Scottish football has gone through months of drama and uncertainty to rescue ‘Rangers’. Only weeks ago we were told a CVA was likely. Once this failed the question of today’s SPL vote crystallised.
The SPL met several times to discuss this matter, even doing so before Rangers CVA failed. Sentiment was firmly behind Newco, to the extent that some were worried they would be allowed into the league without any sanction (if one Ayrshire club had their way). All this changed when Charles Green and Duff and Phelps agreed to challenge the SFA at the Court of Session. At the SPL meeting following this decision the mood changed dramatically.
I then had several friends in the media rubbish my suggestion that Newco were far from certain of being voted into the SPL. To be fair to them, my information was not coming from Neil Doncaster, whereas theirs was. If Doncaster was so assured when speaking to the media, day after day, we can only imagine what he was saying to Green. His influence has not been helpful to the cause he championed.
Clubs, who were previously weighing up the argument, suddenly had a convincing point to consider. Rangers going to court was the biggest own goal in their 140 year history. Terry Butcher, eat your heart out.
After this Green was at the mercy of fortune, and the growing influence of the hawk(s) in the SPL who saw no need to create space for Newco. In many respects, John Brown is correct. Having gambled and failed, Green did whatever he could to accommodate but there was no way back. Underestimate John Brown at your peril, he has his club’s interests at heart and has the fortitude to raise a phoenix from the ruins of Ibrox. His unconventional style is easy to mock but it is just what needed (I truly believe this).
Where now for the Newco-Sevco-Rangers? I don’t see a solution. Sooner or later Mr Green will let his friends know they only way forward is for him to acquire an existing Scottish Football League club, rename it to something like Rangers United, and move it to Ibrox.
The toxic history would be set free and it would be game-on. Keep your eye on Cowdenbeath.
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Any word from Spartans, Cove Rangers or any other club about applying fror the free spot in SFL?
Good things about rfc(il) not being in the spl. No. 1
Lower costs for the NHS.
A&E will be so much more peaceful throughout the year.
The public finance purse will feel that bit heavier come May 2013
So apparently Charles Green’s presentation to the SPL only infuriated the other chairmen further. The story goes that they provided each Chairman with a document outlining their proposals and on the back of it was a picture of an ex-Rangers player lifting the SPL trophy with the words “WE ARE RANGERS” emblazonned over this.
Just how arrogant are they!!!
Mort
In case anyone missed this this morning(hope you dont mind james)
==============================
James Forrest says:
05/07/2012 at 2:30 am
206 2 Rate This
Stewart Regan tonight stands condemned by one of the most appalling press interviews ever given by a senior official in the Scottish game. But before I start talking about what he did say, let’s be very clear on what he didn’t say; he didn’t say that there will be social unrest if Rangers are not in SFL 1. He used the term “social unrest” in the context of there being no Rangers whatsoever … or at least, no NewCo club bearing that name. I will defend him from that charge – which at least one Celtic website has repeated, without getting its facts right – but no other. For this is a man who has run out his rope, and should now be sent on his way.
We are facing a truly astonishing, historic, and potentially devastating moment for Scottish football here. Tonight, we have the head of the Scottish Football Association – a man brought in to revolutionise and modernize the game – threatening the smallest clubs, those who his “duty of care” is greatest to, with penury for daring to put the integrity of the sport first. This is a scandal paralleled only by what is going at Ibrox, and in doing so he has lashed himself to the mast of that sinking ship. His handling of this whole crisis has been a joke, from the way he has defended Campbell Ogilvie through to his statements tonight, which annihilate any credibility he had.
It is untenable for the head of the game’s governing body to threaten member clubs who are putting the well-being and reputation of the sport first. He cannot survive it.
The logic of his position is so twisted contemplating it requires copious amounts of Jack Daniels; he is saying that Rangers must be an SPL club this time next year. Not only is he suggesting that he will refuse to acknowledge the will of the SFL clubs in this matter, but he is actually threatening the very integrity of next year’s First Division title race itself, before a ball is even kicked. This makes this a unique and horrifyingly history maker in world sport – a governing body leader actually blatantly, openly and unequivocally prejudicing the outcome of a sporting event. It is almost unfathomable, a moment that has no parallel or precedent. How UEFA and FIFA can stand back and allow I cannot even begin to comprehend, but if there was ever a time for member clubs to report their national association to the continental body then this is surely it. My sincere hope is that not one club but many clubs will do so, and ask UEFA to act with urgency to resolve it.
