This Podcast Is... Uncalled For - Gerry Strain (World Cup Special)

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

Today we're joined by Gerry Strain, a Scottish football expert with lots of skin in the beautiful game.  We talk about the World Cup, the historic significance of Aston Villa winning the Europa League title, the monopoly of Celtic and Rangers in Scottish football, and comparisons to American sports.

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Just press play. Once again, this is this podcast, I'm called for. And I have another great guest with me today. so you've got to introduce yourself from my audience please no problem thank you very much Mike my name's jerry strain I'm based in Glasgow in Scotland and the United Kingdom and I'm formerly sporting director at Hamilton Academical and I've been a football agent I've been a field footballer I tried to make the grade I got so far and then realized it wasn't good enough and I was told it wasn't good enough so I saw a career elsewhere in the game

I've had an eventful career, both in football and business. And I'm happy to share all openly with you. All right, excellent. So, yeah, as we were talking before, we started the recording. We're recording this about 24 hours after Assonville won the Europa League. Tremendous. Yeah. It's good to see.

Really good to see. Mm-hmm. now being the American I have a limited idea of just how consequential this particular club is but from a British point of view could you add a little more context to what we witnessed yesterday oh unbelievable I think in my lifetime I'm 40 46 and so when I grew up the teams that you would look up to and admire would be Aston Villa at Spreech Town,

Knott's Forest, Liverpool. They were the main teams. And then obviously the fan behaviour led to a ban for English clubs from Europe. And since then,

you know, obviously there was no English participation so there was a significant period of time without any English team winning at that level. But I think to see Aston Villa get back to those highs, especially after being relegated to the championship.

I just think it's absolutely fantastic. They've got John McGinn there, who's a Scotsman as well. He's a talisman for them. And it's just really good to see. They're a great club. They're a massive club. You know, and the trajectory they're on now is really good to witness. Yeah.

Yeah, it's a great tear. I know they are one of six English teams who have won what is now, the Champions League. formerly the European Cup. And yeah, a couple of those other teams you mentioned, Nyingford and Liverpool or two others. Yeah. What's your motivation for following them?

It doesn't make me asking. Okay, yeah, that's a great question. I got into English football, about 2010-ish. And I limited, I narrowed it down to a couple of clubs just because they sounded good. One was Assyllilla, another was Arsenal. yeah and another one still was a shift of wednesday right okay wow yeah so uh for a while i was leaning more towards arsenal but uh being a st louis ram fan in the american football

and uh seeing that scumbag cronky literally by my team out of st louis i was like no i can't be a full-blown arsenal fan so uh up the villa up the villa And then you've got the Dabai County of the Rams over here. You know, so that's another club that could be close to your heart. That's their nicknames of their arms. Obviously, they're not successful as Aston Villa have been, you know, but in terms of association by name, you could maybe adopt them. Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, you got your feature king and William is a big fan, Tom Hanks, big fan. Also American, yeah. The band Duran Duran are all fans, Ozzy Osbourne. My Heroes in Peace was a fan as well. So big fans behind Assonville Football Club.

It's well, it's good. It won't make the success continue. They deserve it. They're a good big club. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Scotland, said you mentioned you are Scottish. Celtic Rangers, I think, of the big two, right? Yeah, I think that's a social, that's a social situation that the geopolitics of Scotland,

you know, is you had the Irish immigration to Scotland, the potato farming, and the Irish diaspora, you know, that led to, brother Welford who founded Celtic. It set that up to feed the poor people of the East Ender Glasgow. It wasn't just Catholics. But Celtic became known as a more kind of Catholic-focused club. And then you could raise it would be the establishment club. And the demographic of Scotland was that you had Catholics and Protestants essentially

in both sides. Celtic have never been a, to my knowledge, they've never been a purely Catholic club. you know, they feel like the greatest players and the greatest influences at Celtic. They've been non-Catholic, Jopstein, Kennedy, Eglish and so on.

But the tribal line that runs through Scotland tends to feel something that's not as unique. It's bigotry. It's bigotry. We call it for it, as it's bigotry and it's racism.

