Pawns cinch and the proxy war

The dispute Newco have with the Scottish Professional Football League over their sponsorship deal with car retailer cinch might look a bit ridiculous.  The club are refusing to display SPFL sponsor logos and, apparently, refused to permit their manager to be interviewed by BT Sport unless the broadcaster taped over the logos at Motherwell on Saturday.

It’s an odd hill on which to stand, even after considering that cinch are direct competitors to the Newco chairman’s car retailer business. cinch will continue to advertise and gain market share at the expense of traditional retailers, the chairman is called Park, not Canute.

It makes more sense if you consider Newco want to replace SPFL CEO Neil Doncaster with a more compliant individual, think a 21st century Jim Farry.  If they can beat the SPFL in the courts, they can push for Doncaster’s removal with some authority. For this, any small hill will be sufficient.

This is a proxy war with the governance of our game is the real tide.