7. An International Stage For Great Players
There have been far too many British players who deserved the chance to play in a World Cup or European Championship, but where denied the opportunity because the players around them were not of the same quality. The likes of George Best of Northern Ireland and Ryan Giggs of Wales never got to play in an international tournament. It is a tragedy that these great players never got the chance to compete for something on an international scale; Best is often mentioned alongside Pele and Maradonna as one of the greatest players of all time, sadly this is a sentiment that I and any other people can not agree with due to the fact that the other two the driving forces behind their countries winning the World Cup, they lit up the biggest stage of them all and displayed the best of their abilities in the elite competition of their sport. Scotland are the last side other than England to qualify for a major competition and at on point some would have argued that they weren;t far behind the three lions in terms of quality. However they have not qualified for a tournament since France 98 and the days of Kenny Dalglish and Greame Souness are long gone. Like those in the Welsh and Northern Ireland squads no current Scottish player has any tournament experience, they do not no what it is like to play in a competitions that matters too the fans. This situation cannot be allowed to continue, it is a crime that Giggs never got to play in a major tournament the shame should not be allowed to happen to the likes of Gareth Bale. Whilst it could never take the place of playing on the worlds biggest stage, at least the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish players will have the chance to player in a competition with some tangible meaning, something that will matter to the fans and with luck maybe the experience will spur them on to qualify for one of the big two competitons.