And it's not nice, but there's money. in it. You know, there's money in it and you've got one side that's pro-British identity and you get one side that's anti-establishment. That's in very, very simple terms. It's not everyone shares those values and opinions, but

that's where the marketability of it is that's where the atmosphere comes from, that's where the nastiness and rivalry comes from. And my own opinion, I grew up a Celtic fan. Celtic basically, Celtic Rangers pick you as a kid. You know, depending on your family. Right. You tend to find that Celtic Rangers pick you,

particularly if you live in Glasgow. And I grew up a Celtic fan, but it's, you know, as a 46-year-old adult, the kind of tribalisms is no nice, especially when you're a dad. And then having worked in Scottish football with a provincial club with a very, very small fan base, you actually see the damage that the club agree up supporting in Rangers cause

because they take fans away from from other clubs you know so they there's this there's very very few again from my experience that there's very few Celtic Rangers fans would would go out with to support other clubs but there's four you know the number of football clubs in Scottish football don't get me wrong the tendencies are the highest per capita in Europe for games so there is a

desire to watch the product but the split of the money and the revenue is just not fair you know it's Celtic Rangers got everything that's going more so Celtic just now it would appear to be that Celtic get the Robby the Green pardon upon

they seem to be riding the crest of their wave where a lot of decisions go in Celtics' favour and they're the most successful club certainly this century but

Rangers have got a really kind of staunch and loyal fan base that follow them everywhere but that's not just Scottish football so from that's I find that a frustration right which is ironic

because I've grown up a Celtic fan and followed them everywhere you almost wonder how good Scottish football could really be if the rest of the teams had a parity. Right. So some of the things that I wanted to see, it would never happen, but in golf you have a handicap situation.

I would genuinely like to see, you know, like this year Livingston get relegated. I would like to see the likes of Livingston in St. Mirren and Coomarnock operating a handicap system not the Scottish Premier League operating a handicap system based on

realistic revenue streams that they can achieve Right Celtics turnovers It's not a lot To be comparative terms to the Premier League in maybe America

But say Celtics turnovers 100 or million pounds You have a team in the same league Who's to turnovers a fraction of that They don't have any realistic opportunity to compete which I think is unfair

I don't think there's any sporting integrity in that so I think you have to find a way of getting a balancing act and certainly as a it would give other clubs a chance to get European revenue because dependent if there was a handicap system say which it wouldn't work because we'd too much objection to it

but you know in a in a holistic and ideal world right everyone's sharing the same table and having the same opportunity it's not the way Celtic have been dominant for so long they've had all the Champions League money

and it's basically giving them a cushion everyone else this year Heart of England running really close it went to the last game pretty much the last kick of the ball and Hart's almost won the league and that would have been arguably better

for Scottish football because no one out with Celtic Rangers has won the league for so long right I know so it's a bit of a it's a bit of a clothes shop which is a which is something as an American I'm very familiar with

because all of our sports leagues operating a closed shop system the NFL, Major League Baseball NBA, NBA, NHL and yes, even Major League Soccer. Yeah. It's a closed shop. What I find disappointing was

obviously being involved in Scottish football I attended a meeting at the national stadium and there was a chap who he's on both boards of the league and the association. And there was a bit of a bit of conversation. I wouldn't say debate, but this conversation ensued. And I was representing my club on the basis that I believed that we had the same entitlement or vote as, say, South Carangers. And his view was that I had to understand that Scottish football consisted of three components

Celtic Rangers and everyone else right and that really piss me off because that's just I just think that's wrong I don't think that's representative of a fair football and environment I don't think that if you're going to

if all you can sell is Celtic and Rangers then I don't think that commercially you're representing the rest of Scottish football you know the way that it could be that's just my opinion now I know that Celtic and Rangers command the global audience because

the diaspora, you know, America, Australia, Canada, whatever. So I know there's a global demand for it. But surely to God you have to take the rest of your product and promote it and make it better. That's just my feeling on it. I think there has to be fairness for another club. And what's company like now

with Celtic winning the league again, albeit they deserve it. Martin Anil with the current coach, who I know he's a lovely guy he's dragged Celtic out they got her twice this season so they arguably they deserve to in the league

the team that finishes top tends to deserve it but it was a chance for Scottish football to be different this year perhaps if Hart's had won it could get Champions League money it makes next season more competitive you know give Celtic something else to consider out with Rangers

and Rangers something else to consider out with Celtic I just think that maybe make it a better product instead of being about two clubs. Right. But how wrong am I? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think the best one,

I'm going to use baseball as an example of what we're talking about here. Celtic Rangers could probably be seen as like Yankees, Red Sox. Yeah. Whereas, yeah, they got the biggest revenues. Them and the Dodgers. I'll throw them in as well, whereas teams like my hometown team, Kansas City Royals, the A's who are in between cities, Tampa Bay, Miami, those cities, they get far less revenue-wise, and that affects their ability to attract good players and such. And because we're not in a promotion and relegation system with baseball, the bad teams are... are free to, this is one of the disadvantages of having a close league system, I think.

