After a week of shrieking SPL outrage, the weekend positively bristles with anticipation and longing.
All eyes are on Hampden.
All stout Scottish footballing hearts are surely longing for an outbreak of football amid the stressful stramashes of the last couple of days.
I imagine there are but few people in Scotland who don't share the view that the ideal scenario for this season's Scottish Cup is for Hibs to beat Aberdeen today before going on to beat Hearts in May's final.
There's the romance you need right there. The magic potion to salve the wounds of a game that has been left feeling distinctly grubby.
110 years of of anguished despair ended by a ragbag collection of loan stars and short-term contracts.
Hollywood would come knocking for the film rights. Hibs and the Scottish Cup meet The Mighty Ducks.
Or maybe that's just me.
The reality is that Hampden is not a happy hunting ground for Hibs.
On my first visit to the national "stadium" - please note, young 'uns, that misty-eyed nostalgia about the Hampden of old ignores the shithole it had become by the 1980s - Alex Ferguson's Aberdeen demolished Hibs 3-0 in the 1985 League Cup final.
Sort of set the tone.
In 2000 a Scottish Cup semi-final took the two clubs to Hampden for a 6.15 kick-off one Sunday evening.
A crowd of little over 20,000 saw a Hibs team featuring the masterful Franck Sauzee and the majestic Russell Latapy undone by Andy Dow, a man who was typically neither masterful nor majestic.
Memories are made of this.
Fair to say that this Scottish Cup semi-final glistens in the gloom of the season so far for both Hibs and Aberdeen.
If SPL life has been uninspiring at Pittodrie it's been woefully incompetent at Easter Road.
That makes this a rather unlikely semi-final and certainly not one that you would have predicted after watching the three previous games between the two this season.
A Scott Vernon penalty - a disputed penalty at that - is all that separates them after 270 minutes of mediocrity.
Mediocrity might in fact be a charitable description of the 0-0 draw at Easter Road in September, a game that will fancy its chances in the always hotly contested "Worst SPL Game of the Season" award.
So there it is: Hampden history suggests an Aberdeen win and recent history suggests a game that will live short in the memory.
It probably won't be as simple as that.
Hibs discovered a hitherto unseen resilience to beat Inverness a couple of weeks ago and improved on that performance in drawing with Motherwell last Sunday.
Aberdeen stopped a run of seven league games without a win last weekend as they secured a clean sweep of SPL victories over Dundee United.
Fluctuating form makes this a hard one to predict. Toiling in the league, both clubs have plotted and plugged their way through the cup draw.
A semi final is a nice bonus, a Scottish Cup final has the potential to turn a poor season into a good one.
Right now I'd take an 89th minute winner being deflected into Aberdeen's net off Garry O'Connor sizeable rump.
That's the fan talking though.
Searching for some vestige of neutrality I have to say this one looks too close to call.
Hibs have looked like a shadow of a football team at times in 2012 but they've still managed to get the job done in the cup.
Aberdeen, slightly fully figured but not in the most robust of footballing health, have struggled to make the most of any superiority they have over Pat Fenlon's team.
Fag paper margins, the difference between a cup final - and possible European qualification - and the anonymity of being losing semi finalists.
A big day for the managers. As Craig Brown has strived to find a working formula at Aberdeen he's been forced to watch the Motherwell team he deserted thrive.
Pat Fenlon has found the misery at Hibs seeping like damp through the fabric of the club. It can't have taken him long to realise that he needs to transform the whole attitude of Easter Road as much as he needs to transform the team.
Both will know what a big deal a Scottish Cup final or, whisper it, a Scottish Cup win would be for their clubs and what a boost it would be for their standing among supporters.
Oddly Fenlon, the younger man by close to three decades, has more experience at the business end of tournaments and more of a track record in sealing the silverware deal.
Will that mean anything on Saturday?
Probably not.
But woe betide any player on either side who doesn't grasp just what this game will mean to his manager or the fans.
There's of a throwback feel to a Hibs v Aberdeen semi final. A big chance to recapture a hint of past glories in forgettable seasons.
May the best team win.
Or, of course, Hibs.After a week of shrieking SPL outrage, the weekend positively bristles with anticipation and longing.
All eyes are on Hampden.
All stout Scottish footballing hearts are surely longing for an outbreak of football amid the stressful stramashes of the last couple of days.
I imagine there are but few people in Scotland who don't share the view that the ideal scenario for this season's Scottish Cup is for Hibs to beat Aberdeen today before going on to beat Hearts in May's final.
There's the romance you need right there. The magic potion to salve the wounds of a game that has been left feeling distinctly grubby.
110 years of of anguished despair ended by a ragbag collection of loan stars and short-term contracts.
Hollywood would come knocking for the film rights. Hibs and the Scottish Cup meet The Mighty Ducks.
Or maybe that's just me.
The reality is that Hampden is not a happy hunting ground for Hibs.
On my first visit to the national "stadium" - please note, young 'uns, that misty-eyed nostalgia about the Hampden of old ignores the shithole it had become by the 1980s - Alex Ferguson's Aberdeen demolished Hibs 3-0 in the 1985 League Cup final.
Sort of set the tone.
In 2000 a Scottish Cup semi-final took the two clubs to Hampden for a 6.15 kick-off one Sunday evening.
A crowd of little over 20,000 saw a Hibs team featuring the masterful Franck Sauzee and the majestic Russell Latapy undone by Andy Dow, a man who was typically neither masterful nor majestic.
Memories are made of this.
