BORIS JOHNSON IS HERE FOR ... 10 IN A WOE UNFINISHED BUSINESS
PM will step in to take heat off Doncaster and Maxwell as he declares season is over
IN an ideal world Scottish football will survive this real life crisis unscathed.
The current season would be rolled back out of cold storage at some point soon and the campaign completed in time for the next one to begin as planned.
Life will go on just as it always did before coronavirus wheezed and spluttered its vile breath across the globe.
Without wishing to burst anyone’s bubble that ship sailed some time ago. What we are all about to be bounced into is a post-apocalyptic existence where notions of fairness and sporting integrity will be shoved to one side.
As Record Sport revealed on Saturday morning the men in charge of dealing with the fall-out from this unfolding human disaster now strongly suspect there will be no professional football played in the UK this side of August.
By yesterday afternoon the forecast was looking even more desperate with some of the most well-informed and influential leaders of our game almost resigned to mothballing the domestic set- up until September.
In such a nightmarish scenario, they say, it’s nigh impossible to imagine any feasible way in which all of Scotland’s clubs will still be in a position to continue to trade until such times as the turnstiles finally do start clicking again and the income tap is turned back on.
In other words the entire landscape of the Scottish game as we know it is likely to be altered for all of time.
Which is why what happens in the next few days and weeks will be of enormous consequence to the future of our national obsession.
Some of the most difficult decisions which must be made will infuriate fans but, in a moment as potentially critical as this one, calm heads and a sense of perspective will be required as well as strong, strategic leadership.
Fortunately for Ian Maxwell and Neil Doncaster it’s now anticipated the most difficult and controversial decisions of all could be made many miles away from Hampden.
Tomorrow morning Maxwell will take instructions from UEFA during an emergency conference call involving all 55 member associations. He’ll almost certainly be told Euro 2020 will not take place at Hampden after all. Or anywhere else. And as soon as these discussions are over – or maybe even before – there is a very real prospect the British
Government will step into this mess and hand down a nationwide diktat directly from No.10.
If the idea of Boris Johnson deciding how we run our football affairs is a frightening one then just remember, it could be so much worse – It could be left to Maxwell and Doncaster to sort out.
In fairness to the two muchcriticised chief execs they have worked quickly and diligently to deal with this crisis so far. They have also been shoehorned into an unprecedented and entirely impossible position and there is no way for them to get out of it without encountering a blistering backlash from one direction or another. Theirs is the ultimate hiding to nothing.
Which is why it will come as an almighty relief to both if Boris rides to the rescue by instructing all football authorities to end the current season with immediate effect.
Such an edict might enrage Rangers fans as some of them still believe Steven Gerrard’s men are capable of recovering from a recent slump to deny Celtic a ninth successive title.
Even those who have already conceded the title now their side have slipped 13 points adrift will not have given up hope for it to be declared null and void.
But that seems increasingly unlikely given the financial and legal chaos that would then be unlocked with fans, broadcasters and sponsors all entitled to ask for their money back from a season that technically did not exist.
It seems far more probable the current standings will be used to determine the winners and losers and cross-border talks have begun between football authorities with the aim of forging a joint, uniformed response.
Hearts fans too will be outraged if their team is sent down a division when they still had eight games left with which to save their own Premiership skins.
Fans from impacted clubs all over the UK will make valid arguments as all of them will feel they have been betrayed and treated unjustly.
They will say they have been robbed of their sporting integrity. And they will have been too.
But, in such an imperfect
world, not every decision can be based purely on fairness. When survival is the only priority some decisions will have to be fairer than others.
If the PM does make this decree on football’s behalf then he will also trigger a raft of insurance claims to cover loss of earnings and these pay-outs, coupled with some sort of financial aid from Holyrood House, could be enough to keep some Scottish clubs from going to the wall.
The sooner the better as prolonged uncertainty could drive the most stretched over a financial cliff edge. Sitting around hoping for the best while staring at the worst is no longer an option.
By ending the season now all of these clubs would at least be given a chance to cut their losses, raise emergency funding and stem the bleeding in the short term.
On the contrary, by asking them to hold out in the increasingly fading hope the current campaign might still be rescued these clubs would be condemned to death by a thousand cuts.
Also, if a line is drawn in the season now, the SPFL ought to be able to distribute the endof-season prize money early, so long as the broadcasters are prepared to hand it over which may be another battle.
They could choose to argue they have been treated unfairly given they didn’t get a full season for their cash and will probably be on solid legal ground. While Sky might take a longer-term view to protect subscription numbers for next season the outgoing bosses of BT Sport will have no such concerns.
Once again none of this is even remotely close to being ideal. But with a vastlyimproved TV deal about to kick in for the new season it makes commercial sense to clear the decks and look forward to the next campaign.
There’s no way of knowing for sure at this stage when the new season will be cleared to start. If it does have to be held back until mid-August or early September then authorities will face a huge challenge in squeezing those fixtures into an orderly schedule never mind find room for this season’s left over.