The SPL: Ten Out Of Ten

The big beasts of the SPL met at Hampden today and the prospect of a two tier SPL each with ten sides has moved ever closer to being rubber stamped.

It’s the only financially viable option apparently. And we have to trust these club chairmen and chief executives. Many of them have, after all, led their own clubs to the brink of financial ruin. There can be few better people to trust to secure the future of the game.

That more than eight out of ten fans think this plan is a load of cobblers is neither here nor there. Paying punters have no influence on the Scottish game.

That there are fears that the quality of the game will be further damaged, that familiarity breeds contempt, have no place in this brave new dawn.

And if that damages our appeal to the TV companies that we’re hitching the future of the game to, well, this is the Short-term Premier League. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Possibly a dozen SPL chairmen will jump off that bridge when we come to it.

The pill will be sweetened with talk of a winter break, of an earlier start to help our European aspirations. Fair enough. But that’s window dressing. This December’s weather would make a break unworkable. A bad Scottish team is a bad Scottish team no matter when the league season starts.

These changes have been trailed for long enough for today’s meeting to offer few surprises. That the howls of protests from us, the fans, have been totally ignored is hardly a shock.

So we can look forward to paying ever inflated prices to see the same teams week after week. Scared, fearful teams in a league where maybe 60 or 70 percent of the clubs fear relegation.

The fans sold down the river and the national game no closer to the resurrection we are so desperate to see. The dirty dozen have done us in. Happy new year, folks.

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