Don’t blink
When we knocked up this image in Paintshop for a bit of fun a month ago, we had no idea it was going to turn out to be quite so prophetic. The final act of the Rangers saga is going to play out just like the three-way Mexican standoff at the end of Reservoir Dogs, with Sevco, the SFA and the SPL all shouting furiously, pointing guns at each other and daring the other to crack first.
Charles Green’s consortium is still, at time of writing, thought to be refusing to accept the SPL’s right to pursue the dual-contracts investigation against Rangers Football Club PLC (in liquidation) and apply its findings to Sevco Scotland Limited. By doing so, it is in effect holding the whole of Scottish football to ransom. If our game is to survive the next 48 hours with any integrity and meaning whatsoever, the SPL, having (with massive reluctance) come this far, must not blink.
Because any Doctor Who fan will tell you what happens if you blink now.
It’s easy to see why Green is trying his luck. Both sides clearly have something to lose, but he might well feel that the SPL is more frightened than he is. As we’ve seen, he has an escape route no matter what, whereas the SPL has from the very first day of this fiasco been quivering in terror that it might lose its pitiful TV deal with Sky and ESPN. Now that that contract is apparently on the verge of being rescued, at least in large part, Green can hear lily-livered SPL chief Neil Doncaster’s knees knocking all the way across Glasgow, and fancies his chances.
For the record, we still don’t think the SPL will cave in – even though deep down it really really wants to – because it would simply be too much for Scottish football to take after the traumatic summer it’s endured. To grant Sevco an amnesty for the crimes of Rangers, yet allow it to adopt the bankrupt club’s name and badge and history and purport to be the same entity, would send out a message that it’s fine to cheat in every single club football competition in Europe, because even if you get caught you can keep all the trophies you stole.
The SPL is definitely gutless enough to allow that to happen. The SFA probably is. But we just can’t see UEFA and FIFA wearing it. Green sensed weakness in his opponent and tried a bluff, knowing that he could fold if he had to. It’s hard to blame him for that, because he’s a businessman and there was an awful lot of weakness to sense.
But ultimately a small fraction of Rangers’ history has no value to him, and he’ll give it up for the bigger prize of being allowed to play football, sell off his remaining decent players, and get the club stabilised sufficiently that he can realise the multi-million-pound profit that’s the only thing he’s wanted all along.
STV are tweeting that an announcement is coming around noon today. We’re going to stick to our guns and say that Sevco will back down in order to be admitted to the SFA. If we’re wrong, expect Hell to break loose.
Prepare for the ranting to begin over on his site…..
what a load of nonesence… green and mccoist are saying no to accepting titles being stripped because Mr Celtic is trying to add a condition where Rangers cannot appeal the final decision… maybe if the investigation wasn’t being done by Celtic’s lawyers (i.e lawyers without conflict of interest) Mccoist and perhaps Green may have a different approach to that offer
You’ve got evidence for that, of course?
evidence of what? of the proposed conditions? or that harper macleod act on behalf of celtic?
Amazing. Not only do a lot of Rangers fans like to use Craig Whyte exclusively as the scapegoat for problems that began over a decade before he arrived at Ibrox, but people like Kev there think this is all part of some Celtic conspiracy. He’s by no means the only one, I’ve seen someone on Bella Caledonia trying to claim that the whole thing is a conspiracy to allow Celtic to win more titles.
Sorry to be blunt Kev, but you’re speaking absolute pish. If ever there was a time for Rangers fans to give the anti-Celtic thing a rest, it’s now.
well I dont think its a whole Celtic conspiracy, so I think it’s you that may be talking absolute pish mate. I whole heartedly believe Rangers are getting what they deserve and would not mind them punished for dual contracts… not when the investigation is being done by lawyers who clearly state on there website they work for our biggest rivals.
“evidence of what? of the proposed conditions?”
Yes, of those.
before this administration started, I used to think it was the Celtic fans who were totally paranoid.Now I know, it’s the other way around if half of those “sevco” fans were to project their fears and thoughts to any psychiatrist,the self cuddle jacket and the van with the square wheels would be ready and waiting ha ha he he ho ho
I really don’t understand how “Rangers” can refuse to be stripped of those titles. I mean, is this not a bit like a team refusing to acknowledge that they’ve lost a game after the whistle has gone and insisting that they won no matter what the league table says? What can “Rangers” actually do? Hijack the next printing of the Wee Red Book?
Kevow89 Rangers are being stripped ot titles because they cheated. Simple as that. If you were cheated out of something you would feel aggrieved. Sevco shouldnt be allows to play football again for the damage they and they alone have done to the scottish game. Stop pointing the finger, suck it up and support your new team.
