You have been presented with a narrative that we should collapse the Scottish Premier League this summer and have the SFA register a new, two-division, league system to resolve the problems inherent in having too many bodies running our game. This is complete nonsense.
Those pushing for a SPL 2 are, perhaps with good intentions, trying to pull a deal together to reduce the impact of the demise of Rangers FC buy allowing a phoenix the chance to gain entry into the league structure two levels higher than what they now face.
It’s a stupid proposal.
As things stand, there is no chance of a Newco getting access to the SPL next season. Despite Neil Doncaster heavily advocating the notion, the idea is simply undeliverable. Our club has been committed to opposing the proposition from the beginning, while many others now realise they have to observe the strong feelings of their own supporters on the matter.
Doncaster should have realised this was a campaign he could not win before he boxed himself into a corner over it. SPL 2 is an attempt to address the ‘No to Newco’ concerns while bringing the income some in the game hope Newco will deliver.
The unnamed SFA source who briefed the BBC on this topic last week made no reference whatsoever to Newco, their focus was all on the administrative challenges of having multiple bodies in charge of the game, but this was disingenuous. If there was a prospect of Newco getting into the SPL we would not be having this debate.
Tell us the truth, be honest, and these random, ill-considered, notions will perhaps be received in a better light.
The hope is that fans of the former club, Rangers, bring their cash along to watch Newco, which would play SPL 2 football next season and would be subject to whatever penalties the various independent bodies impose for years to come for the illegal actions of Rangers. This would allow Newco to claim the history of Rangers, would perhaps maintain the existing BSkyB TV deal and would meet the ‘No to Newco’ demands.
There are several huge obstacles to overcome. The SFA will soon instruct Lord Carloway’s Appellate Panel to consider a new punishment for ‘Rangers’ for misdeeds during the Craig Whyte era. I expect him to suspend the ‘club’ for 12 months. A new independent judicial panel will consider the case against ‘Rangers’ for subverting our game for over a decade through the illegal registration of players. If/when the First Tier Tribunal finds against Rangers a fresh wave of charges will be brought against any club claiming to hold that identity – as a guide, think of the punishments for the Craig Whyte era multiplied by 12.
These three independent judicial panels will destroy whatever is left of what we used to call ‘Rangers’ and there is nothing the football authorities can do about it.
Sevco, who own Ibrox and have applied for SPL access, already face an enormous challenge to meet trading costs for a year, even in the SPL, never mind a lower league (as Dave King correctly concluded). They are prime candidates for another insolvency event any time soon. Best of all, a Celtic fan has now bid for the assets (more on this later)!
Even if Newco overcame these enormous challenges, the SFA and SPL executives, having realised they cannot convince fans of 11 clubs to hold their noses and put up with a Newco-Rangers, will now try to convince former Rangers fans to cough up cash to support a Newco that will be rendered impotent by the most severe penalties in the history of our game.
I cannot see former Rangers fans accepting their role as cannon fodder for St Mirren, Motherwell and (cough) Kilmarnock in a league where the Mighty Celtic romp home by 30 points.
I don’t have an objection in principle to a two-league SPL but plan it properly, don’t allow knee-jerk reactions to dictate thinking. There’s no point in us getting paranoid about this, it’s not some attempt to help the remnants of ‘Rangers’, it’s just a stupid proposal from people who have yet to see the big picture.
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Paul67
What is the big picture, has anyone any idea?
The goal for me would be the establishment of an Ethical League where honest football can soar to higher heights, but is there a plan for taking us there or are heads still grubbing around in the current debris of a failed system?
I’m reminded by the current state of our game of this story.
There once was an Apache brave who was walking down the trail when he discovered an eagle’s egg had fallen out of it’s nest. He looked up and saw that the nest was too high for him to return the egg. So he placed the egg in a nearby prairie chicken nest.
When the egg hatched, the little eagle thought he was a prairie chicken. Prairie chickens stay on the ground and eat only worms and grubs. So, as the eagle grew, he ate nothing but worms and grubs and walked around with the other prairie chickens.
One day, he looked up in the sky and saw some eagles soaring high above. He asked one of the prairie chickens, “How can they fly up there while we are down here eating worms and grubs?”
The prairie chicken answered, “They are the eagles, they can do that but we must stay down here. We are prairie chickens and that is what we do.”
So, the eagle spent the rest of his life flying very little and eating worms and grubs just because he was told that was all he could do.
Paul67
I love these bomb shell articles to Club12’s hopes…
Saint Stivs on 21 June, 2012 at 12:25 said:
knoxy2000… RAISING AWARENESS OF NEUROBLASTOMA on 21
Brilliant!!!!
better than brilliant, very very funny
“my ma thinks i will be in bed early”
ta for sharing
Glasgow Raptors F.C.
Paul – I don’t believe there was ever a chance of Newco going into Div 3, with the SPL2 compromise being a fairly obvious one.
The game in Scotland needs a radical re-structuring, with or without the demise of our city neighbours, but it would have to be similar to the Italian league set up with regional divisions below SPL2.
What’s being proposed here is the same as what we’ve already got, with a potential fast-track route into the top flight for the Newco club.