But we cannot wait for UEFA. This goes much deeper now than just the future of the club calling itself Rangers. It is an issue so vast it dwarfs even that.
This may have begun with a scandal at Ibrox, but this scandal now goes to the heart of everything about the game here, and the people who run it. They have shown themselves to be craven, self-interested, shameless and incompetent. But more than that, they have proven themselves to be thoroughly and undisputedly corrupt.
Stewart Regan, Neil Doncaster and David Longmuir have shamed and disgraced their offices.
These people first tried to ram Rangers in the SPL down our throats. Rules would be ignored or just rewritten to accommodate it. Doncaster told journalists off and on the record that he wanted the club in the league “no matter what” they had done – thus prejudicing an independent investigation which his own organisation was running, and casting a dark shadow over another investigation being held by the SFA itself. This marked him out early as an enemy of the sporting integrity of the game, and as someone who could not be trusted to do what was right.
As an independent committee of the SFA – one removed from the “old ways” (and we know what that means alright) of doing things- delivered its hammer blow against Rangers by imposing a signing ban, there was talk their decision had shocked Stewart Regan to the core. His behaviour since would indicate that this is the case; he did not do anything to stop Rangers taking the case to the Court of Session, and he has refused to punish them for doing so. The SFA committee which is to impose the new penalty has yet to be reconvened. His comments tonight have prejudiced that future committee as surely as Doncaster’s remarks of earlier have prejudiced the SPL one.
For that alone, both men should be calling taxis. Yet they didn’t stop there.
Did David Longmuir pen the now notorious “consultation document”? Unknown. But he would have seen it, and he would have had to approve it. From a stance where he stated, plainly, football integrity had no price and that NewCo Rangers could not be put in the SFL at any level other than the bottom, where he actually stated that there was “no mechanism” for doing so, he has turned 90 degrees. His position now is that it can be done and furthermore that it should be done, nee must be done, and that sporting integrity comes second to commercial considerations.
He too should be packing his pencils when this thing is resolved.
Doncaster’s fingerprints were all over that “consultation document.” So too were Regan’s. They either authored it or commissioned it, and pushed it on him. But he accepted it without questioning it, and now is willing to subvert the rules of his own organisation because of it despite the fact the numbers in at are impossible to verify, and its key assertions have been openly questioned, with one chairman (Raith Rovers, step forward Turnbull) flatly telling the media that he did not believe them. He is not alone in holding that view, as many other club officials have verified over the last few days. This crisis spread from the SPL to the SFA and now infects the SFL.
In supporting the assertion that the SPL needs Newco there within a year he too is prejudicing the outcome of next season before it even begins, by accepting the caveat that Scottish football needs Rangers to be promoted. If they find themselves in SFL 1 the simple fact is that David Longmuir, Neil Doncaster and Stewart Regan will have accepted a premise whereby the SFL’s flagship competition starts with a pre-determined outcome. There will be a clearly stated “requirement” that Newco move up from his organisation’s own flagship league, before a ball is kicked. He is violating the very ethos of sport itself and if there has been a more flagrant breach of faith with the notion of a “level playing field” I have never heard of it, in anywhere, in any game.
All of this is cause enough to fire these people with immediate effect.
Yet they went further.
Doncaster has lied to clubs at every stage, including, if you believe Charles Green tonight, and there is no reason not to, Newco Rangers itself. With the vote outcome looking tough, he tried to cobble together a package of “acceptable sanctions”, to arrange a hasty pre-vote meeting to sell his wares and then attempted to have the meeting itself postponed – which would have thrown the entire game in this country into unimaginable chaos. He even tried to sell the idea of a secret ballot, all the easier to flog his scandalous plans and afford “deniability” to people who, themselves, would have had to have lied to their own supporters.
It is to the credit of the chairmen that they rejected the suggestion outright.
David Longmuir has now subverted his own organisation to the extent he screwing with the voting system, changing their rules on the hoof and is actually banning one club from having a vote at all. And then there’s tonight, and Regan …
What we might be about to see will make everything that has come before seem legitimate.
