Angry McCoist slams SPFL over club treatment
Eighteen months after having every rule in the book dismantled to give the new club entry to league football ahead of Spartans, it seems that goodwill is a one way street where Sevco are concerned.
Last summer the newly formed SPFL conveniently dropped restrictions on the number of players aged over 21 that a club could sign while the rules regarding trialists were also relaxed.
Now, eight days after using a lack of matches as an excuse for drawing at home to Stranraer, the £800,000-a-year Ibrox boss is complaining about fixture congestion and saying that Sevco are being treated unfairly just like Rangers (IL).
“Different initials but the same old story with the way our club has been treated,” blasted McCoist looking at Sunday’s trip to Ochilview.
“This game should not have been played on Sunday, it should have been played in midweek. That’s our fourth game in only 11 days and it’s just not on.
“To make matters worse, they’re sending us up to Forfar after a nine-day break later this month. So we play four games in 11 days, nothing for nine days and then they send our fans away up to Forfar on a Monday night.
“There’s something not right about that. Stenhousemuir’s preferred option was Sunday I think, which I can understand for financial reasons.
“But we made our feelings absolutely clear we wanted to play when everybody had a free midweek.
“We had our say but it shows you how much they listen to us. There’s no point in raising it with them again because they knew we weren’t happy with it. At this time of the year when money is scarce for everybody to ask our support to travel to a third away game and a fourth match in 11 days is just not fair.”
Despite being given a friendly helping hand by the football authorities it seems that memories are short at Ibrox.
In one of the darkest chapters in the history of the old SPL the 2007/08 fixture list was virtually dictated from Ibrox.
Not content with getting a match with Gretna postponed to allow extra preparation time for a Champions League match, Rangers (IL) then refused to play the fixture in a blank midweek in December while Celtic faced NINE games in 32 days including TWO Champions League ties in a week.
Despite that schedule Celtic qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League while Rangers (IL) dropped into the UEFA Cup with the SPL season given an unprecedented extension of five days, handicapping eleven clubs to cope with the fixture backlog of Walter Smith’s side.
The match with Stenhousemuir was postponed last month after a chip van reversed into a temporary stand causing a safety issue.