Sky Sports have been accused of being behind the cinch cover up.
The season long dispute between Ibrox and the main sponsors of the SPFL hit farcical levels on Saturday when Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Scott Wright were interviewed in front of a backing board with masking tape covering up the cinch logos.
Cinch was suddenly trending on social media but the serious side of the issue is that the SPFL are likely to go short when the car sales firm pay up for a year of part-sponsorship.
No club has been on Sky Sports more than The Tribute Act but unlike every other club there has been no cinch logo on the cherished Castore kit.
Any other club would have been heavily fined within a week of refusing to back the sponsorship but under Neil Doncaster nothing has been said to the Ibrox club after 34 of 38 matches were played without recognising cinch.
Keith Jackson of the Daily Record reports:
Record Sport can reveal concern is growing that the SPFL ’s title sponsors may refuse to stump up a huge chunk of the whopping £1.6m which is due to be shared out across all four divisions at the end of the current campaign.
The long running feud took another twist on Saturday when cinch’s branding was covered by masking tape as Rangers boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst conducted a post match interview with Sky TV following his team’s 3-1 win at Fir Park.
We understand, for production reasons, it was the broadcaster’s decision to cover up those logos in a specially modified studio inside the stadium rather than conduct the interview track-side.
They feared Rangers’ PR department would not allow van Bronckhorst to appear before the advertising backdrop unless all cinch branding was blacked out.
Record Sport also understands the Ibrox club have been holding discussions behind the scenes with league chiefs in an attempt to defuse the stand-off which began at the start of the season, shortly after the £8m five year partnership was first announced.
But even if an unlikely peace deal can be brokered, cinch may still feel short changed after nine months without their branding being displayed at the home of the current top flight champions.
And that has led to fears that the online firm may be unwilling to pay out in full when their first season in Scottish football reaches its climax next month.
Rather than pick up a fee from an official sleeve sponsor Celtic have had cinch on board for all 34 SPFL matches.
Once again Jackson shows he’s a muppet with numbers…£1.6m across ALL FOUR DIVISIONS is hardly “whopping” is it? Frankly it’s a damning indictment of the piss-poor job our governing bodies do when it comes to selling our game….
Editor: It is a horrendous deal from Doncaster but £60/70k is a decent sum for Albion Rovers, Annan, Forfar etc.
Oh aye not saying that at all, but it should be considerably more for them. When I first heard of the deal I thought that was what the winners of the league might get…then they told us what it actually was…Jesus wept.
Should Rangers* get any share of a sponsorship they actively prevented or can other clubs duplicate their own sponsorship too ?
Scottish Football what a farce.
Old Firm fc controls our game.
Pay the money,less what Sevco would’ve been paid. Simple
If you not display the sponsorship,
You don’t get payed by the sponsors.
Simple as that.
Celtic should put a cinch archway at the bottom of the tunnel if rangers don’t want to walk down it then they should be should be docked 3 points
Just don’t give them the cash for finishing in 2nd place or any other position they finish in its so simple.
The SFA , SPFL should have stood up to the manky mob instead they let the Huns run the show ,they should not receive any of the cinch money it’s only fair,they didn’t want to have their brand on their kit so give them fuck all money the cheating corrupt bastards,only in Scotland could this go on
Jim the SNP wouldn’t even stand up to them what they did to George Square not once twice
The SFA should make ‘rangers’ except the sponsorship deal it’s for all the club’s. ‘rangers’ should have points deducted as all other clubs have exempted Cinch sponsorship .parks have lost my business for the cars .
Mr Doncaster should be removed from hampden right away honest he’s scared stiff of mr parks and dont forget parks has already threatened Doncaster over the phone and Doncaster said the parks was a disgrace but nothing ever came out about it so is this the reason spfl are scared of sevco incase they get bullied by their fans that corrupt sfa.spfl should be all sacked dirty cowards at hampden rats the lot of them..