The subversion of two independent panels, with the guilt of Rangers already established will be a seismic event which will be felt in the halls at Nyon and Zurich. The punishments in those cases are enough to wipe Newco off the map – the very thing Regan has said would cause “social unrest”. That those committees will be “leaned on” is now without doubt.
Yet something even more staggering may be coming.
If the SFL clubs follow through on their principles, and Rangers Newco is treated like any other club, and thereby must start in SFL 3, these men have suggested they may apply a truly nuclear solution to what they view as “the problem.”
David Longmuir and Neil Doncaster, with the connivance of Stewart Regan, may actually, wilfully, destroy their own organisations and start again. Longmuir may sell out any number of the clubs he has a direct responsibility to support and care for. The guardians of the sport may actually annihilate it instead … deliberately, to get their way.
The fans have said no. The clubs will have said no. There will be a complete unification of will, save for a few hold-outs who will see some advantage for themselves in the chaos. The overwhelming opinion of almost everyone who TRULY matters will have been heard, will have been given, and will have been wilfully rejected as without merit. The views of the clubs will have been ignored. The views of the fans will have been treated with contempt.
Only a small number of chairmen actually WANT this. The fans are almost united in their rejection of it. Incredibly, if you polled the supporters of every club the view would be UNANIMOUS. Even the fans of the club all this is being done for do not WANT it. Their own rejection might be coached in their typical ego, arrogance and even hate … but their view is no less valid because of that, and their opinion no less valuable.
No decision in the history of sport has ever been taken in the face of overwhelming opposition. The views of everyone in it, from chairmen to paying customers, have never been ridden roughshod over to this staggering degree. How can the sport survive if the fans who follow it, the clubs which make it up and the rules which underpin it are ALL systematically destroyed in such a fashion? How can men of supposed intelligence ever believe this would be accepted?
Furthermore, the entire SPL 2 thing is a bluff, as anyone who looks at it must be acutely aware. If Rangers Newco is voted into Division 3 that is where they will be next season and no amount of bluster or fury will change that fact, because a restructuring of the game along SPL 2 lines would take a minimum of one year to implement, and would plunge the entire game into civil war, with no hope of any outcome which did not devastate the sport.
It cannot be done in that timeframe and it will not be done in that timeframe. If it is going to happen at all it would have to be done at the end of the season, and that would assure an entire summer of battling and legal disputes which would make this close-season seem like a warm up fight before a heavyweight title bout.
What would it involve? Well it would involve Newco Rangers not simply starting its existence two leagues above where it belonged but would see a club one year old discarding the whole notion of sporting meritocracy and leaping over two or more entire divisions to take a seat at the top table … putting Scottish football not on a par with professional sports but with Snakes and Ladders. It is hard to imagine the outrage it would cause from the fans of each and every club in the country, not to mention the legal war which would erupt.
We would, in that scenario, be looking at a thermonuclear version of where we were a month or so ago, with NO fans buying season tickets, with boycott threats ten decibels higher and with rage underpinning them which would sweep entire boards of directors away if they dared resist. You want to look at a Year Zero scenario? That would be it. What’s more, knowing that such a thing was coming, the fans response would be planned well in advance and instead of coming from individual supporters of single clubs it would be a co-ordinated effort of mammoth proportions, with deadly consequences underpinning it all the way. It would be multi-club, unifying fans from all across the game, and it would be devastatingly effective. Sky would find itself with less customers, bookmakers with less punters and soft drinks manufacturers finding themselves second, for the first time ever, to the multinationals on their own doorstep.
In other words, Year Zero for more than just football.
How long do you think such a setup could be sustained? How many seasons could it succeed? I would wager that within a year we would be rebooting … again.
But none of that has to happen. There is a way forward which can resolve these issues and make things go a lot more smoothly. There is a way in which fan power can be exercised early, to resolve these matters and bring closure, and clarity, to this situation.
The supporters who have lobbied their clubs thus far, the clubs who feel they have been let down, the people who have acted with courage, all of them can do so one last time. Fans can contact their directors and make one last demand. Directors can convene EGM’s. Those who believe they have been told lies can choose to act. One more time, let the campaign begin.
The three men who have dithered, obfuscated and even lied; the men who would subvert the rules; the men who would prejudice naturally occurring outcomes; the men who prevaricated, stalled and even hidden away when the going got tough can be removed from their posts before they do any further damage. It takes just ONE group of fans to influence ONE club in each section of our game. Those fans would force their board to table motions of No Confidence in the chief executive of their respective part of the structure … and that will trigger the vote.
