HEARTS midfielder Danny Swanson has called for Scotland to learn from England and promote its football better.
Swanson signed for Hearts in September following spells at Peterborough and Coventry and has seen a marked difference in how each country sells its game, despite admitting standards have dipped slightly since his Dundee United days.
"Without Rangers, that's going to happen," said Swanson, whose team host Hamilton in the Ladbrokes Premiership on Saturday.
"The thing I have noticed coming back is that more teams try to play good football, which is good to see.
"I think it has dropped a little bit since I first came through, but teams are trying to play and there are a lot of younger players coming through.
"It's definitely not as bad as people try to make out. I think that's the problem. When I came up I noticed the difference in how negative people are towards the game compared to England.
"There were some terrible games but no matter what, they tried to find positives. That's what we need to do up here, make the game sound better because it's not as bad as people make out.
"There are a lot of good players here, as you see when they go down to England, they do well. It's very underrated.
"You watch some English games on the TV and they are always positive but here some of the commentators aren't as enthusiastic. People down there look at the game and say 'it's not great up there' and I'm trying to argue my point but there are so many people against me.
"I don't know exactly how we do it but we need to find a way to sell it to other people."
Hearts head coach, Robbie Neilson, feels Scotland should be more positive about its young players.
"Football is a huge part of Scottish culture," Neilson said. "Sometimes we are very negative but sometimes we can be very positive about it as well.
"I think we're coming to a period now where we should be positive about the players coming through.
"Lots of teams in the top flight are bringing through Scottish talent and there are a lot of players down in England as well.
"We had a difficult period financially but we are starting to get through that. I don't think anyone in Scotland is going to go out and spend millions, Celtic are the only team. Everybody else is developing young players and when you do that, you get Hearts fans, young players who fans can relate to. When they go out there and show energy and ability, everyone gets behind them."
Scottish football has been going through another period of introspection following the national team's failure to reach Euro 2016 and struggles in European club football, which continued this week when Celtic lost at home to Molde.
But Neilson highlighted Hearts and imminent opponents Hamilton, along with 18-year-old Celtic left-back Kieran Tierney as proof of a promising future.
Neilson said of Saturday's game: "It's two teams that have trusted their academy to develop players and given young players opportunities. That's going to be the future for Scotland as well.
"I watched the Celtic game last night and thought Tierney was probably the best player on the park for Celtic, so it shows there are good players out there."
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