Money coming into Scottish football looks to be a bit wafer thin

The Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer Challenge Cup final at the Spaghettihad, better known as the Tony Macaroni Arena.

Welcome to Scottish football and it’s unique ability to sell itself like Gerald Ratner.

It’s an infamous quote: “We also do cut- glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say, ‘How can you sell this for such a low price?’, I say, “because it’s total c**p.”

Cut to the chase, whoever signed off on this deal is really taking the biscuit.

There are endless puns to be had but there’s also a serious issue of the credibility of our game being diminished and becoming a laughing stock.

All of this in the same week when Scottish Rugby put the round ball in the shade by announcing a partnership with whisky brand Johnnie Walker.

A po l i s h e d , professional and no- expense-spared unveiling at Murrayfield and at the same time Tunnock’s were passing around the tea cakes at Hampden.

It’s an embarrassment. Someone needs to say it, so here’s the truth of it – the SPFL should have sent the biscuit firm packing when they started pushing on the extended name of the competition.

The Tunnock’s Challenge Cup could just about be stomached but the caramel wafer bit is just too much.

Mortifying for a national competition which has for some reason gone cross- border and invited teams from England, Wales and Ireland. It’s bringing our game into disrepute and Neil Doncaster’s kidding nobody about the value in getting into bed with a biscuit.

The Irn-Bru Challenge Cup was the previous branding and this provided a pittance to the clubs. Such is the desperation to deliver a sponsor, the drinks firm compensated for the lack of cash by providing clubs with cans of their most famous product and bottles of water.

There’s one chairman who admits he couldn’t sell the stuff as his club don’t own the catering licence and he’s got crates of IrnBru cluttering up his garage.

No doubt this deal with Tunnock’s will be along similar lines as Doncaster was detail light this week when he was asked about specifics. Had a large cash injection been involved he’d have been shouting about it from the Hampden rooftop.

Here’s a revelation, the winning team from last season’s Challenge Cup Final earned less than £20k in prize money. They would have been better off going to Wonga.

We’ve had a stadium named after a cannabis oil firm and now the Old Firm have signed partnerships with vaping companies and there’s been an influx of deals with bookies.

Just who’s vetting Scottish football when it comes to these agreements?

It’s little wonder our game is looked down on from those on the outside when our brand association is more chocolate chip rather than blue chip.

The Challenge Cup is now Mickey Mouse both in name and in how highly it’s regarded.

Marketing departments across our game need to have a look at themselves.

The honourable exception goes to Hearts and Ann Budge who binned payday loan company Wonga to have Save The Children plastered across their jersey.

It’s unlikely to catch on ... or snowball.