The End of the Old Firm?
In the next two days the fate of what
was once the most successful domestic club in the world will be
decided. Tomorrow the SPL clubs should, having stated their
intentions already, refuse to grant The Rangers Football Club, a
place in the Scottish Premier League. While today 30 SFL clubs will
come together to agree on whether they will be accepted in to the
First Division Or the Third.
The talking, the debate, the headlines
seem to have been never ending, but now it's time for the main event,
When the fate of Scottish football may be decided.
Being a Celtic fan, I was not one of
these fans who wanted Rangers to be destroyed, I look forward to the
Old Firm games as do all Celtic and Rangers fans. I did however
expect to see them face strict punishment and accept it as the guilty
party. The transfer ban imposed by the SFA might not have been legal,
but it allowed a way for Rangers to be punished while still leaving
the door open for them to play a full part in the SPL. Rather than
accept these average punishments, Rangers, or rather the new promised
messiah, Charles Green took them to the Scottish courts.
There has been a decided stench in the
air since Rangers went into administration. For every one Rangers fan
you meet, who feels they have done wrong and deserve to be punished
ten more will tell you it's all one big conspiracy against their
lovable rogue of a team. From Mark Hateley's attempts to belittle
Celtics title win, Sandy Jardine calling players who refused to sign
for the new Sevco, cowards. These very players by the way were the
ones who took a 75% pay cut to keep Ibrox staff in a job.
The smartest man in all this sham seems
to be Charles Green. When faced with the prospect of buying the club
for £11 million and then paying back creditors. He came out the day
before the creditors hearing and stated he had 30 transfer targets
and wanted Rino Gattuso on £12,000 a week. Then he had the temerity
to walk into the creditors meeting and offer 9p in the pound, no
wonder they said no.
The result of this being he was able
to liquidate Rangers Football Club and buy its assets for £5.5
million. Considering Ibrox and Albion Car Park alone were listed as
having a value of £121 million it's quite a shrewd piece of
business. The kind that only someone lacking any emotion or empathy
would make. It's hardly surprising he's threatening court action over
the players refusing to agree to new contracts as it just cost him
somewhat close to £25 million.
 |
| What are Charles Green's real intentions? |
So now the Scottish club has to make
a major decision, Send Rangers into Division 3 and face a financial
meltdown in the game, or allow them into the First division, be seen
as morally repugnant and lacking any thread of sporting integrity.
Well actually it doesn't have to be either.
Say Rangers are voted down to the
Third Division, clubs who are more successful will see their
attendances rise. There is a possibility of losing the Sky deal,
something which rings fear into ever SPL chairman. Would this be such
a bad thing?
The first Old Firm game of last season
at Ibrox, ticket prices were £45 for everyone, no concessions, just
one set price. That means a family of 4 living in Dundee would pay
£180 for 4 tickets,
£30 for petrol
£10 for programmes x2
£ 20 on food/drinks
That's £230 for on game of football,
90 minutes, or go to the pub to watch it on Sky.
If there was no Sky deal, there would
be no random games at obscure hours to fit around the EPL. There
would be Saturday 3pm matches. If the power men of Scottish football
really want to save the game, then lower ticket prices, become more
family friendly, more involved in local communities, focus on youth
players, get all the basics right again, and then try to move forward
in an affordable way.
Most fans who have been demanding
Rangers to be sent to the bottom of the leagues have been accused by
the media of not understanding the consequences, of killing the game.
These fans aren't just some idiots who just walked in from a 10 year
wilderness retreat, they are ready for change, they want change and
they want to see justice be done.
There is an acceptance in Scotland
that we will no longer see the days of world class players such as
Laudrup and Larsson., we realise that we may have to walk into the
wilderness, but this does not have to be the end or a bad thing. As
Henry David Thoreau once said;
I enjoyed that...
ReplyDelete