The Rangers Omnishambles
“So what if the TV deal goes into the ground? Either Scottish football runs Scottish football or the toxic hand of Rupert Murdoch does? Time to decide…”
Alex Thomson on the Rangers omnishambles:
So now the dust has slightly settled and we are on the eve of another Scottish Premier League vote (barring another postponement), let us strip away all the froth and hype and see where we really are.
On Thursday, Ibrox was a deeply bizarre place. Over the phone Rangers tried to make out their “press conference” was for “sports reporters only”. Even over the phone they quickly realised from my incredulity, this was a non-starter.
So we got a “press diktat” instead. It’s a press conference where they read at you from a prepared statement and you are not allowed questions. A press conference without the conference, if you like.
The charming Ba’athist thugs in Baghdad used to do this in the 90s, I recall. Bosnian Serb commanders likewise. Congolese child-soldier commanders do it. Duff & Phelps did themselves no favours. Of course, they’re neither criminals nor mass murderers. But questions were banned, the Rangers press officer said, “Because we don’t want this turning into a circus.”
So why do Rangers FC and Duff & Phelps think the normal rules of a press conference are a “circus”?
I suggest because of all the difficult questions they cannot answer.
They cannot explain how the Old Rangers company will somehow be “cleaned up” when it is left, toxic, mired in debt and – according to three insolvency experts I’ve now spoken to – inevitably heading for liquidation by the back door.
They cannot explain how a club banned from European football for three years, and with a one-year player-buying ban, is supposed to retain its key players who can – and very likely will – move elsewhere in the summer.
Nothing was said of the Sky/ESPN Premier League TV deal. SPL boss Neil Doncaster says it’s up for renegotiation this summer, but four Old Firm fixtures are the lynchpin of it.
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There are some ridiculous replies to his excellent article, particularly one going on about how Rangers need to be in the SPL so 4 or 5 other clubs don’t go to the wall, and bringing up the old “how will these people feed their families?” line.
Sorry, but the chairmen need to realise it is not a straight choice between sporting integrity and money. Without sporting integrity, fans will leave the SPL en masse, and there goes your financial stability. There’s no point having four OF games each year if no one pays to watch them.
http://celticunderground.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=914:who-needs-rangers&catid=47:season-2011-2012<emid=83
Either Rangers takes their punishment or it will have a lot silly results.Like when the next wee Rangers fan is up in court for defrauding the social security he will just cry “RANGERS DEFENCE” and get away with fraud,or that is how its starting to look.Why should any club now pay any of its bills?They must go the full way and be liquidated,sure buy the pieces and form a new club.In reality Glasgow Rangers are finished,and they managed to destroy Scottish football at the same time.In my mind it happened when Murry brought in Souness and cheated or bought the league,and all the other “wins”( honesty and integrity)either Rangers admits its guilt and returns all trophy’s.Is it a coincidence that our national team also faltered at the same time?
i’m a dons fan but only go rarely these days, after moving north. Instead i go to watch ross county, not just for the savings in time/ petrol/ ticket prices but also because they’re a cracking wee club, play good football in a truly competitive league. At the start of this season the only team I’d have ruled out for promotion was ayr utd only because they were part-time. imagine that 9 out of 10 teams in with a shout of winnning the league. Then compare that to the sham that is the spl where blatant financial doping coupled with the old-firm voting dictatorship has ended any form of competition.
A look at the healthy state of div 1 will easily show that the nonsense spouted about rangers death meaning the death of football in scotland is just that – utter rubbish. The spl in its current form may not survive the relegation of rangers, fair enough. All i can say to that is that this is maybe the strongest reason i’ve yet heard for relegating them. I think the opposite is the case that oif rangers aren’t relegated it will be the death of scottish football. Lockhart Dawson wins the day.
I’m more concerned about why ch4 NEVER EVER cover any thing Scottish- nary a Scottish arts story, news story or ANY Scottish event but seem to think that a football club is the only thing worth reporting. I would bet the vast majority of us in Scotland would love to see both old firm football clubs go to the wall and release Scotland from a dismal, ignorant, small minded, bigoted past…I’ve had my belly full of Scots waving the English and the Irish flag and pretending it matters to the majority of Scots.