They are DEAD, but they are still negatively influencing the game in this country! Somebody get an exorcist….
TTTT
A milestone for my wee blog:
500 Not Out!
PAUL 67
WELL SAID
LIKING THE POSITIVITY
CHAMPIONS 2013
:)
Paul, I wish I had the same confidence that you do in the authorities of the game. From here it looks like the SFA/SPL/SFL are trying to cobble together a plan that would appease the majority of club chairmen – vote newco into SPL then relegate them for dual contracts etc. In my opinion that would be the death knell of what is left of Scottish Football.
This could all have been so simple. If the SFA/SPL had strong leaders in place then Rangers would have been told in February that if administration was followed by liquidation and newco formation, then they would have needed to apply to join the league at the bottom level, then none of this nonsense and uncertainty would be occurring. My god, we may even have seen a normal administration process, and they many even have tried to put together a respectable CVA proposal that offered creditors a fair return over a number of years, that had a decent chance of being accepted. Instead we have one Hannah and Barbera episode after another, dragging Scottish Football through the muck in the process.
One final point – Celtic have said since day one that they would comment when appropriate. Hasn’t that time arrived? I have just renewed, via DD, 4 season tickets. I would like my club to not only listen to it’s customers, but also to speak to them. The silence is worrying.
If there is a newco in SPL 1, 2 or SFL 1 next season then I will be cancelling the season tickets, and will NEVER be back.
Pleistocene People..
Fossilized past -petrified future .
Rock of Ages CSC -Way down south .
Work done —— off to the beach —– I need a dip , the dogs need a wash..
Hot -Hot Hot.
Paul, I for one, find it difficult not to be paranoid, concerning the yogic contortions some figures, both in the other SPL clubs and within the football authorities, are prepared to endure in order to accommodate FC Sevco- I guess it’s just force of habit. I agree with you, in principle, that it is a decent enough idea, but why not demonstrate a little more patience, approach the situation with genuine maturity and plan ahead for next season instead?
Thing’s cannot move ahead so quickly without major errors being committed.
We cannot get this wrong. This is a chance, a once in a lifetime opportunity, particularly with the fans as a driving force for change, to once and for all radically overhaul the structure of the ossified system and enact lasting transformation.
Pantaloon Duck
That does not make sense. Chewbacca is a wookie, therefore there should be no Newclub.
Tombola
There is a good case for the reorganisation of Scottish football. Henry McLeish said so, as did many other people. And I agree that there is a string case for change. So why has no one been working on a plan until now?
Reorganise the game. Do it properly. But don’t create a shabby little compromise solution just for the benefit of Sevco.
Haven’t read back but ‘hearing’ that AT is about to report POSSIBLE EBT involvement of Dallas, and another ref……?????????
Now that really would put the cat in amongst the pigeons……………..
I have a dream….
Ibrox gets bought, donated to the Church and turned into a RC school.
Now THAT would be nice! :-)
Tell me Mr Doncaster, Mr Regan and yes, even you Mr Ogilvie, what would be an appropriate punishment for a club which has systematically cheated every other club in the country and throughout Europe, every fan of every one of those clubs, and a multitude of businesses who have lost a fortune?
We are not talking about a speeding fine or a parking ticket here, SYSTEMATIC CHEATING FOR OVER 20 YEARS!!
Just tell us, if this had been any other club in the country, what would be the punishment?
Apply the rules without fear or favour. That is all the decent, honest football fans of Scotland want. Do that and you might just save the game in Scotland. Continue on the path you are on and you will drive the nails in your own coffins.
What about the land thats in and around celtic park,janefield st ,were they park the buses ,parts of barrowfield ,etc etc ,and the old school .somebody owns all of it ,but who
Punishment for 700+ matches of fielding ineligible players, destroying the game by driving up players wages, stealing £135M from the public purse and other creditors, cheating fellow clubs out of £m’s of revenue via lost euro ties, league places, commercial revenue etc ——————–>>>
A year in the first division and a restructuring of the league setup.
WTF!
let’s imagine Newclubgers gain admission to SPL but are immediately relegated to a newly and hastily constructed SPL2. they have lost most of the players who played for the dead club, and are playing with a bunch of kids and Elbows McCulloch.
What happens if they don’t win promotion ?
What then ? More reconstruction ?
Where will it end ? A Scottish league system based on geographical criteria ?
The farce that is Scottish Football gets worse by the day, and if we weren’t already the laughing stock of European football by now, then we would be very soon.
timbhoy2 on 21 June, 2012 at 12:43 said:
What about the land thats in and around celtic park,janefield st – Celtic own the land inside the gates at the Jock stein end and all the car park spsace at the lisbon lion end
,were they park the buses – Celtic gave that to the Council for the new road, in exchange for free use of the car parks at the new indoor arena and velodrome
,parts of barrowfield – lots of people
,etc etc ,and the old school – Celtic
.somebody owns all of it ,but who – as above
We have just had the biggest development in Scottish football since the last big one and the silence from Doncaster and Regan is quite remarkable. Just a few weeks/months ago they were forever on telly and radio or tweeting something.
