all the stuff that we say these days. Somebody in Stirling castle leathered a ball that high to get it stuck on the roof. Perhaps it was miskicked by a courtier in an early attempt to avoid taking responsibility for a wayward pass. Nevertheless, it is hugely important that that ball—the oldest football in the world—was found in Scotland.

Just as it did with golf, Scotland gave the world the game of football. Ged O’Brien, the football professor, has referred to football being played in the 1500s in Scotland; indeed, there is reference to a game of football and attempts by landowners to stop the game being played.

So, when Andy Robertson goes up to lift the world cup, football will be truly “coming home”, as I think they call it. The humble leather ball connects the courtyard of Stirling castle to Hampden park and now to stadiums across north America.

Speaking of history, I should point out that Dunblane, in my constituency, has its own special place in Scotland’s world cup folklore. In 1978, the national team, before heading to Argentina, stayed at the Dunblane Hydro hotel—and who joined them? It was Rod Stewart, who recorded the world cup single “Ole Ola” with the squad. It was, in many ways, the most Scottish thing imaginable: a glamorous superstar, a hopeful squad and a song that still echoes through karaoke machines to this day—though never quite in tune.

I remind members who might not be aware—because I bought it, and I still have it as a 45 single—that one of the lines is, “Ole ola”—

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the contribution that community-led initiatives can make to supporting local government services and outcomes, and reducing demand through early intervention and prevention. (S6O-05267)

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I do not know whether my vote went through.

Thanks for that. You also mentioned the importance of scrutiny of the board in particular. The committee has had concerns in the past when it has tried to scrutinise the work of boards and there has sometimes been an evasiveness or a willingness to use their two different funders to obscure proper scrutiny, and almost a resentment at being held to account. That will not apply to all members of the board but to those who attend the committee.

Could you say anything about that? Is it just that there needs to be greater scrutiny by the board or does your review tell you that the organisation as a whole needs to better understand that it is being held to account and not shrink from that?

Have you seen Creative Scotland’s response to your review?

Thanks. My last question.

You were taken down the road of being asked about the cabinet secretary’s involvement earlier, to the surprise of nobody on the committee. However, your review was not a review of the cabinet secretary but a review of Creative Scotland. The answers that you gave referred to the two meetings that you had with the board, the recommendation that there should be greater working with the sponsorship team in the Scottish Government, and the fact that you had meetings with the cabinet secretary. Do you agree that that kind of engagement is pretty much the norm for such reviews?

Good morning. First, my single greatest achievement in my less than illustrious ministerial career was having haggis, albeit slightly modified, put back on sale in Canada. That was some years ago. We still have to crack the US market.

John Devine, as part of North America, are you making substantial plans for the world cup? There is the potential that Scotland could be based in Canada. Whether it is or not, if you look at what was done in Germany, the international office there started planning from the draw right the way through to where it always ends for Scotland: the group stage. The tournament surely provides a fantastic opportunity. Could you say anything about what preparations are in train so far?