Fair to say that this Scottish Cup semi-final glistens in the gloom of the season so far for both Hibs and Aberdeen.
If SPL life has been uninspiring at Pittodrie it's been woefully incompetent at Easter Road.
That makes this a rather unlikely semi-final and certainly not one that you would have predicted after watching the three previous games between the two this season.
A Scott Vernon penalty - a disputed penalty at that - is all that separates them after 270 minutes of mediocrity.
Mediocrity might in fact be a charitable description of the 0-0 draw at Easter Road in September, a game that will fancy its chances in the always hotly contested "Worst SPL Game of the Season" award.
So there it is: Hampden history suggests an Aberdeen win and recent history suggests a game that will live short in the memory.
It probably won't be as simple as that.
Hibs discovered a hitherto unseen resilience to beat Inverness a couple of weeks ago and improved on that performance in drawing with Motherwell last Sunday.
Aberdeen stopped a run of seven league games without a win last weekend as they secured a clean sweep of SPL victories over Dundee United.
Fluctuating form makes this a hard one to predict. Toiling in the league, both clubs have plotted and plugged their way through the cup draw.
A semi final is a nice bonus, a Scottish Cup final has the potential to turn a poor season into a good one.
Right now I'd take an 89th minute winner being deflected into Aberdeen's net off Garry O'Connor sizeable rump.
That's the fan talking though.
Searching for some vestige of neutrality I have to say this one looks too close to call.
Hibs have looked like a shadow of a football team at times in 2012 but they've still managed to get the job done in the cup.
Aberdeen, slightly fully figured but not in the most robust of footballing health, have struggled to make the most of any superiority they have over Pat Fenlon's team.
Fag paper margins, the difference between a cup final - and possible European qualification - and the anonymity of being losing semi finalists.
A big day for the managers. As Craig Brown has strived to find a working formula at Aberdeen he's been forced to watch the Motherwell team he deserted thrive.
Pat Fenlon has found the misery at Hibs seeping like damp through the fabric of the club. It can't have taken him long to realise that he needs to transform the whole attitude of Easter Road as much as he needs to transform the team.
Both will know what a big deal a Scottish Cup final or, whisper it, a Scottish Cup win would be for their clubs and what a boost it would be for their standing among supporters.
Oddly Fenlon, the younger man by close to three decades, has more experience at the business end of tournaments and more of a track record in sealing the silverware deal.
Will that mean anything on Saturday?
Probably not.
But woe betide any player on either side who doesn't grasp just what this game will mean to his manager or the fans.
There's of a throwback feel to a Hibs v Aberdeen semi final. A big chance to recapture a hint of past glories in forgettable seasons.
May the best team win.
Or, of course, Hibs.
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Saturday, April 14, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
Ross County: Job Done
Purple-faced and incandescent, a collective paroxysm settled on Scotland this week.
Faced with a big decision the SPL scurried to find solace in their default selfishness and proposed voting to save their own souls, even if it meant trampling over the women and children in the rush to the lifeboats.
The result was a set of SPL proposals that pleased nobody and sent blood pressure soaring across the country.
Oddly, for an organisation so hellbent on maximising its commercial potential, the SPL's approach to marketing borders on the masochistic.
You'd kick them even harder and more often if you didn't suspect they must secretly enjoy it.
Sadly our preoccupation with who may or may not be playing in next season's SPL risked overshadowing the achievement of a team who most certainly will be playing SPL football next season.
Congratulations, then, to Ross County.
It's 18 years since County joined the Scottish Football League.
18 years. It's not been a meteoric rise. It's been steady: progress, the odd setback, a Scottish Cup final. All building towards the ultimate goal of promotion to the SPL.
A goal achieved this year by the simple expedient of having the strongest squad in the First Division.
And, in Derek Adams, a manager who could get the best out of them.
A second chance for Adams and one that he's grabbed.
It wasn't that long ago that he was leaving Dingwall and heading for Leith, unveiled as Colin Calderwood's assistant at Easter Road.
Eyebrows were raised and the union proved a brief marriage of inconvenience.
If it was remarkable that the teetotal Adams wasn't driven to drink in the Easter Road madhouse it seemed even stranger that he should return to Dingwall so quickly.
Clearly, however, chairman Roy MacGregor liked what he got with Adams and absence - and travails under Willie McStay and Jimmy Calderwood - made the heart grow fonder.
Derek was back and this time there was going to be no messing about. Promotion, the unfinished business, would be delivered.
And so it has been.
County are now 30 games unbeaten. On Wednesday a 3-1 win at Ayr put the seal on a title that had been delivered by a Chris Higgins equaliser for Queen of the South at Dundee 24 hours earlier.
18 years is a long time. The last eight years must have felt even longer, with Inverness beating County to the SPL punch.
The waiting's now over.
New blood for the SPL and another widening of what used to be quite a constrictive Scottish footballing geography.
A time for rejoicing?
In Dingwall certainly.
Elsewhere?
It appears not everyone is in the party mood.
The litany of gripes grows: finances (I'm not currently privy to the information but the ascent seems less dramatically funded than, say, Gretna), attendances (actually very consistent - small, yes, but steady enough to plan a budget), tactics (30 games undefeated isn't to be sniffed at and success is never that dull for supporters); travel times (a bind for visiting fans, of course, but this is Scotland not Russia); they've not got a proper ground (they do, but the SPL has daft rules and a brief groundshare with Inverness, while not ideal, will allow them to satisfy the bureaucracy).
