Things you would love to see return

[Stupie82]

In the modern game it is clear that it has lost some, if not all of its nostalgia. What would you like to see return to the game that has long since been missing?

 

For me : Terracing, 10 minute half time breaks and black fitba boots!

[BigAl]

Competent referees that have earned respect from players and fans alike

[Ten Caat]

Referees that have the bottle to award penalties because of all the wrestling that goes on at corners and free kicks near the box. This has become a cancer in the game with defenders grappling attackers almost rugby tackling them.

The refs cant be unaware this is happening TV highlights show it up every week and there is no way the ref can be unsighted from 10 yards away or less.

This could be wiped out in a matter of weeks with a rash of penalties awarded and a dose of yellow/red cards for the offenders.

[manc_don]

Competent referees that have earned respect from players and fans alike

 

Very much this.  It's enough to put you off watching games when you know certain referees minds have been made up even before a ball has been kicked.  Oh and having competent people run the game. SFA / SPFL are a complete oxygen thieves.

[RicoS321]

Competent referees that have earned respect from players and fans alike

 

The thread is about things you'd like to see return, not things you'd like to see that have never existed.

[MálagaSheep]

3pm kick offs every team, every Saturday!

 

Fuck off TV

[Madbadteacher]

^^^This, so much this!

[Therealsouthstander]

I'd love for the old Rangers to return so we can get back to hating them properly.

 

 

I really don't have hatred for them yet..

 

 

Hopefully this will change soon

[donsdaft]

I'm afraid some things are just impossible.

They're dead, you're just going to have to come to terms with it.

[OxfordDon]

Players with moustaches.

[MálagaSheep]

International qualifiers played on a wednesday night and no this fucking two games a week pish,

 

Also pointless international friendlies played at the end of the season

 

Also players picked playing international fitba that are playing week in and week out and preferably Scottish and playing in Scotland

 

[rocket_scientist]

WYOWYN's on a daily basis.

 

Preferably on seven threads, one for each day of the week, adding to them appropriately.

[rocket_scientist]

I'd love for the old Rangers to return so we can get back to hating them properly.

 

 

I really don't have hatred for them yet..

 

 

Hopefully this will change soon

 

This will help you revert back to healthy hate.

 

Think of the fans rather than the corporate entity.

 

I assure you that nothing has changed.

 

The vileness is consistent. The antithesis of the NE.

[BigAl]

The thread is about things you'd like to see return, not things you'd like to see that have never existed.

 

Hear fit you're saying Rico, but for those of us old enough to remember I give you Tiny Wharton.

 

========================================================================

 

CONVENTIONAL wisdom dictates that a football referee has had a good game if he goes through the 90 minutes relatively unnoticed, but it was difficult not to notice Tom Wharton as he strode imperiously across the football field - a commentary on his stature rather than any criticism of his officiating.

 

He was a tall and imposing figure who brooked no nonsense from those players under his control, and was affectionately nicknamed Tiny because, at 6ft 4in, he towered above all around him.

 

Wharton took up refereeing shortly after the warwhen a referee failed to put in an appearance for a game in which Tom was due to play. The Juvenile and Churches Leagues of Dennistoun and the east end of Glasgow were his learning grounds when he qualified as a referee in 1948, rapidly rising through the ranks to become a class one official in 1951 - one of the youngest ever.

 

He had the air of authority about him and few players were brave enough to test that resolve. Unfailingly courteous, he addressed players as "Mister" and expected the same in return, although conceding that it was sometimes politic for a referee to have selective deafness.

 

He was a colossus of a man with a rare sense of humour. In one tense and tight game he arrived in the penalty area just in time to see the ball out of play, awarding a corner-kick.

 

Protests from defenders that it should be a goal-kickwere met with the stern rebuke: "I've just sprinted 50 yards to follow play.

 

If you think I'm now going to sprint back another 50 yards to take up position for a goal-kick you're off your head."

 

Levels of fitness required of referees may have changed, but Wharton once gave the perfect answer to criticism that he was seldom up with play: "If you can't see a foul from 20 yards you can't see it from two."

 

Like most referees, he never liked to order off any player - memorably putting his arm around Celtic's Jimmy Johnstone as he invited him to take an early bath at Ibrox on Ne'erday 1965 for a wild kick at Rangers' Icelandic inside-forward Therolf Beck. Five years later in another tousy Old Firm encounter, he separated warring players, seemingly determined to keep both sides at full strength only to lose his patience finally with Alex McDonald.

