Scottish FA visit to UEFA

The new president of the Scottish Football Association (SFA), Alan McRae, has visited the House of European Football in Nyon.

Mr McRae, who took the helm of the Scottish association in June, held talks with UEFA President Michel Platini and UEFA national association officials centring on European football developments and activities in one of Europe's most passionate footballing countries.

The Scottish FA is the second oldest in world football, behind England's Football Association. The association was born on 18 March 1873 at a meeting in Glasgow of representatives from seven clubs – Queen's Park, Clydesdale FC, Vale of Leven FC, Dumbreck FC, Third Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers FC, Glasgow Eastern FC and Granville FC, and with the written agreement of Kilmarnock FC.

Scotland's first international match took place on 30 November 1872 – the country's national St Andrew's Day – and the opponents were England, the 'Auld Enemy'. The game was soon to become Scotland's most popular sport, and the SFA still helps to guard its laws, together with the English, Welsh and Northern Irish associations within the International Football Association Board (IFAB), set up in 1886. The SFA joined the world football body FIFA in 1910, and was a founder member of UEFA in 1954.

Scottish players and coaches have left an impressive mark on the sport. In England in particular, players such as Denis Law, Billy Bremner and Kenny Dalglish, and coaches Sir Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Sir Alex Ferguson, have all made a lasting impact.

Three Scottish clubs have savoured European glory. Celtic, the 'Lisbon Lions', captured the European Champion Clubs' Cup in the Portuguese capital in 1967, while Rangers and Aberdeen lifted the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1972 and 1983 respectively. In recent years, Celtic were UEFA Cup runners-up in 2003, and Rangers finalists in the same competition in 2008.

Alan McRae has over three decades of experience in the Scottish game, initially as a player with Highland League side Cove Rangers FC, before he became the club’s chairman, president and honorary president. His involvement with the SFA dates from 1993, when he became a council member before serving as first vice-president.

Talks in Nyon focused, among other things, on UEFA's crucial support to the SFA through its HatTrick programme. "Due to the HatTrick programme," Mr McRae explained, "we have been able to widen our provision at grassroots level through our Strong Quality Growth area of the strategic plan 'Scotland United: A 2020 Vision' – with particular focus on equality in football to increase accessibility for girls and women, and ethnic minority groups.

"The HatTrick support has also enabled us to more than double the number of registered players from 65,000 to over 140,000."

A proud football nation, Scotland and its city Glasgow are gearing up to play host to three group matches and one round of 16 game at UEFA EURO 2020 – the 'EURO for Europe' – and the Scots yearn to take part on the field in this innovative event. With Scotland still in the race to reach the UEFA EURO 2016 final round as well, Alan McRae dreams along with his compatriots of joining 23 other teams in France next summer.

"'Scotland United: A 2020 Vision' has given us a roadmap towards [EURO 2020]," said the SFA president. "It is our ambition that the national team qualifies for the finals with graduates from the regional performance school programme, which is now in its fourth year, and where around 400 of the country's most talented young players receive an extra eight hours of skills development per week as part of the curriculum in seven schools across Scotland.

"In order to maximise the prospect of elite talent development," Mr McRae reflected, "we need to provide more opportunities at grassroots level, more hours of practice and, of course, more high-quality 3G [artificial turf] facilities that are able to be used year-round. This is our commitment and responsibility to the national game."