The survey said- no

Recently, I created a small survey asking Scottish football fans what they thought about the prospect of a new co Rangers being allowed back into the SPL. Thanks to everyone who took the time to complete the questions and to those who left comments.

The questions were located on http://stevenmallon.co.uk/splsurvey.html although the survey is now closed.

To refresh your memory, I’ve published the questions below along with the results. I’ve also given a comment from myself on each question too.

In total there were 625 replies to the survey.

1) If Rangers are liquidated, should a “newco” Rangers be allowed immediate entry to the SPL?

Yes – 3.1%

No – 95.9%

Don’t care – 1%

2) Would you be happy for the the football team that you support to reform as a “newco” if it meant clearing all their debt?

Yes – 14%

No – 83%

Don’t care – 3%

3) Are new proposed punishments for ‘financial doping’ fair ? I.E 10 point deduction for 2 years and a loss of 75% commercial revenue.

Yes – 22%

No – 78%

4) Do you trust the SPL / SFA to act in the best interests of Scottish football ? 

Yes – 2%

No – 98%

5) If you feel that favouritism is being shown to one particular club, would you boycott matches ?

Yes – 90.8%

No – 9.2%

My answer to 1) is no as I believe that it can encourage clubs to act in a careless manner if there are no consequences of doing so. Also, in the past (although not in the SPL), Clydebank, Third Lanark, Gretna & Airdrie to name a few were not granted re-entry to the top flight of Scottish football.

2) I answered no as I wouldn’t like to think that my team would get into a situation, although I can understand why some fans would say yes. Especially if the new proposals suggested in question 3 are correct. It almost seems as if liquidation would be a more attractive option than administration in some scenarios.

3) The majority, like myself, answered no to this question. For a team the size of Rangers, a 10 point deduction is very unlikely to make a big difference. They are going to finish first of second in the league regardless of a 10 point deduction.

I feel that there should be a more prolonged punishment period if (and I must re-iterate the word ‘if’ at this stage) they are found guilty of financial cheating or doping. I think the same should apply to any team. For example, a club has been cheating for 10 seasons then there should be a punishment to last 10 seasons.

If you can come up with any suggestions as to what these punishments can be, please leave a comment as I am unsure what would be a fair punishment.

4) Given that this survey has been undertaken by fans of various clubs, I was very surprised that the number was so high. I wouldn’t trust the SFA any further than I can throw them.

They’ve had accusations, from former employees, of bullying in the work place. They were proved last year to have flawed rules and procedures in place. What rules and procedures they do have in place very rarely seem to be applied in a consistent manner.

5) The boycott question, some people via the comments box, stated that they would favour a boycott but this would be dependant on the circumstances.

The majority who agreed to a boycott said that it would only be a boycott of away grounds or at the very least they would stop attending the grounds of a club that they believed to be receiving preferential treatment.

Again, thanks to everyone who took the time to complete the questions.

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