Forget the white noise and focus on the tsunami heading our way
As shutdown threatens to wreak havoc for Scottish football, SFA vice-president Mulraney asks clubs to look at bigger picture
RANGERS have vowed to produce evidence alleging that an SPFL resolution to end the league season early was little more than a corporate stitch-up to hand the Premiership title to Celtic. And, like every club chairman in Scotland, Mike Mulraney now awaits the crack of a smoking gun.
As vice-president of the SFA, Mulraney pays less attention to the inner-workings of the SPFL than he once did. Yet, he accepts that mistakes were made. A botched vote cast a shadow over Scottish football which even the looming threat of financial meltdown can’t shift.
Preparing for the possible wipeout of both this season and next unless a plan is formed to get football back running safely, the Alloa owner understands the anger and frustration of Rangers and Hearts. Set against the tsunami heading for club finances if coronavirus makes it impossible to stage games, however, he describes the row as ‘white noise’.
‘I understand that people are exercised by the happenings of what goes on,’ he said. ‘It’s an imperfect world and, when people are trying to act at pace, there are frustrations on all sides. There are harsh words spoken on all sides.
‘But, in the context of what Scottish football is facing, it’s kind of white noise. It’s like me and four other baldy guys fighting over a comb.
‘It’s not really going to impact the long-term future of Scottish football and I believe the SFA and everyone has a responsibility to make it so that when my wee boy of six years old gets to 16 years old, he still has a game which he can meaningfully take part in.
‘Yes, I understand how important it is to those who are at the centre of it but, in the grand scheme of what Scottish football and society is facing, I’ll take it as it comes around.’
The battle between sporting integrity and financial necessity has split football in two.
Clubs like Hearts stand to lose millions from an unjust relegation with eight games to play and argue that no club should be disadvantaged by Covid-19.
With the current season increasingly unlikely to resume, the SPFL argue that they had little option under existing rules but to ask clubs for the authority to call the leagues and link it to the payment of prize money.
While 81 per cent of the clubs voted in favour, a row over how they reached that point triggered allegations of bullying, coercion and undue influence from the clubs who stand to lose most.
Rangers now want the suspension of league chief executive Neil Doncaster and legal adviser Rod McKenzie and, backed by Hearts and Stranraer, will ask clubs to vote on the commission of an independent external investigation next week. ‘The overwhelming majority of members voted in a fashion where they got an answer. From my point of view, whether they called it then or called it a week or two later, inevitably it was going to be called,’ Mulraney told BBC Scotland’s Sportsound.
‘They (the SPFL) themselves have said that they wish they had handled some of the things differently. I’m sure they do.
‘No one is going to go through this period of time without looking back and saying: “I wish I’d done something differently”.’
All now hinges on the Rangers dossier. Inevitably, splits over the strength of what the Ibrox club produce will emerge. With views entrenched along tribal lines, it falls to club chairmen like Mulraney to cut through the jaundice of supporters and take an objective view of the evidence whilst also wrestling with the real problem of how to get football back up and running.
‘I’m sure the SPFL — because they’ve said it themselves — believe that they could have done things better,’ he continued.
‘Do I think there were any catastrophic mistakes they made? Well, not to my knowledge.
‘But we will see what unfolds in the next week.
‘In the context of the tragedy facing our country, the word “challenge” is too light to use as a description of what is facing football.
‘It’s a tsunami coming our way and in that context (the infighting) is a bit of white noise.
‘I’m more concerned about making sure we have 42 surviving football clubs when we come through this period.’
Doncaster has already branded the airing of unverified allegations ‘unacceptable’, calling on Rangers to either put up or shut up.
Responding to the suggestion that clubs like Dundee might have been unduly influenced or bullied into changing their vote or casting it a certain way, Mulraney admitted that there was ‘robust’ lobbying, but witnessed nothing sinister or out of the ordinary.
‘There are 41 other clubs and, of course, there is lobbying,’ he said. ‘Hamilton’s Les Gray said he was one of the guys doing the lobbying — everybody lobbies.
‘There were some robust discussions on all sides of the argument.
‘Do I feel I was bullied? I’m a bit big and long in the tooth to feel bullied by anybody.
‘Do I see anybody else being bullied? No. Did I see some robust discussions on both sides of the debate? Absolutely.
‘Did I see anything coming from the SPFL executive? Nothing.
‘That doesn’t mean to say it didn’t happen — I can only tell you what I saw.
‘I saw very robust discussions on both sides— and I critically underline that. On both sides of the debate.
‘And you know something? For such a big decision? So there should be.’
Rangers have promised to let clubs see their dossier of evidence well in advance of the EGM next week. Premiership clubs are due to speak again via Zoom video conference tomorrow.
‘We have to listen to each other and, if someone is upset, they have a right to express that upset,’ said Mulraney.
‘I don’t know what it is they feel the SPFL executive have done wrong.
‘I will give it due consideration and I’m sure that whatever comes of that release of information I will pay attention to it and make a decision on how I feel about it.
‘When you have an open wound within a small group of members, it is unhelpful to resolving the problem we have.
‘However, until you can get that dealt with you can’t move on.
‘So, that will be part of what we have to deal with over the next week and months and however long it takes us to get football restarted in Scotland.
‘Is it important to those who feel distressed by the decision made and the circumstances of that decision? Yes it is.
‘Should we respect those peoples’ right to be upset? We should respect everybody’s right to be upset.
‘However, it is not realistic for me to sit here and think that is the biggest thing coming at us.’