Why we're not good at football anymore.

This scene is mid-Saturday morning in Haddington.

There are 6 lovely football pitches in this area, all empty! Not a player in sight.

These pitches are all in lovely condition: flat, short grass and slightly soft underfoot.

When I was a schoolboy growing up in the West of Scotland we played our organised football on the old blaize pitches (a by-product of the shale industry, and endorsed by the Marquiss de Sade and The Institute of Plastic Surgeons) and had the scar tissue to prove it. We would have wet ourselves with excitement had we been allowed near one of these lovely grassy fields.

That was back when Scotland qualified for World Cups all the time...