Yesterday evening STV revealed the real outcome of last week’s meeting between Stewart Regan, Neil Doncaster and David Longmuir as a proverbial gun was put to the head of Scottish Football League clubs.
In short, SPL chief executive, Neil Doncaster, no doubt with the support of some clubs but without the prior knowledge or support of Celtic, has threatened to kick 20 SFL clubs out of the senior game unless they acquiesce to his demand to parachute Sevco into the First Division.
The proposal was presented by SFL chief executive, David Longmuir, and appears to carry his endorsement.
Five scenarios are portrayed:
‘Rangers’ remaining in the SPL is dismissed as SPL clubs have confirmed they will vote no.
‘Rangers’ going to the third division is objected to on two grounds, financial (which is laboured a bit) and – wait for it – “The sporting opportunity is quashed for other clubs”.
Ponder that one for a moment, “The sporting opportunity is quashed for other clubs”.
‘Rangers’ to the First Division is presented as being “financially possible to recover from this scenario”.
‘Rangers’ to SPL2 is dismissed as apparently this would create “a bigger divide” than moving ‘Rangers’ to the First Division but not changing the name of the league. It is also noted that a legal challenge could bring paralysis.
Finally, they discuss ‘Rangers’ terminated or suspended, which apparently would lead to “complete financial meltdown”.
Then come the inducements to co-opt ‘Rangers’ into the First Division…. cash, your cash. Lots and lots of your cash, an “immediate cash benefit for all 30 clubs!” The exclamation mark is theirs!!
We could spend all day dissecting this disgraceful document but I’d like to focus on one immediate element:
‘Rangers’ terminated or suspended – complete financial meltdown.
So how do the SFA, SFL and the SPL rogues who participated in this shambles propose to ensure the SFA Independent Judicial Panel does not suspend ‘Rangers’ for subverting our game for over a decade for fielding illegally registered players for that period?
In short, it cannot. The independent judicial process will itself need to be subverted. As I suggested a few days ago, the judges will be told they are no longer wanted, we are back with the hand-selected SFA committee men.
The three most senior executives running our game have told you that one errant club is so powerful it cannot be subject to the rules and must not face the punishments which are due.
I’m not going to dispute the validity of this view (just now), but surely we deserve some honesty? If the Scottish Football Association and Scottish Premier League has accepted the ‘game’ is over, let’s hear from them. Where is the leadership from the SFA president on the collapse of the game under his watch? What are the chief executives saying to their paying customers?
Our sport cannot be subverted below radar.
You have been cheated and the rules will be changed to ensure there are no consequences. This is no longer a sport, it is a financial accommodation where a few executives are threatening to expel 20 clubs, most of whom have over a century history in the senior game, to allow Sevco to start two divisions higher than they otherwise would.
Celtic can have nothing to do with this.
The game here is dead. The leagues are set to collapse, most likely, no matter what happens now.
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Good morning CQNers from ML3.
Going to get some tips from Saturday Kitchen for the tea tonight.
I’m needing a new desktop PC. Any tips? Going up to PC World later.
EC 67
Meant to put :)) HH
In which I have a look at the Rangers.co.uk website and see that the Barnum style season ticket promotion is in full swing, and that the website is putting across the message that all is well – steady as she goes. I also offer a few thoughts about season tickets, and what power they give, which is not what people have been claiming.
http://scotslawthoughts.wordpress.com/2012/06/30/a-look-at-the-sevco-scotland-website-aka-rangers-co-uk-the-spin-meisters-take-over/
Especially for the attention of Britney and his twitter trolling
“Sevco 5088 would not be able to apply to change its name to The Rangers Football Club Ltd. until either the original company is fully dissolved, a process which can take about a year to complete, or the receivers give the go-ahead for the name change to take place ”
BBC
Right, dragged to shops… enjoy the day
Eurochamps67
Get a Mac
Jobo
Take care I think They’re walking today.
Weefra HH
Weefra
Don’t worry about it me an Jobo go back a long
way,he won’t take offence,hopefully:o)
John Fleck has apparently refused to transfer to Sevco because he doesn’t think Sally will give him a first team place.
Still, he could be right. If you’re not in a league you don’t need a first team.
VP
:))
Gordon_J
Ha – It’s curious that MSM have have failed to acknowledge to any degree the absurdity of the situation of having only five signed senior players in training.
Carry On Regardless CSC
….oh, aye!
bournesouprecipe,
Indeed. They will be lucky to compete in the third division with this squad.
HEARTS last night revealed season-ticket sales have gone through the roof since Vladimir Romanov ranted against a Rangers newco in the SPL.
They have now sold 8000 and recorded their highest weekly sale since the days after their Scottish Cup final win against old rivals Hibs in May.
