A SCOTTISH football fan and filmmaker has produced a video tracking the ups and downs of the Tartan Army from the World Cup in France in 1998 to the delayed 2020 Euros, which kicked off last night.
Over the past 22 years Ian Kelly, from Renfrew, has collected videos and pictures of his own and from members of the Tartan Army, and said Scotland fans from around the world had become involved with the project – Chasing Dreams – following appeals on social media.
Kelly, who marks his 50th birthday today, has had to overcome serous difficulties in his years following Scotland.
He dislocated his leg in 2004 and later broke it, which left him using crutches.
Kelly is also dyslexic. However, that has not stopped him following Scotland and chasing his own Tartan Army dream.
“I went to France in 1998 for the World Cup,” Kelly told The National.
“My pal Gary Shek, who’s in the video, got all the tickets through a friend, so we had tickets for all the games apart from Brazil.
“But we watched that on the big screen and it was amazing when John Collins took a penalty kick and scored, it was absolutely buzzing. I shot a lot of video footage when we were there, about 20 tapes, and I was going to do a documentary just on the World Cup in France.”
However, in the days before mobile phones could do everything for us, he did not have the equipment to edit the VHS tapes, which were consigned to a corner of his home gathering dust.
Kelly then came back to Scotland and, in his own words, went from “job to job” until 2004 when he managed to get into the Uefa Cup Final in Sweden.
The day before catching the boat back home, he dislocated his leg, missing out on a trip to Estonia and had to be flown back to Scotland.
Three years later – this time in Paris for the France v Scotland international – he was saved from the disappointment of losing his ticket by a Tartan Army member who had a spare.
That game saw a spectacular goal from James McFadden, which secured a surprising victory for Scotland – a goal which has been recreated in Kelly’s video.
His knowledge of the national team’s prowess verges on encyclopaedic and, despite breaking his leg in 2007 – and having a titanium rod inserted in it – his enthusiasm for Scotland and the Tartan Army did not diminish.
Over his years as a member of that merry band, he continued to collect pictures and videos which he had taken and other fans sent him.
Kelly has been pictured with several famous football fans, including Rod Stewart, and SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford (above) even has a kick-about in the video.
Making a documentary was a spur-of-the-moment decision last year, when he started filming in Stirling with, amongst others, Malcolm McLean, the grandson of Archie, the former Ayr United player widely credited with teaching the Brazilians to play football after being sent out there to work for textile manufacturers J & P Coats in 1912.
“Other people were filming on Stirling Bridge and I was directing and editing” said Kelly.
“We then went up to the Bruce monument and did some filming there … and people sent me videos through WhatsApp.”
A former football insider also gave him film shot behind the scenes in the Scotland dressing room, bringing him closer to beating his dyslexia and achieving his dream.
“I think it’s a great achievement that despite being dyslexic I’ve got my own production company, which was always my dream.
“Following Scotland is chasing my dream – I bleed for my country, I bleed for Scotland and I wanted to show my side of the Tartan Army story through my friends.”
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