Mark McGhee believes positive propaganda is the only way to cure Scottish football of its image problem and pre-empt an exodus of the country's top managers and players.

The Motherwell manager spoke out after The Herald revealed details of Wednesday's Scottish Premier League working group meeting at Hampden Park, which included a proposal to end all public comment on refereeing performance and criticism of Setanta Sports' perceived negative coverage of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, despite investing £125m in a new 10-year deal.

McGhee declined to comment on the Think Tank, which he attended with Gordon Strachan, Walter Smith, Craig Levein, John Hughes and Jimmy Calderwood, but said he was tired of the negativity prompted by Scottish clubs' failure in Europe this season and the constant carping between managers and referees.

The Fir Park manager believes the country has suffered from belittling its own game and cited the positive PR spin applied to the Barclays Premier League and Coca-Cola Championship. Failure to follow suit, he warned, will result in a continuing failure to attract players to Scotland and, worse still, a stampede to get out of the league.

"I believe the game is good," he said. "I want to be positive and I do feel I have a responsibility to defend our game, otherwise I am accepting the criticism of the game I am part of. I know there are a lot of games that are rubbish - I was involved in one last week - but I know there are also good games and I also know from experience that there are a lot of absolutely rubbish games in the English Premier League and Championship.

"If you keep telling people the product is rubbish the players start to believe it both inside this league and outside. We have got to start promoting the game properly and I think a certain propaganda is used to good effect by others, especially in the Premier League."

McGhee rejects the notion that Scottish clubs' poor showing in European games this season proves the game is on a downward spiral and he alluded to the success of Nancy, his side's vanquishers, in UEFA Cup Group H, the irrelevance of Hibernian's InterToto Cup involvement and the quirk of Queen of the South's involvement by dint of losing the Scottish Cup final.

"It is a ridiculous argument to include Queen of the South," he said. "I want people in England to regard our game as competitive and for us to see it as worthwhile. We are far too naive and far too honest."

Owen Coyle's success at Burnley, knocking Chelsea and Arsenal out of the Carling Cup, has helped restore the reputation of the Scottish coach in England after Bobby Williamson, Craig Levein, Craig Brown and Jim Jefferies all had little success down south. McGhee is adamant others in the SPL could enjoy similar success but believes fans, the media and the various governing bodies can do more to help retain talent in Scotland.

"If we keep knocking the game, it is not only the good players who will not come but our good players will want to leave," he said. "The same applies to managers. I think we have to give more credit for the jobs they are doing here."

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