People just love kicking football when it’s down. You may recall that a bit of handbags between Ally McCoist and Neil Lennon in an Old Firm fixture at Celtic Park resulted in a top-level government summit, with politicians falling over themselves to get the boot in over Scotland’s ‘shame game’.

I am being slightly facetious of course, with the behaviour of many of those on the night, not least the 34 arrested within the stadium, worthy of condemnation and indeed, punishment. But the level of political hysteria surrounding that one match and the coverage it received was entirely disproportionate to what actually took place.

And can you imagine the outrage if three Scottish footballers were sent home from the World Cup because they were drunk? Ok, if you read a headline about one of our footballers even being at a World Cup you might think you were inebriated yourself, but the point stands.

The news that three Scottish Rugby League players achieved that ignominious feat a couple of weeks ago barely created a ripple back at home, compared to the tsunami of scorn it might have provoked had it been footballers.

Remember ‘Boozegate’? Barry Ferguson’s part in that unseemly affair cost him both the Rangers and Scotland captaincies, and ultimately his career with both sides, amid public outrage.

There are no shortage of commentators and weary Willys ready to jump on the bandwagon when the wheels come off for Scotland’s national obsession. But where are these same rent-a-quote politicians or ‘angry from Cumbernauld’ characters when our football clubs are on the right track?

A little titbit of news may have passed you by this week amid the Tynecastle safety certificate fiasco.

On Wednesday, independent research commissioned by the Scottish Professional Football League revealed that 770,000 local people are engaged in community initiatives across every one of Scotland’s 42 senior football clubs, an increase of 66,000 from the previous year.

That makes the SPFL the fourth most community-focused league in the world, with 86 percent of our clubs providing community groups, charities or other worthwhile causes with close to 84,000 free tickets last season. 62 percent offer free admission to kids.

How refreshing is it to hear Scotland mentioned as being in the top four of any league table that isn’t related to binge drinking or heart disease?

There are a wealth of football clubs in Scotland that deserve massive credit for trying to turn some of the tired old perceptions about football here around. Clubs have been awakened to the notion up here for some time that in order to thrive, they must place themselves at the heart of their communities. Even the biggest clubs, Celtic and Rangers, have charitable arms which exist to ensure that even these behemoths can be a real force for good at a local level.

For smaller clubs, it is even more critical that they re-establish the links to the areas that sustain them. Without that local support, they would simply wither and die.

Elsewhere in these pages you can read about two young Motherwell fans Aston and Marcus Hope, aged just eight and 10, who lost their father Brian in August of this year.

The club stepped in this week with the help of sponsor McEwan Fraser to get players Richard Tait and Andy Rose to turn up on their doorstep with tickets to next weekend’s Betfred Cup final. Do you think those kids will ever forget that moment? It is unlikely that anyone who read about it will either. There may have been something in my own eye when I first heard the story.

This is simply one isolated example of some of the amazing work carried out by our clubs that goes on daily around the country.

There are many football sides around the globe who latch onto the cornball notion of being more than a club. It is quite another to live out those values every day and deepen your connection with your community.

It is all too easy to give the SPFL a kicking from time to time too. Goodness knows, I have done it myself. But the work of the SPFL Trust should also be appreciated, with initiatives like Football Fans in Training making a real difference to people’s lives rather than simply being box-ticking exercises.

Just as it is easy to lift your head above the parapet to criticise when things go wrong, so should the same noise be made when something is going right.

So, here’s to everyone who has helped Scottish football achieve its lofty position in the world game for community engagement. The sharing of ideas that have worked for individual clubs can even perhaps push us further up that table next year.

Perhaps we should have a summit.