Dear oh dear, it’s everyone’s fault but theirs!
Despite having not been punished for anything as yet, representatives of Sevco’s only defense is to claim that they have been punished enough.
When imbeciles like McCoist and Brown are lauded as heroes it is no surprise that the club has died.
A pundit on Radio Scotland a few weeks ago said that Scottish football fans are broadly 1/3 Rangers, 1/3 Celtic and 1/3 everyone else. I think he is probably about right – but the exact proportions don’t matter.
The question is – which third are required for Scottish football to survive?
If the fans of Rangers or Celtic (or both) find something else to do with their Saturdays, the game will survive at some level – probably quite healthily – after a period of trauma.
If the “others” lost much more interest than they already have and the league became literally the two team competition the Old Firm already believe it to be, how long would it last?
I doubt TV, old firm fans or Strathclyde Police would be interested in 30 odd matches per season between the ugly sisters.
Broadly speaking it’s more like 25% Rangers, 25% Celtic, 50% the rest.
The entire country would be better without these two sectarian cesspits that pass for sporting teams. I’m sick of all the petty minded bigoted moronS who would sell their grandchildrens’ future for the sake of a poxy football team. F@@@ off to some god forsaken corner of East Belfast where you can have lots of fun hating people for not going to the same church that you never go to!
Having as I do no knowledge of football what-so-ever but having followed this thing in an off-hand way…
I did think they (Rangers or sevco etc) had been punished enough, they’re basically out of big match football for three years but i actually see the point about trophies and wins in the past.
So, let Sevco go on as it is in the 3rd division, the trophies can go into a display somewhere neutral with a note saying: “Cheaters never win.”
With Rangers pretty much dead in the water as a team (I don’t think its reasonable to expect fans to accept losing the name too) and with no trophies (timed from when these EBT things started.) That would be an end of it.
Basically, Sevco can’t expect to keep the spoils (trophies) and not pay for them (be punished.)
Other than that, football in Scotland is a bit like the property market, its massively over-bloated. teams are paying way over the odds trying to compete, its clearly not working. Hearts are in trouble as I understand it as are some other clubs. No idea what the answer is except to say, the Premier league is going to be a load of shit to watch with everyone cheering their team for second place because Celtic operate on a completely different economy of scale.
“I did think they (Rangers or sevco etc) had been punished enough, they’re basically out of big match football for three years but i actually see the point about trophies and wins in the past.”
Thing is, being in Div 3 isn’t a punishment for fielding those players. It’s not even a punishment, it’s a massive favour to admit a new club who don’t meet the requirements for normal admittance after the old club went backrupt fucking over a lot of people who had invested. It happens.
What we’re dealing with now is literally just titles won with illegal players. If they wanted to strip extra titles there might be an argument but this is literally just the removal of titles they didn’t actually win. It would apply even if the old Rangers was £100m in the black. It’s really just a very lengthy version of disallowing a goal for offside or a foul. It’s not even a punishment at all, a punishment leaves you worse off for breaking rules. The Rangers record will be the same as if they’d never done it.
I imagine Green will be lucky to get away with the trading name Rangers, it still has a residual value, certainly more in cash turn-over terms than the trophies.
After today, I hope everybody just lets it go and moves on. Some of what’s being said in the name of a football team has sickened me to the core today.
It’s been a funny week, simultaneously proud and ashamed of my country! Well, a corner of it in the case of the latter.
Max Stafford, your hatred of old firm fans is every bit as bad as their hatred for each other!
Pa Broon, You are wrong.
Rangers are in division three because they went bust. Being in Division three is not a punishment, it’s a consequence of poor financial management.
The ten point deduction was a punishment, for the crime of going into liquidation. It wasn’t much of a punishment because Rangers still finished second and were more than ten points behind Celtic anyway, but it was a just punishment as it was the one that was in the rule book.
The £160,000 fine is a punishment. Again, not much of a punishment for a club with an annual turnover of £55 Million, but since Rangers no longer have that turnover and cash shortages got them into this mess I guess its probably a big deal and a suitable punshment for the crime of appointing a person who was neither Fit nor Proper as Owner. (or was that one for bringing the game into disrepute?)
And the one year long transfer ban is really only a January transfer ban since it will start after the current window closes, giving Rangers over a month to sign players (and they’re queing up to play in the third division!!!) and due to some irregularity the next Transfer window doesn’t shut until midnight Sept first which means Rangers can line up all of thier signings and complete the paperwork on the last day. Again, not much of a punishment, but, like Neil Lennon serving two bans concurrently instead of consecutively, you can hardly blame Rangers if the SFA are such a joke they cannot apply thier own sanctions properly. (Sanctions a court over-ruled because there’s nothing about them in the SFAs own rulebook!)