Why are they so quiet following Oldco’s demise?
I demand to hear something. :-)
67Heaven
Where is that being rumoured? Hope so however RTC tweeted the other day that he had seen no evidence of payments through EBTs to Referees.
I would love it (in the Keegan style) if there was hard evidence proving that they had been paying off refs. Sadly, I doubt it since the MIBs would do there bidding for free.
Tombola
Fantasma is Neil Lennon on 21 June, 2012 at 12:47 said:
Where will it end ? A Scottish league system based on geographical criteria ?
……………..
I got to be honest when I went to every game home and away on the James Stokes VC bus my dream SPL consisted of
Us
Thistle
Queens Park
St Mirren
Albion Rovers
Motherwell
Hamilton
Clydebank*
Dumbarton
Airdrie*
* It was a few years ago mind
One SFL chairman described the prospect of Rangers playing through Scottish football’s bottom tier, as “an invitation to carnage.” He added: “It raises too many questions about policing and resources and also a gross mismatch of resources. In fact, there is now a greater chance of the SFL refusing to allow Rangers admission if they are rejected as a newco by the SPL – so where will they play and who will they play against if that happens?”
No-one wants us and we do care… :(
ASonOfDan on 21 June, 2012 at 12:51 said:
One SFL chairman described the prospect of Rangers playing through Scottish football’s bottom tier, as “an invitation to carnage.” He added: “It raises too many questions about policing and resources and also a gross mismatch of resources. In fact, there is now a greater chance of the SFL refusing to allow Rangers admission if they are rejected as a newco by the SPL – so where will they play and who will they play against if that happens?”
No-one wants us and we do care… :(
…………..
i’d prefer their new club to never kick a ball in anger ever!!!
Paul67
Can we expect an SFA statement today that the rangers case has now been passed back to the Appeal Tribunal.
South of Tunis
If you are around.
There was a fantastic interview with Bobby Womack in the Guardian a few weeks ago. If you visit their website you should be able to see it.
ASonofDan
SPL2 – with no promotion allowed for 2 years???
So what division will Third Lanark be in under the new plans? Clydebank?
Last week I had a very interesting conversation with my fellow Tims on C.Q.N.about the miner`s strike in the `80s and the concept of scabbism or,as I see it,bullying and intimidation.
The Telegraph tells me that two thirds of doctors are refusing to support or take part in, the current strike of medical G.Ps.in U.K.
Can we now expect the socialist fraternity on C.Q.N. to respond to these medical scabs with fraternal support for their striking medic brothers, by boycotting these medic scabs and organising picket lines outside the offending medical practices and their blackleg doctors who have defied their Union by,shamefully as some may feel , adhering to the Hippocratic Oath ?
Or, is it all a large dose of double standards and hypocrisy ?
The questions are rhetorical.
67Heaven … I am Neil Lennon..!!..Truth and Justice HAS prevailed on 21 June, 2012 at 12:38 said:
”Haven’t read back but ‘hearing’ that AT is about to report POSSIBLE EBT involvement of Dallas, and another ref……?????????”
Yes if you’re going to bribe referees the best way to do it would be through an EBT.
No doubt about it.
The only thing I’d say about refs getting EBTs (allegedly) is why would they pay refs to get decisions they already knew they’d get anyway?
It doesn’t make sense to me.
Paul
Another great article.
Why is there no one in the MSM who has the guts to say that the proposed reorganising of Scottish Football is just cynical gerrymandering?
macjay1 for Neil Lennon on 21 June, 2012 at 12:57 said:
You must have been terribly embarrassed and ashamed by Jock Stein’s views on the miners strike.
Unless the referees who may have received them were in fact Celtic supporting refs who give us all the decisions that the permanently insane on FF think we get.
Then EBTs as a bribe would make sense.
macjay1 – The questions are rhetorical.
Rhetorical, eh?
Eight! (thumbsup)
Re. chat about MIB EBT;
There was no need to bribe referees and their assistants.
There were other means by which the ‘right’ decisions could be encouraged.
1. Donald Findlay is on record saying that when they had problem that a phone call would be made.
2. Many of them were only too willing to assist. Bobby Tait is one name that springs to mind.
3. Even the most reverend of refs may have a secret that they would prefer to be kept that way.
4. In all walks of life career development, ambition and ego have influenced the actions of many people not just refs and officials.
Macjay1
The telegraph as usual on issues such as this are lying through their teeth. But then it’s unlikely you could ever be convinced of this, so it’s a complete waste of time even discussing such an issue.
Can you remind us if there was a ballot and what the result of said ballot might have been ?
I think the SPL chairmen be very careful that they don’t enshrine in Scottish football law and precedent their own death warrant.
What if the Arabs want to get rid of Thompson and Newco as a fan owned club?
No better and cheaper time to make that move than now especially if integrity is more important than your bonus regardless if it comes via an EBT, a brown bag or your bank account.
The open demonstration by the games owners and administrators should provide a swathe of fans that they indeed by themselves and do better.
Remove the professional leeches from the game and use that income to improve things for the people that pay for it rather than a poor qaulity rigged competition administrated by expensive con men.
HH