Neil Doncaster, architect of the Five Way Agreement and the man that set up the Lord Nimmo Smith enquiry, has described moves to create an elite Champions League as sinister.
In 2012 the chief executive of the SPL claimed that liquidation was simply a debt shredding exercise, similar to administration a comment that instantly restricted the capacity of Scottish clubs to lend money from banks.
Having failed to provide Charles Green’s new club with a place in the SPL or in the top tier of the Scottish Football League Doncaster openly discussed Armageddon before locking clubs into a long term television deal with Sky Sports and BT Sport.
Rumours that major European clubs are looking to safeguard and secure even more money from the Champions League sent the former Norwich City supremo racing to BBC 5 Live to share his thoughts.
“I think this is a very sinister development,” Doncaster said. “What we’re seeing, quite worryingly, is that there are moves within the movers and shakers of European football to try to re-shape the Champions League, potentially remove the Champion’s Route and make it harder, perhaps impossible, for the champion clubs of smaller nations to participate.
“The likes of Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Ajax and Porto are huge brand names, huge clubs with great histories and great global fan bases.
“There’s the possibility that some may try and limit or remove their access to the Champions League.
“I think, for football fans around the world, we should be very concerned about this and do what we can to ensure that the biggest clubs from all leagues retain that access to the Champions League. We must do what we can to ensure we don’t let the very biggest clubs in the biggest nations bully the rest of European football.”
Having expressed his concern for fans worldwide over this sinister development perhaps Doncaster may wish to publish the Five Way Agreement that he produced and signed alongwith Stewart Regan.
While doing so he might wish to explain why the published Lord Nimmo Smith report covered the period from 23 November 2000 and not July 1998 as was requested. From July 1998 Rangers (IL) operated the Discount Option Scheme (Wee Tax Case) which has brought about a £6m demand from HMRC, a bill that was unpaid when the club entered liquidation- less than a year after being licensed to play in Champions League qualifiers.
Doncaster remains in his post thanks to the support of the member clubs in the SPFL.