Oh for the days when the blazers kept us informed
BLINK and you would have missed Ralph Topping’s seven years at Hampden as chairman of the SPFL.
The former chief executive of William Hill rarely uttered a word in public, so football fans will never really know exactly what Topping did during his tenure.
Supporters everywhere just want to know what’s happening. And in the age of social media, it’s never been easier for the football hierarchy to get its message across.
Instead, all we seem to get from Hampden most of the time is silence, whether it’s from the SPFL or the SFA.
That’s why we live in hope that Topping’s successor, Murdoch MacLennan, will prove more forthcoming.
Having spent a lifetime working in the newspaper industry, surely it’s not asking too much for MacLennan to make sure the paying public are kept updated with what’s going on behind the closed doors of Hampden’s Sixth Floor?
Topping may well have achieved a lot, but we’ll never know.
Not long after he was installed by the then SPL in 2010, representatives of Sunday newspapers were invited to Hampden to talk to Topping.
On arrival, we were informed the interview would be conducted by conference call as Topping was in London.
He could have been on a different planet for all it mattered. He straight-batted every question.
We left Hampden without a note or tape recording worth reproducing.
Incredibly, before the era of instant access, both the SFA and Scottish League were extremely helpful with the media.
Sunday journalists were tolerated every Friday and permitted one-to-one interviews with leading lights such as Ernie Walker, Jim Farry and Peter Donald.
Every question would be answered – although it must be said not always the way we had hoped. At least you had the official line. Previously the SFA was run by the autocratic secretary, Willie Allan, with a passion.
Allan didn’t like the press, something he made painfully obvious. But at least he answered questions, albeit the way he wanted.
Now it’s almost impossible for a football reporter to gain an audience with SFA chief executive, Stewart Regan, or his counterpart at the SPFL, Neil Doncaster.
This pair are highly paid to run Scotland’s national game, yet too often they keep fans in the dark. Topping fell into the same category. Let’s hope his successor is cut from a different cloth.