Terry Butcher’s amazing attack on the SPL
The Inverness Caley Thistle manager was speaking after his side lost 1-0 to Rangers to a hotly disputed goal from Steve Davis.
Just over a day after Neil Lennon’s was severely censured for mild criticism of Willie Collum’s eyes-on-the-back-of-his-head performance in Celtic’s 3-1 defeat from Rangers the Caley Thistle boss let rip in an incredible interview on Radio Scotland.
The General Purposes Committee of the SFA will be in for a mammoth sitting to deal with Butcher’s comments despite the former England skipper articulating the views of most supporters in the country about reconstruction of the SPL.
During the explosive interview Butcher spared no one!
* He accused Thomson of not allowing his players within Vladimir Weiss’s magnetic field
* Said that he wanted to finish as high up the SPL as possible to stick two fingers up to the authorities
* Said that his chairman was being bullied into reconstruction by the SPL
* Claimed relegation cost ICT £1.5m and ripped the heart and soul from the club
* Claimed that the SPL don’t want his club
* Claimed that a ten team SPL was a return to the dinosaur era
Asked about the Rangers goal Butcher said: “Adam Rooney was fouled clear as day right on the touchline, right in front of us, right in front of the linesman, fourth official and the referee.
“No-one else around him that could block his view but he doesn’t give the foul and Rangers break away and score.
“I know that we have to defend from that situation but there’s a sense of injustice from the players point of view because the referee has stopped any sort of contact on Weiss, every time one of our players went within his magnetic field a foul was given against us.
“We couldn’t believe it that Adam wasn’t given a foul, it was a clear foul, he didn’t give it, Rangers scored and the injustice was there.
“I was really pleased with the players. We were down at Motherwell on Saturday, travelled back and travelled down again today against our will.
“We do feel a sense of injustice, we do feel that we’re not wanted in the SPL. We’re damned as hell going to be in the SPL and we’re going to finish as high as we can to stick two fingers up at the authorities.”
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Moving onto league reconstruction Butcher really let rip with some hard hitting comments that deserve to be taken on board rather than earning an appearance in front of the General Purposes Committee.
He added: “I think it’s a disgrace, I think that we’re being bullied, I think my chairman is being bullied by the SPL and other clubs as well. The other clubs have shown their weakness by conforming to the Old Firm and the SPL.
“It goes against all the public wishes, they do not want to see us return to a ten team league. There has been no talk about finances, they say that it might increase the finance but there has been no clear indication of how much it might increase.
“If this comes into play three clubs will go down from the SPL, we went down last year and lost about a million and a half pounds, lost a lot of staff, lost the heart and soul of the club and were lucky to come back up in one year. Other clubs won’t have that luxury.
“That could mean the end or administration for other clubs in the future. With administration local businesses suffer, the innocents suffer as well but nobody sees that. No-one is aware of that, people don’t know what they are voting for when it comes to the Armageddon of relegation.
“We do, we’ve been there we know what it’s like but no-one has consulted us or spoken to us, so we feel very strongly.
“I actually feel that the SPL don’t want Inverness Caley Thistle in it, we’re up there geographically out of the way, out on a limb, who cares about Caley Thistle.
“Make them come down on a Tuesday night and play when they’ve already been down at Motherwell, how many miles have we done already so far this week? Hundreds and hundreds of miles in difficult conditions. It was icy this morning, our fans have had to travel as well- it’s absolute garbage.
“You are looking at deconstruction not reconstruction. Deconstruction is a ten team league going back to the dinosaur era. What’s wrong with 12? What’s wrong with what we have at the moment?
“Three clubs will go down, a quarter of the SPL will face Armageddon, sackings, administration, loss of business, loss of customers.
“When we went down we lost a million and a half pounds within the Inverness area, if you go down you can’t get that back, the only way to get back is by coming straight back up which we did but you won’t get all three teams come back up at once.”
Asked if he’d fancy a glass of red wine Butcher responded: “If I have a bottle of red wine now I’d break it over someones head and I know who that would be!”
The reaction of the increasingly tiresome George Peat, President of the SFA, to Butcher’s outburst will be awaited with interest.
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