 

Wharton was acclaimed by the German media when in the mid-sixties he ordered off three players in a European tie - one of no fewer than 23 competitive international club fixtures he took charge of, including the 1962 European Cup-Winners' Cup final between Atletico Madrid and Fiorentina. That 1-1 draw at Hampden Parkwas a pale shadow of the legendary Real Madrid v Eintracht Frankfurt European Champions' Cup final held at the same venue two years earlier, and refereed by his colleague, Jack Mowat - a clear indication of the respect with which Scottish referees were regarded across the globe four decades ago.

 

All-English ties in the old Inter-Cities Fairs Cup saw Wharton called upon to officiate in Everton v Manchester United in 1964-65, and Leeds United v Liverpool at the penultimate stage in 1970-71.

 

He took charge of four Scottish Cup finals - three Old Firm finals in 1963, 1966 and 1971, all of which went to replays, along with the 1962 Rangers v St Mirren clash, and four League Cup finals in 1960-61, 1962-63, 196667 and 1970-71 (the latter two being also Rangers v Celtic ties) .

 

For all of the intensity surrounding those eight Old Firm meetings there was precious little controversy surrounding them. Wharton took charge of 16 international fixtures in an era when such games were much less frequent than today.

 

He made his debut on the international scene at Windsor Park, Belfast, on April 22, 1959, aged just 31, the home side defeating Wales 4-0.

 

When Brazil, as defending champions, were preparing with their customary thoroughness for the 1966 World Cup finals to be held in England, not only did they arrange friendlies against Scotland and Wales, they also sent for Wharton to referee two matches in Rio de Janeiro against Wales and Chile in order that they would also have experience of British officials.

 

After taking charge of the 1971 Scottish Cup final, Tom Wharton bowed out, following 21 years as a top-class referee, in Gothenburg with Sweden's 1-0 defeat of West Germany in the Ullevi Stadium.

 

He was appointed a referee supervisor upon his retirement and later joined the SFA Referees Committee for 28 years, the last 13 as chairman. A member of Fifa's referee committee from 1981-90, he also served as a Fifa refereeing instructor, and he received the Fifa Order of Merit in Gold in 1992.

 

An excellent and hardworking administrator, Wharton also played an invaluable role as deputy chairman of the Football Trust, assisting many clubs with funding for ground improvements.

 

Away from football, Wharton was a successful businessman in the steel industry and a keen bowler.

 

Wharton is survived by his wife, Cathy, four daughters and a grandson.

 

Tom Wharton, football referee;

 

born November 3, 1927, died May 9, 2005.

[RicoS321]

Hear fit you're saying Rico, but for those of us old enough to remember I give you Tiny Wharton.

 

 

Aye, but wis he a hun?

[cupidstunt]

The 80's

 

 

[Stupie82]

Adding to my OP

 

Football strips without names on the back, without thon SPL badges on them and the return of decent retro style strips!!

[Jute]

Qualifying for Euros and World Cups although I doubt my liver would survive a tournament these days.

[tom_widdows]

Half times WITHOUT cheer-leaders

[CvB]

rattles and bunnets....or maybe just the good old airhorn....

 

paaaaaap paaaaaaap pap pap pap, pap pap pap pap "The Dons"

 

"You're Christmas Trees, you're Christmas trees.....you wear your scarves down to your knees"

[MálagaSheep]

Gordon Strachan the player, no the tit of a man he is now!

[Stupie82]

Gordon Strachan the player, no the tit of a man he is now!

 

I will add McGhee onto this too.

[BigAl]

I will add McGhee onto this too.

 

Beat me to it

[1903_Redz]

Players with normal legs instead of these ones that pollute the game now with their legs that collapse at the slightest touch. The awarding of free kicks every 15 secs drives me insane.

 

I'd also like to see the return of sit where you like stands. The South Stand was great back in the 80's imo.

 

Someone mentioned shirts with no names, i also preferred the old 1 to 11 numbering system. You knew where a player was supposed to be playing due to the number on his back.

[RicoS321]

Someone mentioned shirts with no names, i also preferred the old 1 to 11 numbering system. You knew where a player was supposed to be playing due to the number on his back.

 

One of the amateur managers I played under would switch the left and right back's shirt numbers to "confuse" the opposition. It never worked.