Progress for SPFL would be asking if Neil gives us value for money
NEIL DONCASTER describes the appointment of two women to the SPFL board as ‘progressive’. He likes a buzzword, does Neil. Unfortunately, he appears to regard their arrivals as progressive primarily because they are not men. ‘I don’t think many people would have seen three women on the board when I arrived, years ago,’ remarked the chief executive.
This is not why the elections of Ann Budge and Leeann Dempster to serve alongside non-executive director Karyn McCluskey offer hope of something more forwardthinking and cohesive, though. Gender is irrelevant.
What is most encouraging about them taking positions of greater influence is that they are two people who appear to have seen through what an odd, often inept, organisation the SPFL can be and are unafraid to flag it up.
There is always the danger, of course, that moving inside the tent may result in Dempster and Budge, starting to sound like a no-nonsense double act from a 1970s cop show, being worn down.
Given the personalities involved, though, that seems unlikely. They are not the types to spend years shuffling around committees saying nothing about anything. Both are determined to use this as an opportunity to effect change and are joined by an interesting figure in Ian Maxwell, whose club, Partick Thistle, now markets itself in a more clever, inventive way than anyone.
They have the relationship between club and community at their hearts. Expect to see that being a strong part of the attempts they will make to help form a brand, a league, with its own sense of identity. At the moment, the SPFL possesses no such thing.
Budge has certainly done so many of the right things since becoming Grand Duchess of Gorgie, restoring Hearts to health, engaging the support and holding a strong line on troublemakers.
She has also been vehement, when necessary, in her criticism of the SPFL. During exchanges over the reinvention of the League Cup, she revealed that a Communications Working Group set up in the wake of a strategic review had not staged one single meeting in more than a year. A small point, but one now being addressed.
Of course, she already has previous experience of joining forces with Dempster to put Doncaster, in particular, under duress. If anything showed that communications are, indeed, a weak point at the SPFL, it was the rumpus over the decision to allow Rangers to finish their Championship season, with a visit to Hearts, a day after everyone else to accommodate live television.
With Hibs competing with the Ibrox club for second place, it contravened sporting fairness. Dempster and Budge, upholders of law and avengers of wrongdoing, went on the offensive, with the SPFL’s response quite staggering.
‘It is not clear to us why this has caused so much surprise,’ read their statement. Faux-naif may have taken Louis Theroux a long way, but it is a delicate act to pass off and disastrous when poorly executed.
Dempster’s time as chief executive at Hibs has had its challenges. Slowly but surely, though, she is making inroads with the fanbase and repairing a relationship made toxic by Rod Petrie. Her strengths lie in marketing and connecting with people, two things the SPFL must improve upon.
Several years ago, the SPL, as it was then known, invited me to a ‘brainstorming’ dinner.
Clearly, I offered so much that they never felt the need to ask me back.
Afterwards, a colleague and I repaired to the bar next door to express frustration over the fact that countless attempts to spark debate on improving the supporter experience, securing workable kick-off times and offering greater value for money had fallen on stony ground.
Budge and Dempster are selfstyled champions of the supporter and can help ensure we no longer have situations where punters feel compelled to travel from Inverness to Hampden to explain to Doncaster why a 12.15pm kick-off in Edinburgh on a Sunday for a cup semi-final doesn’t work.
Budge has also expressed frustration over the need for every single decision being made to go in front of every member club.
That has been at the centre of much of the criticism of Doncaster, a man who must be congratulated for his longevity if nothing else.
He has little executive power. He is best known for copping all the flak over embarrassments such as two years without a sponsor or the grand failure to force through league reconstruction in 2011.
Things have improved of late with the Ladbrokes tie-up, a new deal with the BBC and the broadcasting and sponsorship contracts secured by a bold revamp of the League Cup. He will be joined by new board members who, despite past issues, want to work constructively.
Even so, there may still be a case to be made for Doncaster’s exact role and salary being re-evaluated. Perhaps, in this time of change, there can be a conversation on whether the SPFL, hardly bursting with staff or money, needs its current form of chief executive at all. How’s that for a spot of blue-sky thinking?