The list will lengthen.
Some of the moaning will come from aggrieved First Division rivals.
Some of it will come because many of us like a good moan more than we like a good news story. We want to be upset, it's a football thing mixed with a Scottish thing to create a thrawn contrariness that defies one to be impressed by anything. It's a common type of fitba' prickery.
And, who knows, some of it might be entirely justified, grounded in reason and fact and allowing for a good old case of "told you so" when Dingwall dreams become northern nightmares.
All that's for the future.
Right now we've got Ross County proving, while other areas of the game crash and burn, that clubs can progress through our system.
They've done that with community support, a dedicated chairman, an eye on development, a young manager who has grown in the role and some decent players. They've even given the SPL a brand new derby to look forward to.
We need more stories like this.
So congratulations and good luck to the Staggies.
Find out how promotion was won with the excellent Ross County Tactics
Like this? Like the Scottish Football Blog on Facebook.
Faced with a big decision the SPL scurried to find solace in their default selfishness and proposed voting to save their own souls, even if it meant trampling over the women and children in the rush to the lifeboats.
The result was a set of SPL proposals that pleased nobody and sent blood pressure soaring across the country.
Oddly, for an organisation so hellbent on maximising its commercial potential, the SPL's approach to marketing borders on the masochistic.
You'd kick them even harder and more often if you didn't suspect they must secretly enjoy it.
Sadly our preoccupation with who may or may not be playing in next season's SPL risked overshadowing the achievement of a team who most certainly will be playing SPL football next season.
Congratulations, then, to Ross County.
It's 18 years since County joined the Scottish Football League.
18 years. It's not been a meteoric rise. It's been steady: progress, the odd setback, a Scottish Cup final. All building towards the ultimate goal of promotion to the SPL.
A goal achieved this year by the simple expedient of having the strongest squad in the First Division.
And, in Derek Adams, a manager who could get the best out of them.
A second chance for Adams and one that he's grabbed.
It wasn't that long ago that he was leaving Dingwall and heading for Leith, unveiled as Colin Calderwood's assistant at Easter Road.
Eyebrows were raised and the union proved a brief marriage of inconvenience.
If it was remarkable that the teetotal Adams wasn't driven to drink in the Easter Road madhouse it seemed even stranger that he should return to Dingwall so quickly.
Clearly, however, chairman Roy MacGregor liked what he got with Adams and absence - and travails under Willie McStay and Jimmy Calderwood - made the heart grow fonder.
Derek was back and this time there was going to be no messing about. Promotion, the unfinished business, would be delivered.
And so it has been.
County are now 30 games unbeaten. On Wednesday a 3-1 win at Ayr put the seal on a title that had been delivered by a Chris Higgins equaliser for Queen of the South at Dundee 24 hours earlier.
18 years is a long time. The last eight years must have felt even longer, with Inverness beating County to the SPL punch.
The waiting's now over.
New blood for the SPL and another widening of what used to be quite a constrictive Scottish footballing geography.
A time for rejoicing?
In Dingwall certainly.
Elsewhere?
It appears not everyone is in the party mood.
The litany of gripes grows: finances (I'm not currently privy to the information but the ascent seems less dramatically funded than, say, Gretna), attendances (actually very consistent - small, yes, but steady enough to plan a budget), tactics (30 games undefeated isn't to be sniffed at and success is never that dull for supporters); travel times (a bind for visiting fans, of course, but this is Scotland not Russia); they've not got a proper ground (they do, but the SPL has daft rules and a brief groundshare with Inverness, while not ideal, will allow them to satisfy the bureaucracy).
The list will lengthen.
Some of the moaning will come from aggrieved First Division rivals.
Some of it will come because many of us like a good moan more than we like a good news story. We want to be upset, it's a football thing mixed with a Scottish thing to create a thrawn contrariness that defies one to be impressed by anything. It's a common type of fitba' prickery.
And, who knows, some of it might be entirely justified, grounded in reason and fact and allowing for a good old case of "told you so" when Dingwall dreams become northern nightmares.
All that's for the future.
Right now we've got Ross County proving, while other areas of the game crash and burn, that clubs can progress through our system.
They've done that with community support, a dedicated chairman, an eye on development, a young manager who has grown in the role and some decent players. They've even given the SPL a brand new derby to look forward to.
We need more stories like this.
So congratulations and good luck to the Staggies.
Find out how promotion was won with the excellent Ross County Tactics
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Albion Road
After a hiatus caused by nothing more serious than my own predilection for procrastination, I'm delighted to be writing for the fantastic Albion Road again.
We're starting off with a look back at the SPL title race and the contrasting fortunes of Celtic and Rangers in this strange season:
Thanks, as ever, to Jeremy at Albion Road.
www.albionroad.com
@albion_road
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We're starting off with a look back at the SPL title race and the contrasting fortunes of Celtic and Rangers in this strange season:
So this has been a season like no other for Rangers and, by extension, for a Scottish game that has been dominated by Glasgow's big two for so long.
Imponderables lie ahead for the Ibrox faithful and for Rangers' competitors in the SPL.
None of that should detract from the present.
The SPL has shown that, if nothing else, it can still just about function as sporting competition: the best team have, deservedly, won the league.Next week I'll be taking a look at the relegation and European battles ahead as the top six and bottom six head their separate ways.