As for the titles, I’m a Celtic fan and I’d hate to see us win ten in a row retrospectively, but I do believe cheats should not be allowed to claim victories if there’s enough evidence to show they cheated. Whether they would have won anyway or not is irelevant. If I was in a boxing match with Mohamed Ali in his prime and he had a horseshoe in his glove and knocked me out with one punch, he still cheated. The fact he wouldn’t need it to win is irelevant. He broke the rules.
Basically, if Rangers commit multiple breaches of the rules they should get multiple punishments. If a player flattens another player every week, he gets sent off every week. He does not say “I got a red card last week, haven’t I been punished enough?” The answer to that clearly would be no, because he hasn’t learned to behave properly.
The SFA have blinked first. A temporary membership so they can play Brechin on Sunday is as good as telling Rangers they’ll get membership. This is a stupid move and now takes all pressure off Rangers and puts it on the SFA. They’ve as good as guaranteed Rangers a place in the league. Had they not done this the pressure would be on Rangers. Toe the line or you might be out of football completely!
Ammusingly I read somewhere Rangers are likely to be given a temporary 90 minute membership. I hope the game doesn’t go into extra time…
Rangers are in Div 3 because they were treated leniently, and allowed to jump ahead of other candidates.
The 10 point deduction was for going into administration, not liquidation.
“the Premier league is going to be a load of shit to watch with everyone cheering their team for second place because Celtic operate on a completely different economy of scale.”
Pa Broon, this will be a massive improvement from the past couple of decades, where we were all cheering our team for third place because Celtic and Rangers competed on a completely different economy of scale (and Rangers within completely different financial rules, it would seem).
Don’t believe this idea that the league will be boring now that we know (well, do we really?) that Celtic will be the champions every year for the next three years minimum. That’s a myth perpetuated by Rangers fans, as well as the media (arguably the same thing) who are just annoyed that they’ll have to find something else to write about in their back pages (although we all know they won’t, and Rangers will become the first 3rd division club to be mainstays of the back page). Clubs like Aberdeen, Dundee United and Hearts are gearing up for what promises to be the most exciting season in years, arguably the most exciting in the entire history of the SPL, in fact.
(And let’s not forget that three years without Old Firm games will allegedly save the taxpayer £120 million – such is the massive cost of policing these hatefests).
” due to some irregularity the next Transfer window doesn’t shut until midnight Sept first which means Rangers can line up all of thier signings and complete the paperwork on the last day. ”
I believe this turned out not to be true and the year long ban actually covers the whole next summer. I can’t remember if that was because our assumption on when the window closes was wrong or if they just slightly extended the ban.
The SFA claimed that Scottish football didn’t follow the same protocol as everyone else when the window closed on a Saturday, and explicitly said that Sevco wouldn’t be allowed to sign anyone on Sep 2nd.
Please dear God- no more! I love the blog, but this football stuff is boring the arse off me!
“Please dear God- no more! I love the blog, but this football stuff is boring the arse off me!”
Then you should be happy, because it’s pretty much over now. New season starts tomorrow, and Rangers will be in it. The saga’s all but done. (Until they go bust again in November.)
+1
How come no-one has posted this yet?
link to scottishfootballleague.com
the end game / end days, take your pick, are upon us all!
Sorry Ken.
Reverend Stuart Campbell,
“The debate’s all but done.”
Mibbes aye, mibbes naw.
This does not look promising. The SPL seems to have blinked one eye. If they blink the other eye and do not follow through with the EBT investigation (and consequent stripping of titles) they will do great damage to the reputation of Scotish football. Scotland will be the country where football has no integrity and is rotten to the core. The SFA should be concerned about that but seem to be cowed by ‘Rangers’. I hope that FIFA or UEFA step in.
I also dont like the reference to restructuring the game in Scotland. No doubt that will lead to the time that ‘Rangers’ is out of the top tier being shorter than the three years they are claiming as a ‘punishment’.
The Sevco position is, clearly, logically indefensible. That has been identiifed very well in the comments above. By trying to brazenly force the SFA and SPL to accept their position ‘Rangers’ has come out as a bully and a cheat. Also, if they took off the blinkers of ‘victimhood’ they would see that by trying to hang on to titles won by cheating they are damaging the very history thay seem to be proud of. If they keep the honours won during the EBT period every honour is tainted by association. ‘Rangers’ will always be seen as a team of cheats with no honour, whatever the ‘honours’ board says.
Certainly, McCoist is now damaged beyond repair. He may be a hero to the ‘Rangers’ bigots but to the everybody else he is an aggressive bully and a cheat. The “cheeky chappy” brand is gone for ever