Steven Naismith says there is 'no point' in criticising Scottish football and says people need to get behind the national team.
Midfielder says criticising Scottish football will not help
Midfielder Steven Naismith says there is 'no point' in criticising Scottish football and believes people need to get behind the national team.
The failures of the domestic clubs has led to strong criticism from pundits, after Hearts, Rangers and Celtic were all knocked out of their Europa League qualifiers in August.
Celtic may be handed a route back in if their opponents Sion are thrown out of the competition.
Meanwhile, Scotland are preparing to face home games against the Czech Republic and Lithuania in European Championship qualifiers on Saturday and Tuesday respectively.
Naismith did not play in the match that saw his club Rangers leave the Europa League, but is urging people to embrace Scottish football ahead of two crucial international fixtures.
Right direction
He said: "To be honest, no matter what state the football is in in Scotland, you need everybody to be pushing in the right direction.
"There are times when criticism is fair and it needs to be said but there are other times when, if we want to make it right, we all need to be pushing in the right way, we need to back everybody that's involved with Scottish football.
"There is no point slating the country's football when you are trying to get signings in.
"If you're giving the country a bad name, what chance have you got of bringing the better players to the country?"
"Scottish football has taken a bit of a kicking over the last week or so but I think if you look at Rangers last year, we competed with Manchester United and Valencia in the games we played against them."
