Why Rangers’ bold bid for inquiry is destined to fail
THE evidence that Rangers last night pledged to provide other SPFL clubs with ahead of the general meeting they have requisitioned may well persuade a few to back their call for an independent investigation into the stewardship of the resolution on the end of the season.
The Ibrox club have claimed that clubs were the victims of “bullying” and “coercion” in the build-up to the vote and described the dossier they have accumulated after being contacted by a “whistleblower” as “alarming”.
If it is as disturbing as they claim – and talk of threats being made abounded along with suggestions that police had been contacted in one instance – then maybe some chairmen and chief executives will decide an external inquiry is the correct course of action.
But with a 75 per cent majority – or 32 of the 42 members – needed to get their review, they will be doing very well to achieve their goal regardless of the widespread misgivings about how the whole process was handled.
With 81 per cent of members backing the resolution to curtail the Ladbrokes Championship, League One and League Two and give the board the power to do the same in the Premiership, it looks an unrealistic outcome.
The 30 lower-league clubs have now received their money – nearly £2million in end-of-season fees have been distributed – and have turned their attentions to the serious business of staying afloat during the Covid-19 pandemic and football shutdown.
Is there an appetite for more costly conflict in the current climate? Where clubs have been denied the chance to challenge for a title or avoid relegation there maybe is.
But elsewhere? Not really.
It will only take 11 votes to kybosh the members’ requisition put forward by Rangers, Hearts and Stranraer and that tally should be attained fairly comfortably.
Karyn McCluskey, the independent non-executive director who oversaw a
Deloitte investigation into the missing Dundee email that unearthed no evidence of improper behaviour by the executive or board, last week expressed hope clubs could now move on and “focus on the significant issues that face our game”.
There is, with no gate receipts coming in and uncertainty over how season tickets can be sold for their normal price next season when games may have to be played behind closed doors, certainly plenty to address if financial oblivion is to be avoided.
Yet, how can football go forward together when there is so much mistrust in those who run our senior leagues after what has been a shambolic and in some cases shameful episode? It is quite frankly insulting for McCluskey to ask that this sorry affair is put in the past.
Deloitte may finally have got to the root of what happened to the “no” vote that the Dens
Neil Lennon’s team could potentially emulate their predecessors’ remarkable feat – but in an altogether different manner – later on this evening.
An SPFL board meeting is set to discuss the prospect of calling time on the Ladbrokes Premiership and crowning Celtic champions having last week been given the go-ahead by UEFA to do so.
They may well decide to wait and see if competitive action can resume behind closed doors and the final top-flight matches played. But with the death toll in this country hitting 1,249 yesterday, is that likely to happen any time soon?
The decision to declare
Celtic winners will, when it inevitably comes, be greeted with an outcry and with accusations that it was rigged by the Glasgow club because of how the vote was conducted.
The decision by the KNVB in the Netherlands on Friday to cancel the Eredivisie and not give leaders Ajax, who were level on points with AZ Alkmaar, the trophy will simply fuel the paranoia and disgruntlement. Wasn’t null and void not an option?
But, as Scott Brown stressed on Sportsound on BBC Scotland yesterday afternoon, was anybody going to catch Celtic? They were undefeated domestically in 2020, had a 13-point lead, a superior goal difference and eight games remaining.
No, Brown and his teammates will be entitled to celebrate their remarkable achievement every bit as much as Jim Brogan,
Tommy Callaghan, Denis Connaghan, Dalglish, Dixie Deans, Davie Hay, Harry Hood, Bobby Lennox,
Pat McCluskey, Danny McGrain, Billy McNeill and Stevie Murray did first time around.