Steve Cardownie: Scotland can win the World Cup!

Now that the World Cup is over '“ with one of the tournament favourites, namely France, picking up the trophy '“ we can take time to reflect on the winners and losers and reflect on the football and the media coverage.

Scotland just needs to find a player like Luka Modric, and maybe a few others, and it too could challenge for top honours (Picture: AFP/Getty)

The commentators and pundits surpassed themselves as usual although a difference of emphasis could be detected as the tourney wore on with some dropping the “we”, referring to England, when they were addressing a British audience although the penny did not drop with one or two household names who reliably informed us that football was “coming home”.

I found this a rather strange pronouncement as Scotland were not even participating – but why let the facts get in the way of a good slogan, false or otherwise.

Supporting one’s team particularly in the most prestigious football tournament in the world is not a crime and I do not fall into the camp that listens with a super-sensitive ear lest they miss another oblique reference to 1966 but some of it was way over the top with the BBC’s biggest earner, Gary Lineker, being the chief protagonist.

However the fact that a nation, Croatia, with a population of just over four million, reached the final – taking out England with a population of 55 million on the way – demonstrates that in some instances size does not matter.

Croatia surpassed expectations and surely must provide inspiration to our small nation that there should be no limit to ambition, after all if they can reach such dizzy heights why can’t we aspire to win a major tournament in the future? Then we can truly say “football is coming home!”