Thanks, as ever, to Jeremy at Albion Road.
www.albionroad.com
@albion_road
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Wednesday, April 11, 2012
SPL: Fair or foul
The tranquility of my holiday haven on the Solway Coast is shattered as we come closer to answering a question that has vexed us for weeks:
What would the SPL do if Rangers took the ultimate plunge into liquidation before emerging on the other side as a "newco?"
Today an SPL statement regarding 'Financial Fair Play' shed some light on the issue:
So there we have it. On April 30th the 12 SPL clubs - Rangers will be represented by their administrators - will vote on the framework that would let "Rangers 2012" begin life in the SPL.
Shocked?
Perhaps.
Perhaps not.
I've argued since this whole affair blew up that the SPL - a league founded on greed and self-preservation or, if you prefer, a league founded to maximise commercial revenues - would likely find more solace in keeping Rangers close.
That has led them to this point. Of finding a way to keep Rangers in the SPL while still being seen to punish them.
The sort of compromise that Neil Doncaster will be well used to, the sort of compromise that he was an architect of when a Leeds United newco was admitted to the English Football League.
Hence a three season deduction in revenue and a two season points deduction of ten points.
Given the SPL's silence as they've ferreted away on these changes we might expect them to have been better. Immediately there appears an inconsistency in the severity of punishments being handed out for administration and liquidation.
And a ten point deduction for two seasons doesn't seem much. Half-hearted to the point of being meaningless.
It's a bad idea for the SPL to give the impression that Doncaster's drafted these changes on the back of Ralph Topping's cigar packet. But that's the impression that will linger.
Things to remember: these rule changes still need to be passed by the SPL's 12 men in suits. And Rangers are not yet liquidated, they might never be liquidated.
Still the Scottish football public is agog and aghast.
"Too lenient" cry the massed ranks of non-Rangers supporters.
"Too harsh" cry the Rangers fans.
"Badly timed" say Ibrox administrators Duff and Phelps while announcing a delay to their announcement of the preferred bidders. The interested parties are given time to digest the proposed rule changes and how they might affect their plans for the club.
Anecdotally I'm hearing a lot of people saying they'll be finished with the SPL if a new Rangers are allowed a place in the SPL under new rules.
I understand that argument but my own view will always be that I support my team not the league they play in and I will continue to do so.
I've also heard from Rangers fans arguing that they should say "screw the SPL" and join the SFL in a fit of pique.
With your club in something of a fix some humility would not go amiss. But there is an interesting theory wrapped up in the outrage: Rangers spending three seasons fighting through the league structure might actually reinvigorate the whole of Scottish football.
What we have learnt throughout this process, however, is that putting a 'For Sale' sign up outside Ibrox does not spark a rush of bargain hunters. The SPL might be flawed but I'm not sure all those interested in trying to clean up Rangers' mess would trade the top flight for the Third Division on a point of principle.
For prospective buyers it might really be a case of "SPL and sort of bust" or "SFL and completely bust."
It is likely that clubs will be voting on these changes with certain issues remaining unresolved.
The SPL will - rightly or wrongly - shrug off Rangers' outstanding tax issues by saying such matters should be dealt with by the relevant authorities not a football league.
They'll try and body swerve the morality of liquidation, of the businesses left out of pocket through Rangers' mismanagement, in much the same way.
The results of investigations carried out by the SFA and the SPL themselves might be harder to dodge.
But, if nothing else, the SPL is a refuge of the brass necked and the two faced. They'll sit out those controversies and say "actually those investigations are only relevant to the old Rangers, not this shiny, new mob we've let in to the league."
Those riders again: liquidation might not happen, the SPL clubs might not vote in favour of these proposals.
Liquidation might happen though, it might be unavoidable whatever the demands of the fans and whatever the intentions of the new owners. And the SPL might vote "yes."
We've seen today the ill feeling that will bring. And the damage it will do to the game.
I've said all along that the SPL decision makers were going to have a decision to make. A hard decision.
A decision that would cause a rammy like none we've seen before.
Nothing was decided today. But we got a glimpse of where we're headed.
That nobody is happy suggests we're on the road to a very SPL-like resolution. Please none of the people all of the time.
It's hard to see how, in the view of the paying public, the SPL can emerge from April 30th with anything other than an even more damaged product.
There remains a future for Scottish football.
It just doesn't look very bright right now.
Like this? Like the Scottish Football Blog on Facebook.
What would the SPL do if Rangers took the ultimate plunge into liquidation before emerging on the other side as a "newco?"
Today an SPL statement regarding 'Financial Fair Play' shed some light on the issue:
On 30 April 2012 the SPL Clubs will consider a range of proposals to amend the Articles and Rules of the SPL. A brief description of the effect of adopting the Resolutions is provided below.
Resolution 1 proposes an increase in the sporting sanction (points deduction) on any Club which suffers or is subject to an Insolvency Event from 10 points to the greater of 15 points and 1/3 of the Club’s SPL points in the preceding season.
Resolution 2A proposes further sporting sanctions in the event that any Club undergoes an Insolvency Transfer Event (i.e. transfers its share in the SPL to a new company where this occurs because of the insolvency of the transferor) of 10 points in each of two consecutive seasons from the Insolvency Transfer Event.
Resolution 2B proposes revisions to the fee payment arrangements i.e. SPL fees to any Club which has undergone an Insolvency Transfer Event will be reduced by 75% in each of three consecutive seasons from the Insolvency Transfer Event.
Resolution 3 proposes extending sporting sanctions where an Insolvency Event is suffered by a Group Undertaking of a Member Club of the SPL (Group Undertaking is defined in Section 1161(5) of the Companies Act 2006).
