Legal move makes sense but change now unlikely
HEARTS, Partick Thistle and Stranraer have been shafted, along with a handful of others to a lesser degree, and there is little anyone can do about it.
Folks, the bleak news just keeps coming.
Legal action has started but from the outside looking in it does seem no law has been broken, rules were adhered to and a free and democratic vote took place. A song and dance will be made by Hearts and Thistle but nothing is likely change apart from some lawyers making a few extra bob.
It stinks that 26 clubs voted against league reconstruction. Why they did so only they can say but self-interest, as it always has, ruled the hearts of most of those making the biggest decisions in Scottish football.
The individual has forever been more important than the collective. There can’t have been too many occasions when a chairman has felt that a big decision could have a negative impact on their own club but chose to vote the other way because it was for the greater good.
My guess is that almost every club hurt by Monday’s vote
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Football Sky Bet League Two play-off semi-finals, Colchester v Exeter - Sky Sports Football/Sky Sports Main Event 1700, has in the past only thought of themselves – not that this hypocrisy makes today’s situation right. And every club who voted against changing the present system would have voted for had they been in the position of those clubs who have now been relegated.
I have said from day one that a 14-team Premiership was needed. Had I got a vote, I would have accepted Kelty Hearts and Brora Rangers even if the last thing the senior game needs is for two more clubs.
At 42, there are too many. We are a country of just over five million with two clubs able to attract the best part of half the country. A two-league senior game of 28-30 clubs at most would fit better.
But which club is going to vote to perhaps put themselves out of business?
However, if increasing 42 clubs to 44 brought some fairness to a situation, which is nobody’s fault remember, then I would have put my concerns to the side and also released a press release detailing the thought process and set up a Zoom media conference.
It’s this open attitude which means I won’t ever become a club chairman.
It would be the done thing if every club came out and explained their reasons behind why they voted as they did and took questions on it. There is more chance of Satan purchasing skis, of course.
Scottish football does like to play these games. Boardrooms are full of guys who love the feeling of power but are not so keen to let the proles know what has been going on behind closed doors.
There will be good reasons why the 26 voted the way they did. Almost everyone is skint. Would reconstruction have cost
Northampton v Cheltenham - Sky Sports Football/ Sky Sports Main Event 1930; LaLiga, Alaves v Real Sociedad - LaLiga TV 1830, Real Madrid v Valencia LaLiga TV 2100;
Bundesliga 2, Arminia Bielefeld v Darmstadt - BT out of Firhill was that the individual is stronger when we all work together, that the common good can be reached if we all put our differences aside and fight shoulder to shoulder.
Socialism, in other words. Now there is a word you won’t hear in most boardrooms.
Ms Low has certainly been banging the drum for collectivity and has made the point many times that jobs are on the line here, which is quite ironic given that she was once a special advisor to Michael Forsyth, a man who backed the idea to introduce the Poll Tax a year early in Scotland to see how it went down.
It went down really badly. Anyway.
Hearts have been a shambles for a while. The forgetting to buy seats for a new stand compounded by terrible footballing decisions including putting together a squad too big and too expensive for a club with twice their budget.
Ann Budge, the owner, has to accept a lot of that blame, although she did more than anyone to save the club and remains popular with the support.
I know why she, and now Thistle, are going down the legal road – I wish them well – but I can’t see them changing things in court and it would be better to concentrate on making sure their clubs get through this.
The one thing which may come out of this, if it does get to court, is those involved would have to speak the truth and nothing but the truth – a first in Scottish football. I fear, however, that Budge and Low won’t get their day in front of a judge.
The very least the clubs affected deserve is financial compensation. I fear for that as well.
As my mammy was fond of saying: “The fair is not until July.”