Having been looking forward to telling him "I told you so" for weeks, you can imagine my disappointment when he happily admitted I was right, verbally laid into everyone who had anything to do with Rangers, and asked me for my opinion about what would happen next.
As regards the consequences of the administration process, plus the (alleged) dual contracts and the (alleged) ginormous tax bill, he was easily persuaded...Rangers, in the interests of fairness, have to be punished severely for their actions if found guilty. I have a good few Bluenoses amongst my friends, all of whom think in a similar way...though understandably they baulk at the prospect, they agree that, if any other club were to be liquidated, they would be, at best, having to apply against the likes of Spartans and Gala Fairydean for a place at the bottom rung of the SFL ladder.
And it is surely now no longer a case of 'if'', but of 'when' Rangers are liquidated. Neither of the remaining bids seem viable, whatever the claims of Gers champions such as the Daily Record. The Blue Knights claim a CVA can happen...which seems rather unlikely when, with the Big Tax Case tribunal result still unavailable, we don't even know just how much cash the club owe. As for the bid from the American Bill Miller, he always claimed it was conditional on no further punishment against Rangers, and, whilst trying to confuse everyone with technobabble, it is clear that, if he was to buy the club, he would liquidate. The fact that Ally McCoist, in his Old Firm game interviews, seemed to be using the dreaded L-word in every sentence suggests that the end is nigh.
The big question of course, is how Rangers will be punished. Last week, the SFA fired the first shot across their bows, and it was a big one; their tribunal ruled that they should get a twelve month transfer embargo. It seems fairly logical - Rangers have been purchasing players they couldn't pay for, and offering wages that they couldn't meet, so stopping them from doing so seems sensible to me. But it has huge implications, since the beginning of June is likely to see an exodus that Moses would be proud of; the wage deferrals the playing staff agreed to end, and barring payment of their outstanding monies in full, they are all in a position to leave for fairly paltry fees. If the transfer embargo sticks, those outgoing players could not be replaced.
But will the embargo stick?
Or, more accurately, will the bigwigs at the SFA lose their nerve?
For the response to the decision was rather chilling. Rangers boss Ally McCoist called for the names of independent panel to be made public...even though all Scottish clubs have signed up to an agreement that these people should be kept anonymous, and are taken from a list of names sent to all clubs at the start of the season which can be vetted by the clubs involved. Of course, the reason for the anonymity is so that these people are protected by any media/supporter backlash. And the backlash came - the names were leaked on the internet and the three men have had to take police advice. There was a police presence overnight at Raith Rovers' Starks Park after threats that the ground would be burned down as retribution for the involvement of club director Eric Drysdale. The Daily Record's outrageous article, which called for their identification and used the sort of imagery and headlines that are normally associated with wanted criminals, deserves more than just censure.
As for McCoist, who claimed he couldn't be made responsible for what 'the lunatic fringe' did in response to his comments, he has lost the title of 'The Last Person At Rangers With Any Shred Of Dignity". For it has turned out that Rangers privately were made aware of who the people on the panel were. The call for so-called 'transparency' from Fat Ally cannot be explained away as anything other than an attempt to stir trouble and to intimidate the powers that be. I'd like to think that he feels rather ashamed with himself. But it's difficult to tell.
To cap it all, 7,000 Rangers fans marched on Hampden on Saturday in protest at the SFA. What with Queen's Park playing at home, did it not occur to the organizers of this that no-one would be in during the weekend? Whilst 7,000 sounds impressive, it is, as someone pointed out, only 10% of the number of Rangers fans who felt the need to head south of the border to trash Manchester. And considering it is claimed that nearly a million Scots (plus plenty folk from Ulster and elsewhere) support them, 7,000 doesn't seem all that impressive, to be honest.
But whilst it must be recognised that the supporters behaved well and caused zero trouble, thus inflicting some damage on my stereotype of the typical Gers fan, it was again alarming to hear the comments of Sandy Jardine, former Rangers and Scotland player and the apparent spokesperson of this march - "There is nothing off the table, we will wait and see what the SFA and SPL do. They might not take any action, which is great. But if they do then we will address these actions in an appropriate manner."
What exactly is 'an appropriate manner'? I can't help feeling that it's not going to be a stern letter of complaint. And it just seems to pour more fuel on the fire of the 'lunatic fringe', which increasingly seems less of a fringe. In fact, should I be referring to my Bluenose friends as the 'sane fringe' of the club's support?
Hopefully the SFA will hold firm. Perhaps they will be even more motivated to do so because of the actions towards the likes of Eric Drysdale, in order to prove that they cannot be bullied and intimidated. If their response to the Rangers appeal is lenient, it sends out one hell of a bad message to these thugs and nutjobs.
L.
1 comment:
Nice blog.
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