Odoffin extends Accies deal
HAKEEM Odoffin has signed a new one-year contract extension with Hamilton.
The 22-year-old defensive midfielder, inset, who joined Accies from Livingston last year, will remain at the Lanarkshire club until the end of the next campaign.
He told the club’s official website: “When I heard we were going to renew my contract I was buzzing.
“Since I joined the club I have felt welcome and to be playing every week I feel the coaching staff trust and believe in me.” Head coach Brian Rice said: “I am absolutely delighted that Hakeem has committed his future to Hamilton.
“This season he has been fantastic for us.
“He treats every training session like a match and he is the type of player who would run through brick walls for the club.”
DAVE KING believes the departure of Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell this summer will lead to a more level playing field in Scottish football’s corridors of power.
Lawwell will leave his position at Parkhead at the end of a campaign which has seen Celtic’s ambitions of ten-in-a-row blown out of the water by Rangers as Steven Gerrard’s side lifted a 55th league flag.
Dominic McKay, the chief operating officer of the Scottish Rugby Union, will replace Lawwell in the East End and King reckons there could be a power shift at Hampden as a result.
“I very much do so,” King said when asked if he believed Lawwell’s departure makes it a good time to have more independent governance in Scottish football. “A lot of these things are to do with personal relationships so someone coming in from the outside, who is not a football man, will never exercise the same influence Peter Lawwell did.
“So I do think in my view a positive change for football in general. Ideally, I think some of these bodies should be more neutral than they are but it’s never going to happen that way because clubs are supporting people in and influence moves from time to time.”
Rangers have launched several attacks on the Scottish FA and the SPFL in recent times and were vociferous in their condemnation of those running our game following a controversial summer that saw the season brought to a premature end last term.
Lawwell has been a hugely influential figure at Hampden for many years now and former Ibrox chairman King hopes his exit will lead to a rethink about how our governing bodies operate.
King said: “One of the problems we’ve got with the authorities in Scottish football is the level of influence the clubs have.
“In my efforts with Rangers to get the club back at the main table, it was difficult. Because when we were absent, other clubs took control of the league structures. “The argument is that you can reverse that and make sure Rangers dominate it rather than other clubs - but I think the real answer is that we need more independence. We actually need people acting in the best interests of Scottish football, not in the interests of one club versus another.”