Does anyone believe for ONE SECOND these men have served their respective bodies well? Does anyone believe any of them could successfully argue for their jobs, in the light of forensic examination of their roles? Doncaster, for one, claims financial cataclysm will be inflicted on the SPL should Rangers not be in it for more than one year; can he survive the scrutiny into who’s fault that is? Can he survive when he negotiated the very contracts which he claims will be nullified in that instance, when he, and everyone in Scotland, knew something like this was, more than likely, on its way? Can Longmuir survive being party to threatening his own members?
Can Stewart Regan survive considering his appalling statements tonight, and the way in which they prejudice so many of the underlying principles of our game?
My money would be laid against it.
Tonight, for the first time I can recall following football, I feel part of a fraternity, that of the Scottish football supporter, for a long time ignored, for a long time disdained, for a long time without a voice or a way to express it. All of that is over. We have the power.
Now we have to use it. Not in the interests of our own clubs, but in the interests of the game itself. We have spoken up for integrity in the SPL and we have won.
Now it is time to speak up for the sport, against those who betrayed it.
Nothing we do as fans will ever be more important. This is not about which clubs we follow, but about the integrity, reputation and future of the game itself here in this country.
Regan – Doncaster – Longmuir. Out. Out. Out.
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Can I ask a question about SevCo?
Regardless of the League they end up in, will they still have the transfer embargo for 1 yr? If they do, why the big push to get them in the First Division, as given players they have lost and players they have left, they would struggle for a mid-table place surely. The Sponsors will surely think this as well. They could end up like Leeds and really struggle to make it out, or am I missing something again?
Dontbrattbakkinanger on 5 July, 2012 at 10:18
I thought Crazy Horse’s finest hour was “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere”
Cowghirl in the Sand CSC.
new article posted.
In an act of extreme bravado, Dick Byrne once broke a microphone stand as the front man of a band called the Modren Lovers. They were rubbish. Ask anyone who saw them at the Ole Burns Howff.
Chris
RadioOnCSC
The full Marco Negri interview http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081019042920AAaTdeL
Worth a read.
Brimmer
share on F’book or Twitter
Sorry matey just logged in and noticed you posted that Negri interview.
Now we know how they could finance a tour of Germany ;
THEY COULDN’T :))))))
HAIL HAIL
Taken from Phil Mac’s site:
Oldco – Newco – Sevco – Tesco
Nuff said.
Good things about rfc(il) not being in the spl. No. 2
Football with become much more family orientated. A cleaner, fresher SPL. A general aura of goodwill will ensue. Laid to rest will be the We-arrapeepul supremacist mantra. Families will attend games with out fear.
Just logged in so don’t know if this has been flagged up, but after the discussions on here earlier this week about Celtic not coming out with a pre-meeting statement about their position on NewCo, today’s headline right at the top of the front page of the Herald underscores the views of everyone who said Celtic would be blasted by the MSM if they dared to publish their view:
CELTIC: WHY WE VOTED RANGERS OUT
And they wonder why we’re paranoid?
Robinbhoy 10-38
I just heard it too. It showed how deeply entrenched jabba is within the hun establishment, standing by his false cause beyond the end. One of his cringeworthy comments…’more than 95% of contributions to internet blogs are utter nonsense’.
He was well grilled by Cosgrove and Spence and could only defend himself by cutting them off in mid-sentence. Best quote of the show went to Cosgrove who suggested that those in the Glasgow written media were too attached to Rangers and readily printed what they were being fed, however untrue it was. Cosgrove and Spence slammed the Armageddon headlines and jabba squirmed to justify his newspaper’s stance..
A good listen and well done to C and S for putting this pompous ass in his place.
hh
I have to commend James Forrest for his piece. I haven’t always seen eye to eye with James on CQN, but he’s passionate and a talented writer.
There has to be a follow on from this. Regardless of who runs the game administratively, and I agree Doncaster must go along Ogilvie. I was swithering about Regan, however his statements last night showed the wrong type of leadership. His jacket now must be on a very shoogly peg.
It’s probably early in the day to try and right all the wrongs , and plan for the future. However I would like to make an early suggestion.
