The SPL's last chance to change

Nearly fourteen years on, it's difficult to understand some of the logic behind how the rules of the Scottish Premier League were devised.

1998 was a different time, I suppose. The final season of the old Scottish Premier Division saw Celtic, led by Henrik Larsson, break the Rangers nine-in-a-row run which, as the fan of a diddy team, caused my childhood to be traumatized by the taunts of kids who had never been within 100 miles of Ibrox, but claimed they were Gers fans because, you know, it's cool to support the team that's winning every week. I'm not bitter, honest, whatever my therapist tells you.

Anyway...in 1998 Rangers were still being bankrolled by David Murray and Celtic were in good financial nick, and in the next few years the likes of Hearts, Aberdeen and Motherwell would pay transfer fees and wages which would give the current club chairmen angina attacks. It seems bizarre that, since there was already an astronomical gap at this time between the Old Firm and the rest, that the other teams would agree to a system where there would be a huge discrepancy teams who finished in the top two each year and the rest, but I suppose that, if the pie is big enough, you're still getting fed comfortably from the leftovers.

Everything was so rosy that, within a couple of years of the SPL's formation, a couple more teams were invited into the cartel. After all, the pie was only getting bigger; there'd be no harm in cutting it into a few more slices?

How times change. The expansion of the Champions League, and the obscene amount of money being poured into football south of the border, have had a profound effect on Scottish football. You could argue all day about why attendances are dwindling at games (and trust me, I would) but there is no doubt that the SPL is considerably less marketable to TV companies than it was a decade ago, and as a consequence there is far less cash to go around. The pie is rapidly becoming a cupcake. In 1998, the Scottish Premier League might (or might not) have been fit for purpose. In 2012, it's no more fit for purpose than Craig Whyte is fit to own a football club.

I know that. You know that. The clubs know that. Some little green man who has spent his entire existence hiding under a rock on Mars knows that. But whenever the dreaded word 'change' is mentioned, there's lots of chat, and lots of meetings, and lots of buzzwords drip-fed to the press, such as 'dynamic' and 'proactive'. And absolutely no 'change' actually happens. And all the while Scottish football slowly began to die, like a patient whose doctors do nothing while they argue over the best treatment.

But the events currently affecting Glasgow Rangers have shaken our national game to its core. And they offer a huge opportunity to the other clubs, if only they would dare to jump on it. The current format, with a grossly uncompetitive, lopsided league, with the quality of player decreasing year-on-year, with every team playing each other a gazillion times a season, cannot stay as it is - it's boring for supporters (shown by the decline in attendances) and for the TV channels (look at the mediocre TV deal). But the foundation of the SPL's rulebook is that you need win a vote 11-1 in order to change anything...which comes from the reasonable assumption that Rangers and Celtic have mutual interests. It means that, if Rangers and Celtic don't like something, it doesn't happen.

If Rangers go into liquidation (not as big an If as the club's administrators would have you believe), Celtic are at risk of being ganged up on by the other teams. The other ten clubs seem to have realized this too, since they have agreed to meet up this week without Celtic and Rangers in order to discuss the way forward. They have denied that sharing of gate receipts is on the agenda; they haven't denied anything else though. One chairman told the BBC "we want money to be distributed better and money going into the division below for the benefit of all."

Celtic might not like it, but since no other league seems keen to take them or their Ugly Sister off Scotland's hands, they might well have to lump it. Could the years of just bending over and taking it from the Old Firm in exchange for crumbs from the top table be coming to an end?

The bottom line is this; we have all recognised for years that the SPL needs to change, and every year of procrastination has made things worse, and the needed changes more drastic. Rangers aren't the only Scottish club with dodgy finances. If things continue, they may not be the last to fail to pay their bills. Sooner or later we will reach a point where things have got so bad that there is no way back. And it's not far off. Whatever becomes of Rangers (that's a subject for another day), their plight has granted Scottish football a chance to save itself. Can we take it?

L.