George Burley today annoinced his line up for the forthcoming FIFA World Cup 2010 Qualifiers against Netherlands and Iceland.
Goalkeepers
Craig Gordon (Sunderland)
Allan McGregor (Rangers)
David Marshall (Norwich City)
Defenders
Graham Alexander (Burnley)
Darren Barr (Falkirk)
Christophe Berra (Wolverhampton W.)
Kirk Broadfoot (Rangers)
Gary Caldwell (Celtic)
Alan Hutton (Tottenham Hotspur)
Jamie McAllister (Bristol City)
Stephen McManus (Celtic)
Gary Naysmith (Sheffield United)
David Weir (Rangers)
Midfield
Scott Brown (Celtic)
Kris Commons (Derby County)
Barry Ferguson (Rangers)
Darren Fletcher (Manchester United)
Paul Hartley (Celtic)
James Morrison (West Bromwich Albion)
Gavin Rae (Cardiff City)
Gary Teale (Derby County)
Forwards
David Clarkson (Motherwell)
Steven Fletcher (Hibernian)
Chris Iwelumo (Wolverhampton W.)
Ross McCormack (Cardiff City)
Kenny Miller (Rangers)
The Netherlands v Scotland
Amsterdam Arena, Amsterdam
Saturday, 28th March, 2009 - Kick-off 8.45 pm
Scotland v Iceland
The National Stadium, Hampden Park, Glasgow
Wednesday 1st April, 2009 - Kick-off 8pm
FIFA have finally recognised James McFadden’s goal in Iceland. FIFA had mistakenly credited Barry Robson from Celtic as scoring the goal despite TV evidence that McFadden was the last touch before the goal.
The SFA represented McFadden’s case to FIFA after providing the evidence. FIFA have finally agreed to change their records, which brings McFadden’s records to 42 appearances for Scotland, 14 goals.
Gordon Smith commented in an interview with the Sunday Mail “FIFA have rightly changed the records. We felt this was only fair”.
JOINT STATEMENT FROM:
The Association of Tartan Army clubs (ATAC - Scotland)
Football Supporters Federation (FSF - England)
Football Supporters Federation Cymru (FSF - Wales) and
Amalgamation of Official NI Fans Clubs (AONISC - Northern Ireland)
How do you trust the man that can’t be trusted?
The No Team GB campaign notes that Jim Murphy, the Scottish Secretary, is the latest politician to jump on the pro-team GB bandwagon and to peddle worthless assurances.
Following their meeting with the FIFA General Secretary, Jerome Valcke, NoTeamGB.com calls upon Mr Murphy and Andy Burnham to explain how they feel able to trust the footballing fate of all four home nations to the word of a man who has already been dismissed from FIFA (Dec 2006)[1] for, by his own admission, telling a “commercial lie”[2] during sponsorship negotiations where he deliberately lied to two competing parties, and who has been certified as a “serial liar” by a New York judge[3].
Much has been made of Mr Murphy’s talks by the media in the UK, however the fundamental flaw in this so-called assurance has been largely brushed over. Mr Valcke has absolutely no authority to offer such a “categorical assurance” and in fact nobody within FIFA or any other body for that matter has such authority. FIFA is a democracy and it is the elected members from national football associations, the committees appointed by those elected members and the FIFA Congress that decide on policy and not the likes of Mr Valcke who is pure and simply the footballing equivalent of a civil servant.
Indeed, Mr Valcke’s comments are actually directly at odds with those of his superior at FIFA, Sepp Blatter, who, in March 2008, stated “If you start to put together a combined team for the Olympics, the question will automatically come up that there are four different associations so how can they play in one team".
Mr Murphy is adamant in his view that these assurances pave the way for a football Team GB to take part in the Olympics without detriment to the individual nations. However, this being the case, it is quite astonishing that the Secretary of State, a Westminster MP, has felt the need to conduct this meeting (on an issue which has been devolved to the Scottish Parliament) in secret and with no involvement from the SFA, the FAW, the IFA or the FA, the very organisations which are at risk of vanishing should this go ahead. It is clear that, whilst Mr Valcke’s role at FIFA may have changed following his initial dismissal and subsequent near biblical resurrection to the upper echelons of the organisation, his clandestine negotiating tactics have not!
NoTeamGB.com spokesman, Tam Ferry said “once again, we have a politician claiming that this should be a football decision made by football people, yet once again they have undermined the standing of the national associations by going to FIFA behind their backs. Mr Murphy claims that this is "…a new reassurance and commitment from FIFA” and that he looks “…forward to them honouring it", however, he’s conveniently ignoring the previous comments from Sepp Blatter who pointed out that a Team GB will “put into question all the privileges that the British associations have been given by the Congress in 1946." We applaud the responses from the SFA and FAW and strongly encourage them and the IFA to maintain their position on this issue”.
Contact
Tam Ferry – NoTeamGb.com Scotland (07984 510033)
Gary McAllister - NoTeamGB.com Northern Ireland (07760 233011)
Simon Johnston – NoTeamGB.com Scotland (07967 102588)
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