For the hard of thinking, the easily led and the gullible, possibly also to the glib and shameless, it really is a puzzle. Why won’t the SFA pass Mr King as fit and proper so that he can pour in his mullyins, restore Rangers to their rightful place and save Scottish football as a by-product?
Problem is, there is no fit and proper test for the SFA to carry out on Dave King, that aspect is entirely upto the club. Just as Craig Whyte ticked the right boxes for his application, as well as Deek Llambias, Graham Wallace, Brian Stockbridge, Charles Green and various others, fit and proper isn’t an area that the SFA deal with.
What they do apparently have control over is allowing individuals associated with insolvency events being involved with Scottish football clubs. A five year ban is in place to prevent previous insolvencies being repeated, Mr King remained in the blue room of dignity up until the liquidation of Rangers began in 2012.
He was a non-executive director of the company through every day of Mr Whyte’s time in charge. A non-exec has specific responsibilities to scrutinise the balance sheet, ask difficult questions and operate for the shareholders best interests at all times. As he demonstrated during his decade in the boardroom under Dave Murray, Mr King kept a dignified silence.
Charged with those responsibilities, sitting alongside Campbell Ogilvie and Paul Murray at different times, the man from Castlemilk didn’t issue a peep of concern as the basket-case club headed for the rocks chasing the demented cause of becoming the second Glasgow club to lift the big cup.
When liquidation came along in June 2012 it was Mr King among others that let down shareholders and debenture holders, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, Strathclyde Police, newsagents, florists, public bodies, taxi companies and a face painter. Mr King was responsible, not Peter Lawwell, Stewart Regan, Stephen Thompson, Neil Doncaster, Rod Petrie or any other bogeyman
On what possible grounds can the SFA ignore Mr King’s crime list and allow him back into Scottish football?
Rather than push for payment of the ‘wee tax case’ in 2010 Mr King nodded in agreement for the £5m purchase of Nikica Jelavic and James Beattie with wages of over £40,000 a week flying out the window to the detriment of every club in Scotland that paid their social taxes.
The SFA are expected to give a verdict soon over Mr King’s credentials to be a director of a Scottish football club, it appears that the South African based businessman hasn’t even visited Hampden Park to plead his case.
Scottish football was badly compromised for over a decade as Mr King sat on the board of Rangers (IL) as a non-executive director. At the very least the SFA should tell Mr King to come back in 2017 once he has served his five year ban after his previous association with the game.
The verdict from Hampden will be closely monitored, surely the well being of the game will be put before an ego whose past record as a director is there for all to see.
