Rosenborg call for ex-Aruba boss, SFA “must” refer to CAS

Rosenborg went five years without winning the Norwegian title before Kare Ingebrigtsen turned things around.  Under him, they were champions the last three seasons – back on the pertch.  A mere two points off the pace, having scraped a win against Valur, he was sacked, just six days before his former team face Celtic.

It seems harsh.  This is a club burdened by their Champions League history.  Until 2004, when money replaced meritocracy, they held the record for the number of consecutive appearances in the group stage (8).  But they never turned the lights off.  They see clubs from other small nations reach the group stage of the Europa League and, to a lesser extent, the Champions League, and know they could do the same.

If they thought Ingebrigtsen’s team would have beaten Celtic he would still be in a job.  Instead, they have thrown the dice in the hope of giving players an edge.  The new interim boss’s only managerial gig in the last seven years was six weeks in charge of the Aruba national team.  Since then he’s kicked around as a youth coach and been an assistant in Dubai.  It’s a strange one.

Sacking a manager often leads to a short-term boost in results, which is all that is required for European qualification.  Expect this tie to be competitive.  That’s good, I prefer Celtic to play in games with a visible edge, than against unknowns with fire in their belly.  Cool heads will be needed.  On that subject, we’ll discuss Jozo later.

Newco, having successfully argued the SFA should refer the matter of Rangers’ eligibility for Uefa competition in 2011 to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), now request the SFA do not take the matter to CAS.  It’s a kind of Newco logic; any victory in a storm.

They argue this procedural guidance establishes the complaint has no merit, whereas the SFA Judicial Panel Disciplinary Tribunal did not address the complaint, only their competency to examine it.

The Judicial Panel ruled “the Notice of Complaint must be determined by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.”  The word “must” has been overlooked by Newco.  The SFA must act accordingly.  Taking the whole thing to Lausanne will make sure we don’t need to go through another round of “Who are these people” type witch-hunts.  I know what you are thinking, Dave King has been making friend with the SFA on a weekly basis for months now, surely they will do his bidding.

I’m not sure Dave’s that clever.