Resolution 4 proposes updates and extensions to the definition of Insolvency Event in the SPL Rules.
Resolution 5 proposes updates and extensions to the definition of Insolvency Event in the SPL Articles and clarifies the process in the event that a Member which is the subject of an Insolvency Event is required to transfer its share in the Company.
Resolution 6 proposes a specific requirement in the SPL Rules that Clubs must pay their Players in terms of their Contracts of Service on due dates and places a duty on any Club to report any failure to pay its Players in a timely manner to the SPL. Failure to pay Players and / or to notify such failure to the SPL would be a breach of SPL Rules.
Resolution 7 proposes a requirement in the SPL Rules that Clubs report to the SPL any failure to make payments to HMRC in respect of PAYE and NIC (a Default Event). Any Club suffering such a Default Event will be subject to a Player Registration Embargo. Any failure to report a Default Event shall be a breach of the SPL Rules.
Resolutions 2B and 5 require the support of a minimum of 11 Clubs to be adopted; all other Resolutions require the support of a minimum of 8 Clubs to be adopted.
If adopted the amendments to the Articles and Rules will have effect from and including 14 May 2012 (the day after the last day of Season 2011/2012).
No further comment will be made in respect of these proposals until after the General Meeting on 30 April at which they will be considered by the Clubs.
So there we have it. On April 30th the 12 SPL clubs - Rangers will be represented by their administrators - will vote on the framework that would let "Rangers 2012" begin life in the SPL.
Shocked?
Perhaps.
Perhaps not.
I've argued since this whole affair blew up that the SPL - a league founded on greed and self-preservation or, if you prefer, a league founded to maximise commercial revenues - would likely find more solace in keeping Rangers close.
That has led them to this point. Of finding a way to keep Rangers in the SPL while still being seen to punish them.
The sort of compromise that Neil Doncaster will be well used to, the sort of compromise that he was an architect of when a Leeds United newco was admitted to the English Football League.
Hence a three season deduction in revenue and a two season points deduction of ten points.
Given the SPL's silence as they've ferreted away on these changes we might expect them to have been better. Immediately there appears an inconsistency in the severity of punishments being handed out for administration and liquidation.
And a ten point deduction for two seasons doesn't seem much. Half-hearted to the point of being meaningless.
It's a bad idea for the SPL to give the impression that Doncaster's drafted these changes on the back of Ralph Topping's cigar packet. But that's the impression that will linger.
Things to remember: these rule changes still need to be passed by the SPL's 12 men in suits. And Rangers are not yet liquidated, they might never be liquidated.
Still the Scottish football public is agog and aghast.
"Too lenient" cry the massed ranks of non-Rangers supporters.
"Too harsh" cry the Rangers fans.
"Badly timed" say Ibrox administrators Duff and Phelps while announcing a delay to their announcement of the preferred bidders. The interested parties are given time to digest the proposed rule changes and how they might affect their plans for the club.
Anecdotally I'm hearing a lot of people saying they'll be finished with the SPL if a new Rangers are allowed a place in the SPL under new rules.
I understand that argument but my own view will always be that I support my team not the league they play in and I will continue to do so.
I've also heard from Rangers fans arguing that they should say "screw the SPL" and join the SFL in a fit of pique.
With your club in something of a fix some humility would not go amiss. But there is an interesting theory wrapped up in the outrage: Rangers spending three seasons fighting through the league structure might actually reinvigorate the whole of Scottish football.
What we have learnt throughout this process, however, is that putting a 'For Sale' sign up outside Ibrox does not spark a rush of bargain hunters. The SPL might be flawed but I'm not sure all those interested in trying to clean up Rangers' mess would trade the top flight for the Third Division on a point of principle.
For prospective buyers it might really be a case of "SPL and sort of bust" or "SFL and completely bust."
It is likely that clubs will be voting on these changes with certain issues remaining unresolved.
The SPL will - rightly or wrongly - shrug off Rangers' outstanding tax issues by saying such matters should be dealt with by the relevant authorities not a football league.
They'll try and body swerve the morality of liquidation, of the businesses left out of pocket through Rangers' mismanagement, in much the same way.
The results of investigations carried out by the SFA and the SPL themselves might be harder to dodge.
But, if nothing else, the SPL is a refuge of the brass necked and the two faced. They'll sit out those controversies and say "actually those investigations are only relevant to the old Rangers, not this shiny, new mob we've let in to the league."
Those riders again: liquidation might not happen, the SPL clubs might not vote in favour of these proposals.
Liquidation might happen though, it might be unavoidable whatever the demands of the fans and whatever the intentions of the new owners. And the SPL might vote "yes."
We've seen today the ill feeling that will bring. And the damage it will do to the game.
I've said all along that the SPL decision makers were going to have a decision to make. A hard decision.
A decision that would cause a rammy like none we've seen before.
Nothing was decided today. But we got a glimpse of where we're headed.
That nobody is happy suggests we're on the road to a very SPL-like resolution. Please none of the people all of the time.
It's hard to see how, in the view of the paying public, the SPL can emerge from April 30th with anything other than an even more damaged product.
There remains a future for Scottish football.
It just doesn't look very bright right now.
Like this? Like the Scottish Football Blog on Facebook.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Hibs: A sorry saga
Little by little, inch by inch, Hibs are moving towards SPL safety.
Three points salvaged from a poor performance in Inverness were followed by a single point in an encouraging display against Motherwell on Sunday.