Each club has a view of itself and it’s potential. I suspect that there will be very little delusion in this. Let me clarify this. I don’t mean that there is not the potential for a renegade owner like Brookes Mileson, to be lurking in the SFL, however the collective intelligence of the support and board would understand the potential at any club.
Albion Rovers would know that they could never aspire to be Celtic. They would know that realistically attempting to get to the SPL would be financially impossible for them. That isn’t true of Raith Rovers or Morton, especially in a 16 team league. It might be a stretch, however it’s possible.
With this in mind should we consider a franchise system. Only with the support of the clubs, and only with their approval. I see no desire at all for well run Junior Clubs to join the SFL. It seems to me they are happy with their historic leagues, and only want a crack at a cup competition . Is the the way forward for clubs like Albion Rovers and similarly minded clubs. A safe league environment, with no pressure to join a system which their fan base could not support financially. Yet still retain a chance to play against the elite in cup competitions
Franchise leagues are what American sport are all about. However they evolve, especially the NFL and NBA, to expand when properly funded and sized new aspirants appear.
The NFL is the most successful sports league in the world. It has TV revenues and attendances which make the EPL seem like a hick small cousin. It doesn’t suffer from every team not playing each other, although traditional rivalries do play home and away each year. You play your regional rivals, and then a selection of games against teams to make up the quota. Each team is guaranteed the same number of home and away games
The benefit of this is Scottish terms is it would introduce freshness and variety. It would get us away from this stifling 4 games a season against the same teams.
This is merely a very light suggestion. It would terrific if the SFA took a lead here and invited input from fans. This blog and others such as RTC and no doubt equally good ones of other clubs, has raised the bar over the Rangers scandal.
Given the chance I believe we could do the same for the restructuring of the game
The Mayans predicted the end of the world in 2012.
The Hopi Indian seer, Ornj Wanqua, predicted a cataclysmic event in 2012.
They did not not provide any further information, nor did they see that for a large part of the population of Scotland and the north of Ireland, the end of their world actually happened on 4th July 2012.
Tha Ancient Egyptians (Maz Onic Luj – High Priest of Imhotep III, philosopher, Grand Seer – 7th son of a 7th son no less!!), wrote in great detail of “the end of the history of a mysterious people to the north (the Hunnee), barbarians all, who ruled their land with an iron fist, forcing their will on their peaceful, innocent neighbours, the Timii.
Their foot-soldiers, the cruel Refies tribe, who traditionally dressed in black, carried out the will of the Hunnee, and blew rudimentary whistle to intimidate their enemies. They were eventually, after many years of one-sided warfare, weakened in a monumental battle with the Timii, which resulted in the loss of one of their generals, Doooooogii-Doooooogii. Furthermore, their leader, Hoo Dallassii was fatally wounded following another skirmish with the Timii. This weakened the Hunnii to such an extent, that they had to use all their gold from their treasury, plus that stolen from their innocent neighbours, in a vain attempt to maintain their lifestyle.
Eventually, they ran out of gold, and a new leader (Why Tee) emerged to take them over and attempted to lead them to glory once again. Why Tee was outed as a charlatan, and forcibly replaced in a coup by twin leaders (Duffii and Felpii), but they could do nothing except keep their own lifestyle going by using the dregs from the Hunnii treasury.
Another ancient race, the Aitchemarsee tribe, lent a helping hand to the innocents, by demanding the return of gold, illicitly obtained from them by the Hunnii.
Yet another colourful leader emerged, Chief Greennii, who tried bluster and threats, in conjunction with their long time allies, the Sfannii and the Splanni tribes, and tried to force their evil ways on the innocents.
This final attempt failed, and all of Timii, and the other tribes (the Sheepii, the Arabii, the Fartsii, the Hibii, etc), but not the Killii who still clung to the ways of teh Hunnii, rejoiced and entered a new period of fraternity and friendship.
The Hunnii were cast out of the promised land, and consigned to hell (no actual location for hell has ever been confirmed, but Cowd-in-beath, ancient capital of the Pictii has been suggested.
Source – Hunnii-wiki
Thanks to Brendan for texting me this evening and informing me of the sad news about Lurgan 53. I hadn’t been on the blog for a few hours and missed the news earlier.
The world’s a sadder place tonight. A great Tim and proud Irishman. My deepest sympathies to his family.
RIP Lurgan 53.
May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed Rest In Peace. Amen
Tesco FC
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