Letter: Offside solution

I found myself reading Ross Martin's piece "Let's blow the whistle on glorious failures" (Perspective, 17 March) with increasing enthusiasm for his ideas on how to remedy the decline in Scottish sport.

But in a passage which correctly identified Celtic and Rangers as part of the problem in football and calling for "strong local clubs in each part of the country", he then ruined his case by suggesting this could be achieved by amalgamations, such as "one capital side in Edinburgh". Can he really have forgotten the furore 20 years ago when Wallace Mercer attempted to asset-strip Hibs and create an Edinburgh United playing at a soulless new stadium on the city fringes?

The whole tenor of the early part of his article was to encourage the existence of football and other sporting clubs which have grown organically with their communities, encompassing tradition, familial and generational links and a particular ethos which cannot be constructed artificially. Mr Martin seemed initially to understand this, but could not resist a "neat solution" which seemed to make "good sense". Well, Mr Martin, it doesn't work that way with the fans.

MIKE FALCHIKOV

Strathearn Road

Edinburgh