These are not earth shattering displays. But they are enough to edge further from a poor Dunfermline side who have not yet enjoyed the bounce they might have expected when unveiling Jim Jefferies as a managerial Red Adair.
A seven point advantage with 15 points to play for doesn't represent safety for Hibs. But it's going to take something special to condemn them to the First Division.
So it should be an optimistic sunshine that settles on Leith in the run up to Saturday's Scottish Cup semi final against Aberdeen on Saturday.
Is it?
I'm not so sure.
While tickets for that Hampden clash have been described as steady, cup fever has yet to grip the club.
An attendance for the Motherwell game of just over 7000 points to a supporter base that is being reduced to a rump.
The deadline for season ticket renewals has been extended. The official reason for this, to compensate for the increased demand on the clubs resources caused by the sale of semi-final tickets, should be treated with care.
Such is the concern within the club at falling attendances and poor sales that chairman Rod Petrie was forced into a public statement last week.
For those of us who watch events at Easter Road with an interest bordering on obsession any breaking of Petrie's silence is a major event.
This is a man who seems to think of himself as the mute force of good sense and benevolence at Hibs, the moustachioed Buddha of Albion Road.
So a Petrie statement is unusual. A Petrie apology is even rarer. But here it was:
"We made mistakes - I made mistakes. I am sorry. We have paid for these mistakes. That was then, this is 2012."
He went on to praise manager Pat Fenlon - "a tough competitor and a winner" - and quote statistics to illustrate the team's progress since Fenlon took over from Colin Calderwood. He even name checked the previous manager when acknowledging the decline in attendances.
The problem for Petrie and the Hibs board is that we've heard all this before.
In July of 2011 the chairman was making a stout defence of Calderwood, backing that up with illustrative statistics and pinning the blame on John Hughes.
For all the solace he takes in silence, Rod Petrie is running the risk of becoming the SPL chairman who cried wolf.
And that is leading to a deficit of trust.
The fans would react to a more successful team. But they don't trust the current board to furnish that ambition. That makes season ticket sales a hard sell.
It's an even harder sell if you present frozen ticket prices as some sort of victory for people power. It's not if people already think those prices are too steep.
It's doubly hard if you slip through an announcement that interest will now be charged on your "pay monthly" season ticket deal.
And it's even harder if you start selling season tickets when there remains a chance you'll be playing lower division football for the season in question.
These were a series of marketing decision that fuelled the idea that the Hibs board either have no cognisance of the feelings of fans or no regard for those feelings.
When a board appears to be navigating blindly through modern football there is very little chance of them being able to rely on the blind faith of supporters.
The bloody-minded player's coup that Petrie allowed to triumph over John Collins, the unsatisfactory reign of Mixu Paatelainen, the gradual descent of Hughes' stewardship into verbose madness, the mistake of first appointing Calderwood and then standing by him during a summer of rumour and indecisiveness.
Rod Petrie and his incoming chief executive Scott Lindsay have been around for these misjudgements, unsteady hands on the tiller during ever stormier weather.
The result is the current league plight. And a fans that have gone through rage and settled on detached apathy.
Apathy should be the thing that a football club fears the most.
"Please play your part and do whatever you can to help Pat and to support your team.
"By working together we can bring success to the Club. We are Hibernian!"
That was Rod Petrie's closing plea to supporters last week.
I agree with him. I'd love fans to renew season tickets, to see them queue round the block for semi final tickets, to throng the turnstiles for the league challenges ahead.
But I won't blame for them not doing that. Money's tight, people aren't daft. There are only so many times you'll let the club you love smack you in the face before deciding the pain and the hassle are not worth it.
And it's Rod Petrie and his board, the directors he has hand picked, who are largely to blame for that.
It will take more than statements, retrospective apologies and selective statistics to right those wrongs.
So this is a big week for Hibs. A strong performance against Aberdeen, the promise of a Scottish Cup final to come. These are things for fans to get enthused about.
An emphatic run in the bottom six of the league would also help, a run to quell those rebellious Fifers and give a hint of the sort of team Fenlon hopes to mould over the summer.
That would help confirm the view that buying a season ticket won't be an expensive form of masochism next season.
I hope the players and Fenlon can pull it off. And I hope the fans respond if they do.
Still though I can't shift the conclusion that it's the board not the fans or the manager who should be contributing more to the well-being of the club.
The days, weeks and months ahead might represent a defining moment for Hibs.
It's time for Rod Petrie to realise that actions speak louder than words.
> Cup or survival?
That question's been asked a lot of late among Hibs fans. Petrie's statement spoke of the fans helping the team achieve both. Ian Murray is quoted as saying the "romantic" notion for fans and players would be a cup triumph over SPL survival?
I don't remember Hibs winning the Scottish Cup. I do remember the anguish of relegation.
So depressing would the act of relegation be that I don't see how Hibs could win the cup after being dumped into the First Division.
It's survival and the chance of a cup win or nothing for me.
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Three points salvaged from a poor performance in Inverness were followed by a single point in an encouraging display against Motherwell on Sunday.
These are not earth shattering displays. But they are enough to edge further from a poor Dunfermline side who have not yet enjoyed the bounce they might have expected when unveiling Jim Jefferies as a managerial Red Adair.
A seven point advantage with 15 points to play for doesn't represent safety for Hibs. But it's going to take something special to condemn them to the First Division.
So it should be an optimistic sunshine that settles on Leith in the run up to Saturday's Scottish Cup semi final against Aberdeen on Saturday.
