After commissioning a far reaching report by Deloitte, five leading Scottish clubs have discovered that the national game is padlocked into a pre-historic ‘business model’.
Innovative sponsorship, marketing and broadcasting ideas have to take a distant second place behind ensuring that a club from Ibrox can challenge the power of Celtic.
It is an unwritten law that everyone in the game supports to some extent from the absence of any form of Financial Accountability through to Crawford Allan’s power to appoint Nick Walsh for 50% of SPFL Premiership matches at Ibrox. Between those pay-days Walsh trains Murray Park starlets in his day job at Boclair Academy in Bearsden.
Everything about Scottish football is about getting the honours shared between two Glasgow clubs, one that operates in the same way as other clubs but with a far larger financial base and another which does whatever it likes without allowing laws or rules to impact on them.
During the summer 11 Premiership clubs took on additional visibility for cinch while the lot from Ibrox negotiated their own sleeve sponsor, pitchside and backing board sponsorship deals. Having voted through that compromise the other clubs are in an even weaker position now than they were in the panic struck summer of 2012.
In an interview with the Hearts chief covering the Cinch stand off, The Herald reports:
Budge believes all the top flight clubs need to work together to maximise the financial opportunities available to them and admitted she was exasperated at the inability of the Premiership clubs to even hold a joint discussion on the stand-off.
“I do think it’s important the clubs stand together,” she said. “It’s a symptom of what’s wrong with Scottish football that this has been going on for how long? And we still can’t have a meeting where all the clubs can discuss the issue. How do you solve that?”
Once the 11-1 voting structure of the SPFL is reformed Budge will discover that a club founded in 2012 have their own set of rules and can opt out of any collective decision that they don’t like the look of. Every sponsor now knows that there is no guarantee that their message will be carried at Ibrox with the SFA powerless to apply any sanction.
While the Hearts chief pushes for a better landscape for Scottish football the SFA and SPFL are 100% geared to supporting the O** F*** in order to generate greater commercial and broadcasting deals, any other issue is largely irrelevant. You don’t need to commission Deloitte to come to that conclusion.
Until the documentation that was passed in 2012 is published and everyone involved in rubber-stamping it is removed from power Scottish football will be all about protecting and covering things up.
Sacking Neil Doncaster and SFA President Rod Petrie would be a good start.
Hence my post the other day let’s hope we never see Scotland at another major tournament ever again as punishment to the corrupt bastards at the SFA and SPFL and that includes our own club and board members in that
scottish football is run for 2 clubs both the bigots and celtic has been for decades so what is the big debate now the other scottish clubs have let it happen dont think things will change.
“How do you solve that?”
Quite simple – burn Aybrokes to the ground and ban any club but Cove and Berwick from ever usng the “Rangers” name….
Scottish football needs an envoy type officer ,with huge power to cut and stamp out every loophole … A complete neutral on every angle whose sole reasonings are the betterment and advancements of the entire sport… A non brown envelope type …
As long as you have a crown there will be a sevco
As the Chinese say.
“A fish starts rotting from the head.”
Those that agreed and signed what is now deemed scandalous should answer
“Why is one club treated different under the rules”.
scottish football is run for 2 clubs both the bigots and celtic has been for decades so what is the big debate now the other scottish clubs have let it happen dont think things will change.
As a Celtic supporter for the last 64 years I have to agree with Ms Budge’s sentiments here. My only angst with Celtic is any cosy and mutual relationship they appear to have with the absolutely corrupt club from Govan. They should absolutely distance themselves from that.
No matter what, Celtic, in particular Peter Lawell and Desmond, are 100% complicit in ensuring the life support that the 5 way agreement provided for the mordor club.
There’s no covering up that even if they did not sign it off they actively failed to stop it, by design, because they wanted some form of “rangers” in the set up.
The 5 way agreement allowed the mordor club to lose multi millions since they began life , without ANY financial penalties or on field penalties (except the ones regularly given to the tribute act by bias referees).
The 5 way agreement allowed the club from mordor to enter Scottish foitball at the lowest level but still not where they should have began life….in the Highland league.
The push to have them involved meant they recieved preferential treatment to others who entered liquidation.
The fact celtic, nor the league has called them out on the “same team” claim, or the 55 titles, only shows the lack of appetite to challenge the club from ibrox.
The matters of 2012 showed the NEW CLUB OWNERS (their words) that they could hold a sword over all Scottish football and get their own way….and by god, they’ve taken every opportunity to do so.
Our game is tainted by the 5 way agreement, a perverse piece of law that absolutely flaunts any notion of fair play or financial responsibility.
I firmly believe that any legal challenge to this perversion would see the mordor club ousted on all their fans and their claims….but as long as the powers that be, and every Scottish club, accept the situation as it is, nothing will happen….and Scottish football will be forever tainted by the resolution that was endorsed to ensure that team remained around.