Raging Romanov last Thursday issued a statement that ripped into past Rangers regimes and
delivered an emphatic No to Newco in the top flight.
And fans – lifted by the Tynecastle chief’s stance – have responded big time. Season books sold at three times the rate of the week before Romanov’s rant and the club are well on the way to surpassing last season’s figure of more than 10,000.
With Celtic i believe having surpassed the 40,000 in season books looks like the MSM clowns who claimed Scottish football will die without the Govan club could be wrong! who would have thunk it
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon on 30 June, 2012 at 10:22 said:
I’m sure once a few dodgy decisions go thems way,they’ll soon get the hang of things.
*Checks edges of bread for mould, places in toaster*
BSR
You live dangerously,my hero.
“Rangers teenager John Fleck hailed as Scotland’s Wayne Rooney”
(Roddy Forsyth)
hahahaha
goldstar10
Do you know if there are any links to Alex Thompson’s latest post-mortem on C4?
Fleck off?
“Scotland manager George Burley happy to throw John Fleck, 17, in at the deep end. George Burley has declared himself willing to throw Rangers’ teenage prodigy, John Fleck, in against Holland when Scotland travel to Amsterdam for their next World Cup qualifier on March 28.” (Roddy Forsyth)
a prodigy right enough!
http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/scottish-footballs-chance-saloon/2091
17 June: “There would be no provision for any newco (new company) Rangers to go into the First Division rather than the Third Division.”
28 June: “The SFL is trying to address the question of whether we can accommodate a solution to the Rangers FC scenario.”
Light regulation
Let us remember where all this began. Not with football but with big capitalism out of control. Remember David Cameron on the banks when he said what was needed for our banking system was:
“…light regulation and low regulation…”
And look what happened from RBS and The Shred to this week’s Bollingergate fiasco at Barclays and probably now quite a few other banks. Because were given too free a rein, were too under-regulated, too under-governed and too under-supervised, they decided to ignore the rules.
What a surprise.
So too in big sport. It just happens to be a club called Rangers – or at least it was – the final new name appears as yet uncertain. Just like the banks they thought they could ignore the rules. Just like the banks they sowed legacy-mines and time-bombs all over the park and now, one by one, they detonate.
High noon
So the once mighty Rangers over the next week perhaps, face high noon at Hampden with no certainty where the club will play although it will not be in the Scottish Premier League.
And the response from authorities charged with imposing regulation on a sport where regulation appears to have been flouted?
Incinerate the rule-book.
The Scottish Football League (SFL), Scottish Football Association and Scottish Premier League perceive Rangers as a cash cow and given their mighty support they’re right. They now consider their only option to force Rangers back into the highest point possible in their system – Division 1 – now the SPL clubs have surprised them by calling their bluff and voting no to having them back in the top flight and expelling them from the SPL as they are now pledged to do next week (seven clubs having already said no).
Let’s look at the document sent to the SFL clubs designed to force them to vote Rangers into Division 1. This is about three things when you pare it down:
1. money (business)
2. sporting integrity (morality)
3. fans (customers)
There are 16 references in the SFL document to money and business. There are four references to sporting integrity and morality in any sense. There are just two references to fans. I think ‘redemption’ gets a message. ‘Punishment’ – unless I’ve missed it – does not.
Resistance to change
Of course the authorities should consider business – but it should consider profoundly the fact that ignoring everything in the pursuit of ‘business’ is precisely what destroyed Rangers FC and created the current crisis.
This should tell us something about where the SFL is coming from and the really critical phrase is contained in the section where they are selling the Division 1 option to the SFL clubs. They call this:
“…a least-worse case financial scenario…”
Which is what the ‘deal’ or ‘threat’ is all about. Coupled with the added enticer that many Division 1 clubs in Scotland have long wanted the two-tier SPL now being punted to accommodate the Rangers newco.
But hang on a minute. Go back to the top of the document and there’s a shrill plea for change, boldness, a chance to escape the fear of change which, it is implied, has done so much to damage Scottish football. “Why does resistance to change in football exist?” it says. Then it concludes:
1. “Fear of the unknown”- yet what follows is all about fear of the unknown. The document then proceeds to play on fears of the unknown if Rangers is not placed as high as possible in the leagues ie in Division 1. It is dripping with financial fears.
2. “Lack of involvement” – yet there’s been zero meaningful involvement of the clubs, beyond being summoned to high noon at Hampden and absolutely no meaningful involvement of the customers – the fans – who let’s face it played such a large part in calling the bluff on the plan to shoehorn Rangers straight back into the SPL by pressuring chairmen into actually considering things like morality and integrity
3. “Lack of information” – yet what kind of information have fans of clubs had on all this? Where are the scary figures plucked from to justify placing Rangers in Division 1? Where are the models? Where are the costings? Details? They get one paltry line-graph and some scary sloganeering.
