Dinner with the president
I didn’t comment on reports earlier this week that the SFA would allow Rangers International to complete an internal investigation into alleged links between Craig Whyte and Charles Green as I thought this was the appropriate course of action.
The SFA acted correctly: they wrote to Rangers International expressing concern over the matters in hand, and received assurances that their questions would be answered by an independent panel. Last year the football authorities were slow to enforce compliance with predecessor club, Rangers, but we can hope they apply a little more pressure this time.
News, released last night, suggesting after it was established Craig Whyte had been struck off as a director and would therefore face disciplinary proceedings, he had dinner with SFA chief executive, Stewart Regan, and president, Campbell Ogilvie, is far more concerning.
Mr Regan assured us that Mr Ogilvie, who he admitted was “heavily conflicted” by matters concerning Rangers, would remove himself from matters concerning the club he was previously a director of. This is meaningless if both parties met to discuss disciplinary matters with Mr Whyte before formal proceedings were underway.
What is increasingly clear is the co-dependency between so many characters in this play, including Regan and Ogilvie. They exist to keep each other in a job. This co-dependency will be jeopardised by the one man so many are attempting to paint as the only villain of the piece. Craig Whyte has them all taped and will not go down quietly.
It will be a frustration to many that the bottom half of the Scottish Football League clubs have held out for a bigger share of the trickle-down pie. Odds on a schism opening up between community and full time clubs have to be high.
Many thanks to everyone who has ordered (below) Willie Wallace’ autobiography, Heart of a Lions. It goes to print this week and will be with us soon thereafter.
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