As I have previously posted, placing Newco Rangers in the Third Divison is not only the best way
forward out of this situation for Scottish Football (and also for Newco Rangers
– as to be fair to them many of the fans of “old” Rangers realise) but the only
credible option available. The strange
thing in all this though is that while the clubs in the SPL voted to refuse
Newco Rangers entry, and the SFL voted to treat Newco Rangers as a normal
applicant in a dignified fashion, the heads of our game have behaved in an unedifying
fashion that at times may have verged on bullying. In short Neil Doncaster and Stuart Regan have
lost their credibility.
The arguments put
forward from Doncaster and Regan are that
sponsors will walk away from the game if Newco Rangers were to start their new
life in the Third Division. The contract
for broadcasting the SPL is up next year and the thought is that BSkyB would
not be interested in showing the SPL without “their” quota of Old Firm
games. It’s this doomsday scenario which
prompted the season ticket meeting at Greenhill Road where the board of St Mirren outlined why in the whole they supported bending the rules and hoped
that Newco Rangers were allowed to skip two divisions to start in the tier
below the SPL – or as it was put this was “the least worst option”. This brings us to the title of this post.
Richard Scudamore
as you may well know is the combatative Chief Executive of the English Premier
League. You might be annoyed at him for
describing Manchester City’s championship win not as an exiting moment or by esposing
some other football fan cliché but as a shining example of “inward investment
to our game”. But he does go and bat for
his organisation, and then some. He managed
to see off Blair’s (half hearted – remember this was the late Tony Banks baby)
attempts to set up a regulator for football and has managed to negotiate an
increase for the next set of television rights.
Say what you like about his achievements and his perennial appearances
on television defending sometimes the indefensible, but at least he defends his
organisation. Can you say the same about
Regan and Doncaster?
Regan &
Doncaster have, since HMRC confirmed what many people knew already and
dismissed Green’s CVA proposals, bent over backwards for the corporate sponsors
and have constantly put the case for them.
What they have never done is what Scudamore does with aplomb, and go and
bat for their members and put the case that essentially things have changed and
that they should continue to back a clean version of Scottish Football. Rather than talk up the game, Regan &
Doncaster have constantly talked down the game.
Whether the sponsors will now take flight is another matter & we
will see if this is the case.
Interestingly enough with all the (justified) ire directed at Regan
& Doncaster, there has been no talk of fan boycotts should there be a mass
exodus of sponsors from the Scottish game.
Whether yesterday’s
actions now draw a line under the implosion at Ibrox, or this is only the first
chapter remains to be seen. We may even
get a hint of what is to come on Monday when the SPL meet to discuss the
identity of “Club 12” – with maybe Doncaster
and Regan poised to push for discuss SPL 2. It is now clear that you can include the
careers of Stuart Regan and Neil Doncaster to the list of casualties in this
episode, given that there were calls for a vote of no confidence in Regan at
yesterday’s meeting. When the dust
settles on this crisis and people in Scottish football have retained their
clear heads, Doncaster and Regan should
announce their intention to leave their posts, any other outcome will exacerbate
this crisis.
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