Obligatory Rangers post of the day
A possible watershed: Annan Athletic have declared their opposition to admitting Sevco Scotland FC (change of name pending) to Division 1 of the Scottish Football League. By our calculations, that means that the Charles Green-owned company can NOT now obtain the 15 votes it needs to secure admission – 14 clubs are opposed, two have declared in favour, two are abstaining and 12 have not made their position known, leaving Sevco with a maximum of 14 votes.
Much water remains to pass under the bridge before Friday’s meeting, of course. The SFA, SPL and SFL might yet pull some desperate new trick with the rulebook, or increase their bribes to the lower-league clubs enough to turn some heads. But at the present moment in time, Sevco FC will be playing – at best – in SFL3 next season.
Time for Messrs Regan and Doncaster to consider their positions?
More time with the family perhaps?
Lots of skull duggery to be done. Everyone has a price. Watch that 1 mill go up to 2 or 3 if necessary….
redcliffe62 – while I’m sure there’ll be more to come from the corrupt troika of Doncaster, Regan and Longmuir, I think their efforts to bully the SFL chairmen into submission has burned all bridges. Just read some of the statements from clubs like Raith, Annan and Ayr United. Remember that these are businessmen who did not get where they are by being told what to do by others, and they’re not about to take kindly to being bossed about just because they happen to be chairmen of a small club. Whatever else the three numpties have up their sleeve can only serve to piss folk off even more – which is pretty much the story of this whole debacle, as I’m fairly sure Sevco could have started in division 1 if they hadn’t had the cheek of expecting to get into the SPL in the first place. Now they’re going to be lucky to even get into the SFL…
Those who have confirmed themselves as “no” votes have clearly decided they can survive without the bribe currently being offered to them, so I don’t think upping the bribe will make a difference. I would expect us to find out how the remaining 1st and 3rd division clubs intend to vote pretty soonish now that we’ve dropped below the magic 15 possible “yes” voters.
Surely the SFL clubs will be cowed by the masterly panegyrics of Craig Burley in the DR?
Doug Daniel, I simply state that if there is a price to be offered then certain parties will surely go for that approach if threats have failed.
Why were Rangers able to vote on SPL as a conflict of interest surely yet Dundee and Airdrie cannot do so and it is not even their club directly involved? Self gain for Rangers voting as well? Who made that decision?
Well, they were allowed to vote because the old Rangers still has a share in the SPL until it gets transferred to someone else. Of course, this logically tells us that Sevco 5088 are not Rangers, no matter what their supporters say!
But essentially the SPL rules are not set up in the interests of sporting fairness, whereas it would seem the SFL ones are. Just remember, the clubs are voting for something to change, so any abstentions are effectively counted as “no” votes. Dundee and Airdrie United not being able to vote doesn’t benefit Sevco in any way!
Actually it does – it reduces the number of votes they need from 16 to 15. The SFL requires a majority of votes cast, not of members eligible to vote. So normally you need a majority out of 30 (ie 16), but with two abstaining you only need a majority from 28 (ie 15).
Urgh, I was thinking it had been 15 all along, which doesn’t even make sense. So much for me being a maths genius.
Still, I reckon the SFL rules are fair enough really, it’s the SPL ones that are warped. One thing I don’t get, though: if Sevco get punted into the 3rd division, someone will have to be punted up to the 2nd division to take Airdrie’s place. Presumably it would be Stranraer, since they lost to Albion Rovers in the play-off. So how come they get a vote but Airdrie don’t? Or are Airdrie just self-abstaining?
Also, I’m not sure why Dundee are being forced to abstain when we don’t yet know if it’ll be them or Dunfermline who will get promoted. I agree with the concept of teams that directly benefit from the decision being made to abstain (I’d be annoyed if Aberdeen’s existence was in the balance of folk who would benefit from our demise), but the actual application of the rule seems a bit haphazard.
“Presumably it would be Stranraer, since they lost to Albion Rovers in the play-off. So how come they get a vote but Airdrie don’t? Or are Airdrie just self-abstaining?”
Airdrie are self-abstaining. There is also no rule anywhere in the SFL rulebook that prohibits Dundee from voting – if there was, it would surely apply equally to Dunfermline, and nobody appears to have told them they can’t vote.
Hmmmmm…..
Annans stance doesn’t surprise me. They had to start at the bottom. And they had a history of playing in the juniors. Why would they vote for a new company with no history to be treated differently? Especially one associated with corruption and cheating and bullying?
And some might not be turned by an offer of more money, but some might.
Imagine the offer of a few extra quid in your wages next year.
Now imagine the offer of enough money to pay off your mortgage.
Tempted?
