Scottish football bosses must heed Barry Hearn’s warning

Once upon a time, darts was a niche sport going nowhere.

It was played in dingy clubs, players knocked back pints of heavy and nips of vodka during games and it was only shown on TV once or twice a year. Then Barry Hearn came along.

Now, instead of smoke-filled bar rooms, darts is played in 10,000-seat arenas. Instead of getting more legless with each leg, players sip mineral water on the oche.

And instead of the occasional broadcast on the BBC, Sky beams the game to millions, having paid millions for the rights.

It’s proof that Barry Hearn is a genius when it comes to sports marketing. And that’s why it is crucial that his controversial speech at the SFA Convention in midweek does not go unheeded.

In destroying the SPFL for their failure to attract a headline sponsor, he doubtless put a few noses out of joint.

In effect, he’d been invited to Scottish football’s party, only to swipe the cake off the table and call the host a numpty.

But, in truth, his message was one the game’s administrators needed to hear, however unpalatable they may have found it.

That message, that those trying to sell the Scottish game are too negative too hung up on what they don’t have rather than emphasising what they do rings true with me.

Okay, Rangers, Hearts and Hibs aren’t in the top league at the moment everybody knows that. But what about Celtic? They’re still there.

What about Aberdeen and Dundee United, two big clubs, battling it out with the Bhoys at the top of the table?

What about Inverness Caley Thistle, the underdogs, the amalgamation of two Highland League sides now at the peak of a fairytale climb through the leagues?

What about packaging all of that with the big guns who have slumped into the Championship and are battling to get back to the top?

They are the stories that should be talked up by the folk trying to pitch our sport to investors because they’re the kind of stories investors should want to hitch themselves to.

Scotland may not have the riches of the English Premier League, it may not have the megastars of La Liga, and it may not have the crowds of the Bundesliga.

But what it does have is a long, rich football tradition to draw upon and a fanatical love of the game.

If the top dogs at Hampden can’t sell that, then for me, Barry Hearn is right. They deserve to be out of a job.