Ian Wright Criticizes Scottish Football's Vision and Broadcast Deals

As forensics prepare to start a post-mortem into another botched attempt by Scotland to progress from the group stage at a major finals, has a former England striker managed to hit the nail on the head regarding the reasons for Scottish football's ills?

Rather than pointing the finger at PlayStations, 'no ball games' signage or rising pitch hire costs, Ian Wright called for a "bolder, braver vision" and suggested "somebody is letting down Scotland on a massive scale".

His reasoning stemmed from undervalued broadcasting deals to unfulfilled potential, but how much weight does his theory hold?

With Steve Clarke's side's World Cup hopes hanging by a thread, BBC Scotland has had a look.

Arsenal great Wright leaned on comparisons with Norway, a country with a similar population to Scotland's five million.

Like Scotland, Norway failed to feature in any World Cup between 1998 and this summer. They have played in the Euros once - in 2000 - while the Scots have reached the past two after being absent from the tournament since 1996.

Spearheaded by world-class Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, with elite-level Arsenal playmaker Martin Odegaard pulling the strings, Norway's current crop are heading to the knockout phase of the 2026 World Cup, the third time they have managed to do so in the competition's history.

Scotland, meanwhile, are increasingly likely to be heading for an early exit after picking up three points from their three group matches.

But former Celtic forward Wright looked at the domestic games in both countries, suggesting Norwegian clubs attract average domestic crowds of between 6,000 and 7,000 per week, while in Scotland that number shoots up to 16,000.

Those comments are backed up by Transfermarkt's attendance data, with an average of just over 7,000 fans attending Norwegian top-flight games each week across the 2025 season.

It was just about 16,000 for Scottish Premiership matches last campaign, a number heavily inflated by the crowds Celtic and Rangers attract.

A Uefa report published in September last year revealed that for the third year in a row, football fans across Scotland recorded significantly higher top-flight attendances per capita than any other league in Europe.

Wright suggested that those attendance figures, plus the talent and storylines that Scottish football has to offer, should attract a more lucrative TV deal when compared with Norway.

The Premiership attracted huge interest last term as a gripping title fight went down to a final-day decider between eventual champions Celtic and Hearts.

"Norway have managed to get a broadcast deal that was £25m more a year than Scotland," Wright said on ITV.

The SPFL committed to a £150m broadcast deal in 2022, which started in 2024 and runs until 2029. Premiership clubs earn about £30m a season from the current agreement.

The aim is for Scottish top-flight clubs to be earning £50m a year by 2029.

That is already happening in Norway, according to Norwegian media, who say the current domestic rights package in the country is worth more than £50m per season. From 2029 that is reported to rise to over £60m.

So how does that impact the national team? More revenue for clubs would offer more money to improve infrastructure, facilities and academies across the country.

And during a time when Scottish sides are continually losing youth talent to clubs with greater resources - regularly from south of the border - more cash should, in theory, mean a bigger playing budget to encourage talent to stay.

There would still have to be a path to first-team football, though, something Scottish clubs have been encouraged to vastly improve following a report from the Scottish FA that detailed how clubs in Scotland are failing to bring through enough young players.

Despite a recent return to major tournaments, Wright sympathises with Scotland and their fans after a generation of missed opportunity.

And judging by the social media reaction that followed his passionate comments, which came before Scotland had even kicked off their final group game against Brazil, he does not seem to be the only one.