The bad teams are allowed to be bad for years on end and maybe occasionally gets to a championship. Like, again, I'm going to use the Royals as an example. They won it in 2015 and have not done well since. They got to the playoffs a couple seasons ago, but didn't really compete. actually you're safe there's a safety net there that doesn't exist I mean we had Livingston relegated this year

they're a very well run club they've got a great manager a guy called Dave Martindale he's an amazing coach with great emotional intelligence but they they won the league last year came up and they've gone straight back down again

because the budget disparity is so significant on the other hand you got Falkirk who came up in the finish in the top six. You know, but I don't know what Falkirk are spending in wages, certainly have not, I wasn't close enough to it, but it's very,

it's not normal that a team would win promotion and then go straight into the top six. That's a phenomenal achievement for Falkirk. They're a very well-run club, the guy Jamie Swinney who runs. He's a great chief exec. You know, he's a forward-thinking guy, very proactive. He's in it for the right. right reasons, you know, and that's, I think that's, um, the more clubs that, that you can promote

positively than I think the better, right? You've got to, you can't put all your eggs in one basket with Celtic and Rangers. It was only last, was it two years ago, they, you know, the, the, the, you know, the, the, the new European League. Oh, yes, yeah, the European Super league, yeah. So, you kind of tell me if Celtic Rangers were asked to you going to that, that they wouldn't accept. And the minute they do that, your games, what happens to your game, when you've put so much focus and emphasis on those two,

if they get a chance to move because they've got the fan base, they've got the commercial revenue appeal, quite rightly you'd argue they would go. And then, so your game's then left, in what type of position. And that's just where I think, I just think we need to be a bit more brave

and a bit more fair to, to other clubs. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So, yeah, and we've got the World, of course, we've got the World Cup coming here to the States this summer. In fact, next month, and I'll be releasing this episode during the World Cup. So.

So. Have you got anything in first match? Oh, man. So, so Kansas City, we're hosting the English club. or the English national team we're hoping to Argentina and we're hosting the Netherlands. Wow.

That'll be, that'll be, you're certainly good supporters there. You know, there would be good ideas. Oh, yeah. I was just reading in our local news that's the Dutch,

they're planning to march through downtown Kansas City to wrap up support for the Dutch national team and it's that's going to be interesting to see I think they bring

they bring a tremendous support and tremendous colour is just big orange wall you know and they've got a fancy dance and they're special fans

the Dutch they're very special fans yeah they're good people yeah and I said we have the England team

is actually staying fairly close my house actually so that's pretty cool to think about and you know then and we got and there they'll be and i i know we're all three of the training grounds are going to be so england's training at swore park which is on our which is the bad part of town if you if i want to describe it that way uh argentina they're training uh near uh sporting park the um the sporting kansas City Stadium. And the Dutch, they're training at the

women's facility in our Northland. So has there been a significant investment in the sporting infrastructure there in Kansas? So, Kansas City, yeah, we got

we have a temporary solution for our transit needs to get fans doing from the games and all that. We just didn't a slight extension of our streetcar systems. We have a one-line streetcar or tram, I guess would be the British term for that. Servicing our downtown and major urban core.

But I'll be honest, outside of what they're playing for the World Cup, our public transit here just done quite cutting. I don't think. especially being out in the suburbs like I am the United States is so car dependent that you pretty much have to drive everywhere if you're out in the suburbs good luck trying to get a bus

I'll be interesting to see how the fans get on when they're trying to attend the matches because I think the big complaint we're hearing here in Scotland was that the cost of tickets Oh yeah that too I've heard that complaints that it's too expensive for the average

fan to afford tickets anymore and certainly for something like the World Cup. It's getting to the point that it's like the Super Bowl and that the Super Bowl is ridiculously expensive to attend. No, that makes perfect sense in terms of, you know, really pitching it.

It's a gold mine, isn't it? You know, it's a commercial gold mine. But you look at the The UK, certainly economically in the UK, it's not the most positive of times just now, particularly what's going on with Iran and the cost of fuel and so on. Oh, yeah, yeah.

And the cost of a challenge here at the moment. Unemployment's quite high. So when you think you've got teams attending the World Cup and you look at the price of tickets, it's a bit of a hard one to justify. Yeah, especially the costs of, yeah, not just the tickets, but travel, getting to and from the states, okay, finding proper lodging, hotels and stuff. And since we're, since you brought up our worthless excuse of a president, you can tell him not a fan. and his

basically trying to make it as hard as possible to get into the United States if you're from certain countries like Iran and others. Yeah. Yeah, so they're projecting X number. It's not going to be X number. It's going to be X minus Y.