I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some more Skullduggery afoot, but, I worried Rangers would be rushed in and out of Administration to keep them in Europe. I fretted some deals might be done in dark places to keep the old company afloat. and I feared The other clubs would vote to keep them in. I still expect some “Manipulation” to take place, but we’ve done the right thing at every turn so far. (How we got there might be open to questioning, but we’ve done the right thing) Isn’t it possible that might just continue?
I wonder what the reaction would be from the appropriate bodies if I decided to use £10M of my money to start a new football club in Scotland. Would I immediately assume that my club with totally unknown qualities should be placed in ‘a’ division, I think not
Rangers is deceased as a club, no longer trading in anything but memories. Why oh why is this brand new club Sevco expecting to be welcomed with open arms at any door it cares to chap on? Memories should not be opening doors nor calling favours
Stu,
I am not at all convinced that the Partick Thistle statement constitutes a definite no.
This is the latest from Alex Thomson:
link to blogs.channel4.com
which appears to suggest it’s all still on a knife edge.
Rev, I think you’ve miscalculated, either that or Falkirk FC’s Board statement came after your post on the 4th (if your link is genuine). Unless I’m missing something it looks like they are pretty unequivocally in the NO camp. To quote;
“We believe that introducing Rangers to the First Division as proposed throws away the chance of introducing real change to our game and, in the short term, simply reduces First Division clubs chances of securing an automatic promotion place. We cannot therefore support the current proposal put forward by the SFL.
I make it No 15, Abstain 2, Yes 2, and undecided 11. The maximum yes vote is now 13.
Integrity and the rules win I think.
The smile your post gave me just got a bit bigger.
Rev Stu,
I suppose imitation is the sincerest form of flattery:
link to sport.stv.tv
Tho this is also interesting
link to sport.stv.tv
It is all moving suspiciously quickly.
“I suppose imitation is the sincerest form of flattery:”
Mm. The annoying thing is that STV’s piece started out today with the headline and numbers at 12-3 rather than 13-3, but I tweeted @STVGrant to point out that he’d missed Ayr United, and gave him the quote that now appears in the amended piece, and the link to where it could be found. I’m not expecting a credit or anything, but a wee tweet back saying “Cheers” would have been a professional courtesy. Tsk.
Rev Stu,
Any thoughts on my comment above re Falkirk? I think you have them in the wrong camp. Or may I have perhaps misinterpreted their statement?
And here’s your dirty trick.
“That the Scottish Football League Members direct the Board of Management of The Scottish Football League (the “Board”) to provide that Rangers F.C. shall play in the Third Division of the Scottish Football League during Season 2012/13 unless the Board shall have to its satisfaction negotiated and reached agreement with The Scottish Premier League and The Scottish Football Association on a series of measures which the Board shall consider to be in the best interests of the game, how it is structured, how it is governed and how it is financed, whereupon the Board shall be authorised to provide that Rangers F.C. shall play in the First Division of the Scottish Football League during Season 2012/13.”
Translation, it’s div 1 or nothing.
At least we know why there are no Scots in Team GB football.
Trying to get an answer out of the SFA would have been impossible.
Something like this.
Pearce: Hello, is that Scotland Soccer or whatever you call yourselves?
I want Naismith and Fletcher so we can at least try and call it team GB.
SFA. (ansaphone message) I am sorry we are not here today, we are rather busy with FIFA, UEFA and Rangers crap right now, and the rules make it hard to do what we want to do.
Any more crap about anything and we are all down the … so anything else please call Sepp in Switzerland on……”
If there is a secret ballot some people may vote yes and deny they did afterwards.
I also think the SFA would be worse than Mugabe when the votes were counted and they can claim 17 in favour and none would be any the wiser.
Would they lie to get rangers in? I suspect they would.
Got it worked out.
SFL not able to get them in SFL3 as question is fixed so if not in SFL1 they cannot be in SFL3. Doncaster and Regan and Longmuir and cheshire cat Ogilvie cannot risk any additional amendments or the plan is rooted.
97% of fans think they should be after all that has gone on. Most SPL chairmen (or theor bank managers anyway) secretly want them back in even if they are cheating b*****.
Many questions unanswered, covering finances and integrity and god knows everything else too.
Then SPL let Rangers newco back in on Monday as SFL did not want them (a lie) and wait for the spray from fans and support from SPL, Record, Beeb etc.
As a sweetener make the SPL 14 teams and allow Dunfermline and Dundee in….. so no tough decision to make there either.
The question will then be…. vote for SFL1 or they go back into the SPL and you get no monies, no nothing……
This may have been the agenda all along. I suspect it is. See if I am right.
Surely the true story must come out now?
Who are Doncaster, Regan et al? What is Ogilvies connection?
How many brown envelopes and threats have been dished out?
Football a game?
My arse.