Any hopes that the SPFL harboured of a peace deal between Sevco and BT Sport have been blown out the water by Chris Sutton.
Sevco’s refusal to co-operate with the broadcaster would have been at the top of Neil Doncaster’s agenda this morning ahead of the weekend BetFred Cup semi-finals.
With BT Sport pouring in close to £10m a year to the game the SPFL are duty bound to deliver on their side of the contract with post match reaction from manager’s an essential part of the broadcast.
It is believed that Sevco have been unhappy for some time with Sutton’s outspoken views about Mark Warburton with their anger spilling over at Inverness.
Rather than attempt to soothe things over Sutton has gone on the attack in today’s Daily Record– crucially calling into question Warbo’s love for portraying himself as respectful.
“What sort of broadcasting are we going to have in Scotland if you can only say what people at football clubs want to hear?” the former Celtic striker asked.
“That goes against free speech. Without that and a democracy, it goes against the principles of what the country is about. You might as well not go on air. Or just show the game and not have an opinion.
“Mark likes to use the word respect. This is a guy who confronted referee John Beaton in a rage on the pitch at Pittodrie, that lacks respect
“Now he has shown that he has no respect for BT Sport, a company who has invested an awful lot of money into the game.
“Football clubs should have no control over what a newspaper writes or what a TV channel says. If they do, it becomes a dictatorship.
“We take pride in what we say, we are extremely passionate about Scottish football and I don’t think we can be accused of being biased to anyone.”
Anticipating the obvious comeback Sutton added: “People point to the fact I’m a former Celtic player. So what? Last season, I was highly critical of Ronny Deila’s work.
“I was critical of Dermot Desmond and Peter Lawwell for sticking with Deila for too long and I was critical of many of Celtic’s performances, just as I praised them when they played well.
“At Inverness the other night, most of the post-match was taking up by discussing how well Rangers had played to get their win. The programme was extremely positive about the performance.
“They are rightly praised if they do well and criticised if they don’t, just like any club in any country on ant TV channel in the world.
“I try to give a balanced view and we are meticulous in our approach. We don’t just turn up, we take care, try to engage the public and make our programmes watchable.”
Sutton has quickly established himself as the most watchable pundit in the bland Scottish game, happy to communicate the views that others prefer to body-swerve.
With BT Sport showing Sunday’s BetFred Cup semi-final live the timing of the current dispute couldn’t be worse for Doncaster- with no sign of either side backing down.
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