We're not going to see the type of fans showing up that I think a lot people are expecting because of all those factors. So you touched on something that I think is globally politics and football go hand in hand. Even though they shouldn't, you know, and Scotland's very political when it comes to when it comes to football and decision making. You know, I've had more issues with it with the, with the, with the, the Scottish Football Association that I'm addressing at the moment

through legal process and also through FIFA and it just seems to be that it's a very very political and hostile environment if you don't comply with you know what Big Brother says

you know or if you go against them you know you make a rod for your own back and you become a target and that just seems to be it's no unique to Scotland I don't think you know, you've touched on it with President Trump, you know, and the images of him with Infantino, you know, when you launched the World Cup was just pretty funny, you know.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that was funny, yeah, the FIFA Peace Prize because he'll never win a Nobel Peace Prize. FIFA just to say, oh, let's make up a prize just to appease this guy. To go his sharp against. Right. Yeah. And this was before he decided, oh,

I'm going bomb Iran. It's just incredible, isn't it? Yeah. You think the world we live in, it should be peaceful. It should. I should. Absolutely. I agree.

And hopefully we'll get to more peaceful in a couple of years with the Olympics, also being in the States. Yeah. Yeah, that'll be fascinating. Yeah. But, all right. do you have any closing thoughts because I'm about to wrap this up?

I just think that America is such a privileged environment. Over here we look at it is land the opportunity. I think if you're involved in football from the knowledge that I have of it, that's the kind of place to be or the place to go. It's certainly it's where I see myself going

with my career. Once I address these fit and proper issues that I've got with the SFA. I've got, I think, you know, just for context, there was some contracts over here that my name appeared on

and it's not my signature that is next to it. Oh, wow. So that's something that the police have picked up on and they're investigating and we've had to go and get forensic handwriting experts to verify,

firstly, that it is not my signature and to give us an inkling of who they think was the signatory based on other hand right we've got. So there's a whole load of process I have to go through before I can get myself into the opportunity that I want

but it has to be America. You know, it's an up-and-coming market, emerging market. The women's games really taking off there as well. We have KC Currants as our local team, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's phenomenal. And I just think that, I love America as a country, you know, I've been so many times.

Young cousin was educated at MIT. So particularly East Coast, you know, I've got a good bit of familiarity with that. It's vast. It's just vast. And I like the way to go about things with the commercial side of it. You know, that actually funds a pretty decent lifestyle. You know, if you're getting at the right time. You know, what you're doing yourself around that piece of you getting involved?

Yeah. Yeah, so for me, I just support my local teams. I support my local. We have a good amateur side here in Kansas City, so we got a good amateur league going on. I support one of those clubs. Your tendencies, don't you? Your tendencies are quite good, aren't they, in Kansas?

Yeah, sporting draws pretty good crowds. Yeah, and all that they have. Certainly since moving into that stadium in 2010, 2011 around there. And, yeah, especially when they've been good and winning titles, which they're not pretty good right now. Actually, a funny fact about our current sporting team. One of their players, my day job is I teach chess and I help run chess tournaments.

Well, one of their current players is a really good chess player. He's come to the club a couple times to play chess and everything. Yeah, he's practically grandmaster level in chess. So, yeah. Football now, the more it's evolving is becoming like a game of chess, positional play on field and so on so. Right. You'll certainly understand it.

Oh, yeah. Aye. No, that's fantastic. I've got, I've written a book, which is seventh. That's it there. Seventh, okay. Aye, and it's the story of how a football club finished seventh in the league. But we get relegated, and it was due to politics and a whole load of other things. So I must send you a copy over.

All right. Or post it over to you. It's just it's out on Amazon and Kindle. Okay, great. I'll send you a copy over for you to have a read that and you can get a bit of an insight to some of the challenges that exist in Scottish football. All right, yeah. I'll send you my address after we log out here. Yeah, that's awesome.

It's awesome. I love it when I got writers on the podcast to talk a little bit about their books and everything. In fact, I'll close with this. One of the books I do have, from writers that have been on the podcast. They did research based on the Ted Lassau show. I don't know if we're familiar with that. Yeah, I know.

I've watched that, I think. Celtic actually hired a Ted Lassau manager. Oh, nice. Wilfred Nonsei. You know, he was very much, you know, Ted Lassau based. I never worked out for him right enough, but he joined Celtic from Columbus, Columbus Crew. Okay, yeah.

So he was very much Ted Lassow when he's approached, but what a great program that is though yeah I mentioned that's because I was actually in the at the same high school as Jason Sadecas and happens to have the as a math teacher the

coach that Sadecas based most of the Ted Lassau character on so wow a claim to fame for you yeah yeah it is um So, all right. Well, thanks for, thanks for coming on. And for everyone that's listening,

we will talk to you next time. Thank you, God, bless. This podcast is Uncalled for. It is hosted, produced, and edited by myself, Mike Chernowski. Our opening music is the, this podcast is Uncalled for, theme. which is created at sueno.com, S-U-N-O-D-com.

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