Is it?
I'm not so sure.
While tickets for that Hampden clash have been described as steady, cup fever has yet to grip the club.
An attendance for the Motherwell game of just over 7000 points to a supporter base that is being reduced to a rump.
The deadline for season ticket renewals has been extended. The official reason for this, to compensate for the increased demand on the clubs resources caused by the sale of semi-final tickets, should be treated with care.
Such is the concern within the club at falling attendances and poor sales that chairman Rod Petrie was forced into a public statement last week.
For those of us who watch events at Easter Road with an interest bordering on obsession any breaking of Petrie's silence is a major event.
This is a man who seems to think of himself as the mute force of good sense and benevolence at Hibs, the moustachioed Buddha of Albion Road.
So a Petrie statement is unusual. A Petrie apology is even rarer. But here it was:
"We made mistakes - I made mistakes. I am sorry. We have paid for these mistakes. That was then, this is 2012."
He went on to praise manager Pat Fenlon - "a tough competitor and a winner" - and quote statistics to illustrate the team's progress since Fenlon took over from Colin Calderwood. He even name checked the previous manager when acknowledging the decline in attendances.
The problem for Petrie and the Hibs board is that we've heard all this before.
In July of 2011 the chairman was making a stout defence of Calderwood, backing that up with illustrative statistics and pinning the blame on John Hughes.
For all the solace he takes in silence, Rod Petrie is running the risk of becoming the SPL chairman who cried wolf.
And that is leading to a deficit of trust.
The fans would react to a more successful team. But they don't trust the current board to furnish that ambition. That makes season ticket sales a hard sell.
It's an even harder sell if you present frozen ticket prices as some sort of victory for people power. It's not if people already think those prices are too steep.
It's doubly hard if you slip through an announcement that interest will now be charged on your "pay monthly" season ticket deal.
And it's even harder if you start selling season tickets when there remains a chance you'll be playing lower division football for the season in question.
These were a series of marketing decision that fuelled the idea that the Hibs board either have no cognisance of the feelings of fans or no regard for those feelings.
When a board appears to be navigating blindly through modern football there is very little chance of them being able to rely on the blind faith of supporters.
The bloody-minded player's coup that Petrie allowed to triumph over John Collins, the unsatisfactory reign of Mixu Paatelainen, the gradual descent of Hughes' stewardship into verbose madness, the mistake of first appointing Calderwood and then standing by him during a summer of rumour and indecisiveness.
Rod Petrie and his incoming chief executive Scott Lindsay have been around for these misjudgements, unsteady hands on the tiller during ever stormier weather.
The result is the current league plight. And a fans that have gone through rage and settled on detached apathy.
Apathy should be the thing that a football club fears the most.
"Please play your part and do whatever you can to help Pat and to support your team.
"By working together we can bring success to the Club. We are Hibernian!"
That was Rod Petrie's closing plea to supporters last week.
I agree with him. I'd love fans to renew season tickets, to see them queue round the block for semi final tickets, to throng the turnstiles for the league challenges ahead.
But I won't blame for them not doing that. Money's tight, people aren't daft. There are only so many times you'll let the club you love smack you in the face before deciding the pain and the hassle are not worth it.
And it's Rod Petrie and his board, the directors he has hand picked, who are largely to blame for that.
It will take more than statements, retrospective apologies and selective statistics to right those wrongs.
So this is a big week for Hibs. A strong performance against Aberdeen, the promise of a Scottish Cup final to come. These are things for fans to get enthused about.
An emphatic run in the bottom six of the league would also help, a run to quell those rebellious Fifers and give a hint of the sort of team Fenlon hopes to mould over the summer.
That would help confirm the view that buying a season ticket won't be an expensive form of masochism next season.
I hope the players and Fenlon can pull it off. And I hope the fans respond if they do.
Still though I can't shift the conclusion that it's the board not the fans or the manager who should be contributing more to the well-being of the club.
The days, weeks and months ahead might represent a defining moment for Hibs.
It's time for Rod Petrie to realise that actions speak louder than words.
> Cup or survival?
That question's been asked a lot of late among Hibs fans. Petrie's statement spoke of the fans helping the team achieve both. Ian Murray is quoted as saying the "romantic" notion for fans and players would be a cup triumph over SPL survival?
I don't remember Hibs winning the Scottish Cup. I do remember the anguish of relegation.
So depressing would the act of relegation be that I don't see how Hibs could win the cup after being dumped into the First Division.
It's survival and the chance of a cup win or nothing for me.
Like this? Like the Scottish Football Blog on Facebook.
Sunday, April 08, 2012
Celtic: Sealing the deal
After a shaky start to the season and having already been denied a couple of cracks at sealing the SPL was there a danger that Celtic would stutter to the finish line?
No.
A 6-0 thumping of Kilmarnock and that was that. The title done and dusted by 2.45pm on the 7th of April. Efficient.
That the championship champagne has popped so early is in no small part to the bonfire of the vanities that is being played out at Ibrox.
Are Celtic supporters being pulled three ways at the moment?
Celebrating a title. Taking more than a little joy in the Rangers implosion. Feeling the need to justify the former in light of the latter.
They shouldn't be.
This league championship should be celebrated without caveats. It's a triumph that has been both hard earned and deserved.
The ten points that a succession of crooks have cost Rangers might have allowed the victory party to kick off early.
But it was the way that Celtic reacted to their own bad start that mattered.
