Scottish football could soon go cap in hand to the government for a bailout to avoid further financial carnage from coronavirus.
Nicola Sturgeon should do the decent thing and loosen the money belt for a national sport that means so much to so many.
But untying the strings on the public purse should come with a non-negotiable condition that our football authorities finally open the doors of Hampden sixth floor to accountability.
What an ugly democracy controls our game, as evidenced by the damning dossier produced by Rangers yesterday on the end-of-season resolution saga.
What arrogance and hubris underpins the executive of the SPFL, a pampered, privileged and well-feathered elite protected by a coterie of boardroom flunkeys determined to preserve a ruinous status quo.
No minutes signed off for the last 15 board meetings? Move along, nothing to see here.
A chief executive releasing a briefing paper to clubs on the most contentious resolution in seasons without board approval? Come on, start walking.
Non-executive directors on the board being given less than 24 hours to review 118 pages of complex resolution documentation? Told you – scat.
The appalling corporate governance, including the omission of vital information on documents made available to clubs, should be enough to put Neil Doncaster and legal adviser Rod McKenzie in the Scottish football dock.
Give them another couple of days and they’ll probably start pinning it all on Carole Baskin from Tiger King.
Take this to the bank –Rangers will not garner enough support from member clubs to push through their calls for an independent inquiry into the whole resolution fiasco.
In truth, they knew that all along, but reasoned compiling their dossier of wrongdoing and joining forces with Hearts and Stranraer was the only way to shine a light on the shadowy corners of our game.
Their hope, surely, has been to convince some of the bigger clubs in the country,
particularly Aberdeen and Hibs, the conduct of the SPFL at executive level is now beyond the pale because only then will heads start to roll and the healing begin.
Scottish football prides itself on the fact 43 per cent of their turnover comes from gate receipts. It seems the fans can spend £20 and £30 watching their teams every week but don’t dare throw in your tuppenceworth.
The SPFL apparently know the reconstruction talks are a sham, doomed to failure because a realignment of the leagues requires broadcaster support and a renegotiation of existing contracts, which would never be favourable.
Again, they didn’t tell the clubs. A £10million black hole as a result of cash clawbacks from Sky and BT Sport? The suggestion of handing the naming rights of the league, worth £1.5million a year, to Sky for buckshee? All information that was kept from clubs and, as a result, supporters.
There has been an indecent haste to end the season, perfectly portrayed in a letter to UEFA from the SPFL and SFA that should have given Doncaster and Ian Maxwell a red face to match their brass necks. Sent six days before the resolution was even voted upon, it claimed the “vast majority” of clubs wanted the season to end as it was the only way to access prize money.
It was as sinister as it was surprising, not least as clubs hadn’t been surveyed at that stage for their point of view by Hampden’s powerbrokers.
The biggest losers from the resolution have, of course, been Hearts, Partick Thistle,
Stranraer, Falkirk and a clutch of clubs who still held out hope of a play-off spot.
But Rangers are also left to count the cost financially as the rush to end the season ended their chance – slim but still a chance – of overtaking Celtic and banking a potential £25 million Champions League windfall.
The Parkhead club have also suffered – missing the chance to claim a historic ninth successive title on the field.
The reputational damage to the SPFL and, in turn, Scottish football has been severe. Rangers have done the game a favour by asking the biggest questions that, shamefully, could remain unanswered.
Why, in light of their flip- flopping over the stance of loans and advances to Gretna, Motherwell and Partick Thistle, did the SPFL not explore all options to get money to clubs?
Why was McKenzie such a truculent, obstructive force as two members, Rangers and Hearts, sought to shape another resolution for clubs to consider?
What did Doncaster say to Dundee’s John Nelms on the afternoon of Friday, April 10 to persuade him to change his vote and why did it take until 8.30pm for the SPFL to check its own spam filter?
As long as valid questions are ignored, suspicions will always remain and bad blood will continue to coarse through Scottish football when it badly needs a period of calm.
Sturgeon would do our game the greatest favour if she wrote that cheque and demanded greater transparency as the price to pay.
Let’s see the SPFL and SFA subject to freedom of information requests and their committee meetings publicly minuted and live streamed.
Let’s allow Scottish football fans a greater insight into how the game is run and organised because just now? The view of their governance is pretty damn appalling.
