Ally’s axing set Alex off on a good New Year
Refs on strike, Rangers in meltdown, Celtic’s Trebles. It’s been quite a lively 10 years
In 20 years’ time, anyone taking a cursory glance at Scottish football’s honours list between 2010 and 2019 could be forgiven for guessing it had all been a bit, well, dull.
Rangers won the first top-flight title available, one started in 2009, and then followed that up by successfully defending as champions in 2010-11.
After that, it is a just a wall of greenand- white dominance, with Celtic’s name appearing in the league winners’ box with monotonous regularity. Again, and again, and again. Reaching the conclusion, though, that things have been boring could not be further from the truth. The decade which is about to end has been astonishing. At times, quite literally.
Bookended by an unprecedented referees strike and the death of the £ 171- million lottery winner and Partick Thistle benefactor, Colin Weir, it will be remembered chiefly as a time of financial meltdown.
A time when four of the country’s biggest clubs – Rangers, Hearts, Dundee and Dunfermline – all went into, and battled successfully back out of, administration.
A time in which Rangers were liquidated, reformed and admitted to the fourth tier, beginning a journey back to the very top which they are continuing to this day, one which many will only view as complete when they beat their Old Firm rivals to the title. A time when Edinburgh got a third club, Edinburgh
City, into the senior leagues, Aberdeen got a second, Cove Rangers, and – miracle of miracles – Hibernian ended one of sport’s most-notorious streaks by winning the Scottish Cup for the first time since 1902.
Don’t forget either, the history Bhoys. Celtic and Tony Watt beat Barcelona in the Champions League in 2012.
That was under Neil Lennon’s charge. In 2016-17, Brendan Rodgers did even better when his Invincibles went the entire domestic campaign undefeated, before Lennon returned to complete last season’s treble Treble. Before all that, however, came the stunning industrial action by our whistlers that saw referees from Israel, Malta and Luxembourg flown into the country to take charge of Premier League matches in 2010.
It was called by Scottish officials who feared their safety was being put at risk by the SFA’S failure to stand up for them in the face of increased criticism and safety.
Public feeling was high because one of their number, Dougie Mcdonald, had been found to have been less than straight about the circumstances of his decision to overturn the award of a penalty for Celtic in a game against Dundee United.
With bad weather hitting the card, only four matches went ahead under the charge of the foreign officials and the decision of Mcdonald to take early retirement soon afterwards helped allow a return to an uneasy peace.
As controversial as the episode was, it was nothing to the storm around Rangers’ financial fall – a story that captured world attention. At its centre was a £49m tax bill owed to HMRC from the use of employee benefit trusts, better known now simply as EBTS.
It was a debt that in 2011 allowed a man called Craig Whyte to buy a controlling stake in the club from David Murray for £1. As Murray was later to admit, it was a colossal piece of misjudgment. Whyte failed to deliver on his promises and instead led Rangers into administration – during which time it emerged he had used cash from the sale of future season tickets ( Ticketus) to fund his initial takeover. Administration was followed by liquidation, at which point Charles Green and Sevco stepped into to reorganise the club into a new company, or Newco.
At first it looked as if Rangers would be allowed to continue in the top flight. Indeed, the initial fixture list included the hardly cryptic “Club 12”. With fans up and down the country protesting their opposition, the clubs voted overwhelmingly against, and the Light Blues instead dropped down to the bottom tier.
Given the size of their fan base, it was always more a question of when rather than if they returned to the top tier and capture of the Third Division and League One ( renamed from
Murray was to later admit selling out to Whyte was a colossal misjudgment
Second Division) titles by 24 and 39 points in their first two years was almost too easy.
The Championship proved tougher. In 2014-15, they finished third behind Hearts ( runaway winners) and Hibs, but in 2015- 16, they won it by 11 points and on their promotion, finished third in the Premiership to clinch a return to Europe in 2017-18. Having started a tumultuous decade with a 1- 1 draw against Celtic, they will exit it with today’s derby at Celtic Park – a neat quirk of the fixture list.
While Hearts never had to deal with the high drama seen at Ibrox, their own slide into administration – rescued by Ann Budge and the move towards fan ownership under the Foundation of Hearts – has gripped their followers nevertheless. As positive as the galvanising of one of the country’s biggest names has been, they end the decade in an unhappy place as they are bottom of the Premiership table an d have much to sort out on and off the pitch.
Craig Levein – sacked as manager and replaced by Daniel Stendel yet still an influence at Tynecastle – also features in an ongoing tale of woe with the national team.
Over the last 10 years, Scotland have had four managers – Levein, Gordon Strachan, Alex Mcleish and Steve Clarke.
Between them, they shared five failed campaigns to reach a major Finals – Euros in 2012, 2016 and 2020 plus the 2014 and 2018 World Cups.
In fairness, that is only in terms of regulation qualifying campaigns.
Thanks to the efforts of Mcleish leading the country to victory over Israel and Albania in the New Nations League, there remains the chance of qualifying for Euro 2020 via the new competition’s play off.
Beat Israel again at home in the semi- finals in March, follow up with a victory in the Final against the winner of Norway v. Serbia, and the 22-year wait will be over. Simple, eh?
Given that would mean Scotland hosting Croatia and the Czech Republic at Hampden and travelling to Wembley to face the Auld Enemy, England, it would be quite a start to the new decade.
For the one just past, arguably the best news came in May when the annual Football Distress Report from corporate insolvency specialists Begbies Traynor gave all 42 of the SPFL clubs a financial clean bill of health – for the first time ever.
In the wake of the trauma of the last 10 years, it was without question something to celebrate.
Reaching Euro 2020 would be quite a start to the new decade