⚽ The Saturday Kick-Off - What Happens Next?
Some serious and not so serious questions ahead of a busy summer in Scottish football.
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Something a bit different, and slightly more question led.
THE WORLD CUP
WHO PLAYS?
An obvious question to begin with. The biggest question marks will be who starts at centre half, the make-up of the midfield, and whether anyone can usurp Che Adams as the starting striker.
In defence, the favourites to start will be Hanley and McKenna. For Morocco and/or Brazil, will we see Clarke revert to a back three?
In midfield, Billy Gilmour never started the opening game of UEFA EURO 2024 or UEFA EURO 2020. Lewis Ferguson started in Gilmour’s absence against Denmark and started ahead of him in the Greece home game. Is it a case of one of Billy or Lewis starting, or do both find a way into the starting XI?
There is a lot of clamour for Lawrence Shankland to start against Haiti. Can he get in ahead of Che Adams, who will be the favourite to start?
DO WE GET OUT OF THE GROUP?
Does the hoodoo end this time? Three points with a reasonably ok goal difference should be ok. This is the year, isn’t it? Isn’t it?
JUST HOW BUSY ARE SOME OF THESE FAN ZONES IN SCOTLAND GOING TO BE?
Our opening game against Haiti kicks off at 2am - from the Hydro in Glasgow to local pubs across the country, events and watch parties have been organised with many charging tickets. Some tickets are more pricey than others - it will be interesting to see how popular the larger ones with the higher price points are.
WILL SCOTLAND FANS SEE THE ‘MITIGATION OF COSTS’ BY THE SCOTTISH FA?
In an interview with the BBC’s Chris McLaughlin, Scottish FA president Mike Mulraney said, “Our job is how we mitigate the costs for our fans, and that’s something we’re working on,” when he was asked about the concerns fans had raised and whether the governing body would say anything to FIFA about the soaring costs.