On the face of this idea, not much changes; Scotland went out of the group stage OTL and never really made much of an impact other than what was going off the field such as the infamous hype claiming Scotland were going to win the cup and how the country was on a ridiculous high which ultimately came crashing down over a few days in Argentina.
Other than that goal against and win against Holland, it was a pretty terrible tournament for Scotland but believe it or not, it could have actually been worse. What I mean to say is that in the aftermath of the first group game to Peru in which Scotland lost, Willie Johnson failed a drugs test even though what he took was just some medication to treat his hay-fever he was having and this would cause a media circus that would force him out of the World Cup and sent home in disgrace. However, it appears that several other players might have tried the same substance and there was a very strong possibility that this revelation would have forced FIFA to kick Scotland put of the World Cup after just one game though it seems that Johnson was forced to carry the can for the team and for the SFA to save face.
It's hard to know how much truth there is to this story but I can't help but find it interesting to see an even worse football TL for Scotland here in what if they had been disqualified from the World Cup, what would have happened next? Certainly an interesting side effect from OTL was that the failure from 1978 so the nation lost much of its self belief and affected the 1979 devolution result from being much higher. Yes, there was the gerrymandering about it but imagine in the wake of a more disgraceful exit might have affected the vote further to become even a 'No' result which goes down a rabbit hole of many butterflies politically.
Would the national team been allowed the qualify for the following World Cup and even if they had done, could they had still done it? All very fascinating stuff to think about...
Other than that goal against and win against Holland, it was a pretty terrible tournament for Scotland but believe it or not, it could have actually been worse. What I mean to say is that in the aftermath of the first group game to Peru in which Scotland lost, Willie Johnson failed a drugs test even though what he took was just some medication to treat his hay-fever he was having and this would cause a media circus that would force him out of the World Cup and sent home in disgrace. However, it appears that several other players might have tried the same substance and there was a very strong possibility that this revelation would have forced FIFA to kick Scotland put of the World Cup after just one game though it seems that Johnson was forced to carry the can for the team and for the SFA to save face.
It's hard to know how much truth there is to this story but I can't help but find it interesting to see an even worse football TL for Scotland here in what if they had been disqualified from the World Cup, what would have happened next? Certainly an interesting side effect from OTL was that the failure from 1978 so the nation lost much of its self belief and affected the 1979 devolution result from being much higher. Yes, there was the gerrymandering about it but imagine in the wake of a more disgraceful exit might have affected the vote further to become even a 'No' result which goes down a rabbit hole of many butterflies politically.
Would the national team been allowed the qualify for the following World Cup and even if they had done, could they had still done it? All very fascinating stuff to think about...