That brief but very real 15 point deficit. That moment at Rugby Park - and how fitting it was that an emphatic win at Kilmarnock should seal the title - when they found themselves 3-0 down and staring infamy in the face.
The reaction was magnificent. Celtic bulldozed their way through the SPL, overhauled Rangers and nabbed control of this league season. And they did all that before the administrators finally neutered their only real rivals as a competitive force.
An achievement that will mean a lot to Neil Lennon. Maybe only he will know just how much.
I've said before that you don't need to like Lennon. Football fans tend not to like opposing managers. That's football.
Two idiots sending a football manager a bomb in the post. That's something else.
To have stuck at the job so single mindedly and to have secured the trophy he so desperately wanted represents a very personal triumph for the Celtic manager.
His players will likely dominate the various awards shortlists this season. Lennon has the most talented squad in Scotland at his disposal.
He's used it wisely. He seems to have kept the players happy, he's shown the confidence to change things to meet immediate challenges, he's fielded sides strong enough to win games when not at their best.
Those are essential ingredients for a title winning side. Lennon's Celtic have been the only club in the SPL to have come close to meeting those challenges this year.
That's why they've won the league. It must also be heartening for Celtic to see the way in which players have improved over the course of the season.
I found Charlie Mulgrew's brace in yesterday's clinching win fitting.
The modern Celtic manager is charged with two important tasks: win titles, of course, but also take players that aren't yet the finished article and turn them into the sort of players that can deliver those titles.
That's the rider that goes with Lennon's dream job. He's pulled it off with aplomb this season even if it's a boardroom approach that might yet rob him of the chance to build a side to compete with the vintage Celtic teams of old.
Mulgrew's season has perhaps been a vindication of both the club's approach and the manager's ability to meet the full remit of his role.
Football historians will one day devote chapters and chapters to this strangest of Scottish football seasons. Humble chroniclers of the game will be musing on the fallout for years to come.
But we are all still here for the football. And the only thing that matters right now is that Celtic are the SPL champions and they've achieved that by having the best team and a manager able to give that team the platform to realise its potential.
A shot at a double lies just around the corner. There might be a golden opportunity to turn this Celtic side into the catalyst for a dominant domestic dynasty. European tests await.
That's the future.
For now we can acknowledge that Neil Lennon's Celtic are the best team in the country and the league champions.
Even in the dysfunctional world of Scottish football that is exactly how it should be.
Like this? Like the Scottish Football Blog on Facebook.
No.
A 6-0 thumping of Kilmarnock and that was that. The title done and dusted by 2.45pm on the 7th of April. Efficient.
That the championship champagne has popped so early is in no small part to the bonfire of the vanities that is being played out at Ibrox.
Are Celtic supporters being pulled three ways at the moment?
Celebrating a title. Taking more than a little joy in the Rangers implosion. Feeling the need to justify the former in light of the latter.
They shouldn't be.
This league championship should be celebrated without caveats. It's a triumph that has been both hard earned and deserved.
The ten points that a succession of crooks have cost Rangers might have allowed the victory party to kick off early.
But it was the way that Celtic reacted to their own bad start that mattered.
That brief but very real 15 point deficit. That moment at Rugby Park - and how fitting it was that an emphatic win at Kilmarnock should seal the title - when they found themselves 3-0 down and staring infamy in the face.
The reaction was magnificent. Celtic bulldozed their way through the SPL, overhauled Rangers and nabbed control of this league season. And they did all that before the administrators finally neutered their only real rivals as a competitive force.
An achievement that will mean a lot to Neil Lennon. Maybe only he will know just how much.
I've said before that you don't need to like Lennon. Football fans tend not to like opposing managers. That's football.
Two idiots sending a football manager a bomb in the post. That's something else.
To have stuck at the job so single mindedly and to have secured the trophy he so desperately wanted represents a very personal triumph for the Celtic manager.
His players will likely dominate the various awards shortlists this season. Lennon has the most talented squad in Scotland at his disposal.
He's used it wisely. He seems to have kept the players happy, he's shown the confidence to change things to meet immediate challenges, he's fielded sides strong enough to win games when not at their best.
Those are essential ingredients for a title winning side. Lennon's Celtic have been the only club in the SPL to have come close to meeting those challenges this year.
That's why they've won the league. It must also be heartening for Celtic to see the way in which players have improved over the course of the season.
I found Charlie Mulgrew's brace in yesterday's clinching win fitting.
The modern Celtic manager is charged with two important tasks: win titles, of course, but also take players that aren't yet the finished article and turn them into the sort of players that can deliver those titles.
That's the rider that goes with Lennon's dream job. He's pulled it off with aplomb this season even if it's a boardroom approach that might yet rob him of the chance to build a side to compete with the vintage Celtic teams of old.
Mulgrew's season has perhaps been a vindication of both the club's approach and the manager's ability to meet the full remit of his role.
Football historians will one day devote chapters and chapters to this strangest of Scottish football seasons. Humble chroniclers of the game will be musing on the fallout for years to come.
But we are all still here for the football. And the only thing that matters right now is that Celtic are the SPL champions and they've achieved that by having the best team and a manager able to give that team the platform to realise its potential.
A shot at a double lies just around the corner. There might be a golden opportunity to turn this Celtic side into the catalyst for a dominant domestic dynasty. European tests await.
That's the future.
For now we can acknowledge that Neil Lennon's Celtic are the best team in the country and the league champions.
Even in the dysfunctional world of Scottish football that is exactly how it should be.
Like this? Like the Scottish Football Blog on Facebook.
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