Generate a buzz
WHEN Kenny McLean looked up from halfway, ignored EVERY piece of advice being bellowed from all four corners of Hampden and scored one of the greatest goals in the history of Scottish football, he did more than merely clinch World Cup qualification for a nation that had been waiting 27 years for that precious prize. He shifted the centre of gravity for the entire 2026 sporting calendar.
Not least in the context of Scotland’s media.The FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the USA is going to dominate our sports pages, broadcast bulletins, podcasts and blogs from now until about, oh, at least a fortnight after Steve Clarke’s team have arrived home from their (hopefully) heroic adventures against Haiti, Morocco and Brazil. Every other football game – from Scottish Premiership fixtures to Under-21 friendlies – will be viewed through the prism of Clarke’s selection process, with pundits and punters alike free to argue long into the wee small hours over who should and shouldn’t be on the plane to the States.
They’re going to have to be creative
As for the other sporting events that, in any other year, might have been guaranteed to generate major mainstream media coverage? They’re going to have to get creative, if they’re not to be completely eclipsed by a feverish football frenzy.
It will take something special to generate a buzz around our best and brightest heading to the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, for example. Sure, we might all fall in love with curling for another week or so. But it’ll be a hard sell, in a year when Scott McTominay being substituted after 64 minutes of a Napoli game is likely to be back-page news.
Is it sacrilege, then, to suggest that even the Commonwealth Games – being hosted at a reduced price and much-reduced scale by Glasgow – might struggle to generate excitement in the build-up to an even that SHOULD be an easy sell, given the brilliance of Team Scotland’s brightest stars?
The World Cup Final is on July 19. The same day as the final round of The Open Championship, although the time difference between the USA and UK means there is unlikely to be an overlap; just get the Claret Jug handed over by 7.45pm and everyone will be happy with a 15-minute comfort break before kick-off.
Glasgow 2026 gets underway just four days later. Plenty of time, you’d think, for everyone to switch on.
The oxygen of publicity
The issue is that, in a Games year, there is usually a rhythm to the build-up. Qualification events. An athletics calendar that allows the media to tell readers/viewers/listeners how the biggest Team Scotland personalities – Olympic medal winners among them – are performing. While introducing the public to new faces.
That rhythm will be disrupted by the World Cup. And plenty of other sports will find themselves denied the oxygen of publicity that governing bodies, clubs and sponsors all need to keep the circus ticking over.
That’s not to say the challenges presented will be insurmountable. But doing the same old same old definitely won’t work, in a year guaranteed to be dominated by the after effects of THAT November night on Mount Florida.