4. “Threat to power, or status” – yet if that is considered an obstacle to change – why produce a manifesto to enshrine the power and status of a wholly toxic football brand to the highest degree possible within the league structure?
5. “No perceived benefits” – yet the Division 3 option for Rangers is perceived in wholly negative terms. Most fans see real benefits of this, not least Rangers fans themselves, whilst accepting inevitable financial pain for all. So how come football authorities either don’t perceive these benefits or have ignored them?
6 “Unless behaviour changes, nothing changes” – somewhat ironic given this is a manifesto to manage utter catastrophe by means of the most minimal change possible. Inaction, negligence and continuing cronyism are part of what has brought Scottish football to its knees. The behaviour proposed here is to do as little as possible to rock a boat that was plainly sinking.
Bizarre document
So there it is. A bizarre document the tone of which is near-panic, which sets out to destroy all the supposed ambition set out at its top. Extraordinary prose for extraordinary times.
The fans – the customers – of course lie forgotten. Everyone says most fans want Rangers in Division 3 and most Rangers fans (for various reasons) seem to want that too. They are not listened to. They are not heard.
Like a desperate child the football authorities survey the car-crash they’ve presided over and wring their hands. Shocked by the SPL clubs calling their bluff they try desperately to get the nearest thing possible to the SPL with their SPL- lite.
The fans aren’t daft and they’ll not buy this, nor should the clubs – even those who’ve long hankered for the two-tier SPL.
Let us start with something we can all agree on. The latest plan for Ibrox as a football venue shows just how late the hour really is in Scottish football’s last chance saloon. There is near-panic in the area. Immediate, urgent desperation measures and to hell with the rule-books.
Take Scottish Football League chief executive David Longmuir, not because he’s any worse or better or more or less compromised by crisis than any other of the blazers, but because his u-turning sums up the panic.
It should all be about real change, real opportunities for clubs who are not toxic and for Rangers to have the chance – genuinely, credibly, cleanly – to put this behind them, do their time and come good as they surely will, with any deserved bragging rights earned the hard way in coming years.
Don’t take my word – pop up the A9 to the new hotbed of European football in Scotland – Perth.
EUROCHAMP DONT GO TO PC WORLD
its pure overpriced pish and you’ll get pressured into buying a shittonne of stuff you dont want or need.
BSR
….with every revelation that leaks from the rotten carcass of the defunct klub I just think what a hunned-up jamboree the MSM would be having if in any way, shape or form we were in the same position….
…..but for the in-house team?……different rooolz, corkscrew perspective and benevolent indulgence……..from the usual tainted trumpets..
Shameful charlatans.
roy croppie on 30 June, 2012 at 10:32 said:
was that piece based on looks rather than ability
shrekCSC
hail hail
lionroars67:
Cheers mate but I thought AT was on about the state of Scottish football on TV last night, that is what I am trying to find.
SSN
Gary OConner sentenced to 200 hrs unpaid work. Rumours are that he will sign for Toxico.
Anyone going to demo at Hamden today?
Next season will be more interesting than one might think.
All of Scotland (not just the bigots) will be behind the opposition when they play Celtic. Any bad decision will be swept away with ‘you’re such a big rich club that you can’t complain when things don’t always go your way’.
It will be like starting every game with a -1 goal handicap. I wouldn’t complain too much – if I was an Aberdeen fan I would have that attitude.
fergus slayed the blues
that could be a good career move for him:)
lookilikiesCSC
kitalba on 30 June, 2012 at 10:40 said:
lionroars67:
Cheers mate but I thought AT was on about the state of Scottish football on TV last night, that is what I am trying to find.
Kit if you click on the link AT’s piece on last night’s Channel4 news is available to see
Googhbhoy
“Toxico” !!!!
Take a bow, Sir! ( I may have to purloin that wan……………)
Thanks…….
:)
A place in Div3 is still a helping hand and not a punishment! por cierto.
eurochamp
http://www.hotukdeals.com/
good place to find good deals on pcs/everything
work out if you can use your (or someone else’s) current version of windows on your new pc before purchasing, cos it will be a lot cheaper without having to get new windows too.
also dont take any sort of insurance or antivirus from the shop (if you go to one)
roy croppie
The comparison must be to do with their looks rather than football ability.
bamboo
wishful thinking on Roddy’s part.
At least John McMillan, from the ex clubs assembly/trust/vanguard or something, has explained on Channel 4 where his whistling style of delivery comes from:
“biting bullets!”