It must be great to be Dave King.
To have so much money in the bank you can publicly offer £3million to the club where you used to be chairman to not play a game of football.
And to throw in seven-figure legal costs for wilfully breaking a contract and disrupting an event planned to entertain expatriate Scots, and others, in Australia next November.
Hasn’t this story of the Old Firm and the Sydney Cup now lost all sense of proportion, if it ever had any in the first place?
If Dave has that kind of spare cash I can think of philanthropic causes created by war, and currently being embraced by football fans in this country, that could use his generosity.
There must – there just must – be more important matters to occupy the mind right now than a manufactured cup tournament on the other side of the world.
One that’s commercially-based and aims to profit all concerned.
On the face of it, there’s more chance of a win for Rangers over Barcelona in the Europa League final than there is of peace any time soon in the conflict between the current Ibrox board and the radical wing of its supporter base.
When you put, in an official statement from Ibrox, quotation marks around “supporters” it is an open declaration of war.
And the statement concluded with a promise of punishment: “We will address the disruptors and their propaganda war at the end of the season.”
In Glasgow parlance, it translates as: “You’re getting it.”
Those who are about to get it, the Club 1872 members who accused board members of dishonesty and incompetence relating to the Australian venture and other business affairs, believe they are holding the club to account.
Rangers give the impression they believe they are being held to ransom.
And they’re not having it.
You always need a distraction during an international break because anything other than club football, with its more volatile edge, fails to float lots of boats.
And this is some diversion.
Fans, and the former chairman, see it as a battle for the heart and soul of a club.
The club see this as a need to determine right from wrong.
It’s a dangerous business for an onlooker to comment on the subject of judgement, competence and honesty as it relates to Rangers’ board. One television pundit this season made reference to Rangers’ finances and used a single word that so enraged the club he has not worked inside Ibrox since.
But what he said was trivial compared to accusing office bearers of dishonesty.
If Rangers follow the letter of their own law, will the end of the season bring bans for supporters or legal action?
An examination of Rangers’ participation in the Sydney Cup is a more accessible line of debate and less likely to lead to litigation. What’s controversial about a club making money abroad during a domestic break? It’s money for old rope.
Questions about judgement and competency would have to be asked if Rangers didn’t take the millions from the Aussie organisers.
Ange Postecoglou’s homecoming?
It’s marketing hoopla based on the manager having lived in Australia since being taken there from Greece as an infant.
Everyone responsible for Rangers’ fiscal well-being could live with that paraphernalia in exchange for three million quid, don’t you think?
We’re heading into a month of closed minds and tunnel vision created by three pivotal Old Firm games.
I understand if alleged grown-ups can’t speak about their rivals by name.
I get it because we have global clubs dealing in parochial considerations that are felt more intensely now than ever.
But none of that means you suspend business dealings partly designed to grow your brand outwith the limited confines of your homeland.
Only the moral high ground is closed to customers. Fans protesting against the governance of their club would get a more sympathetic hearing if they didn’t choose to exhibit, on a weekly basis, a repertoire of songs that shame that club.
Next Sunday sees Rangers go into a fixture against Celtic when they are, potentially, seven matches from a league title.
They are also two games away from perhaps winning the Scottish Cup. And five ties away from a first European trophy win for half a century.
It’s incredible to think a novelty event paying serious money could more occupy the mind than trophies and glory, here or in South Africa.
