Poor Rangers - Naw Poor Becks More LIke

RANGERSGATE having turned into Groundhog Day, I have nothing more to add to the ever-growing pile of manure which we hae been wading through for weeks. David Green, Craig Murray, Charles Whyte, enough tears, both real and crocodile have been shed - and many more have still to be shed. Much, much more has still to come out I feel.

So, to other matters, starting with the Team GB squads for the forth-coming London Olympics. The Women's squad has been revealed, and it includes two Scots, Kim Little and Ifeoma Dieke. Congratulations to the two girls and I actually think the Team GB women, based as they are on the England Women's side so well-coached by Hope Powell, has an outside chance of a medal; the two Scots lassies certainly add something to that mix.

That said, I have never deviated from my belief that in insisting on an all-UK selection criteria, rather than the England-only compromise worked out by the four Home Nations FAs, the BOA has done British football no favours.

The selections, with Little and Dieke in the Women's squad and - reportedly but as yet unconfirmed - Ryan Giggs and Craig Bellamy in the Men's squad, clearly breach FIFA statute 8, paragraph 3. I don't believe anything Sepp Blatter says, so can still see this breach of rules coming back to haunt the UK associations.

FIFA and in particular UEFA might not want to see all four FAs forcibly amalgamated into one UKFA, but, they sure as Hell want to get their hands on at least three of the four permanent UK seats on IFAB and any rule breaches they can use towards that end, they will.

The Team GB Men's squad, managed by Stuart Pearce, will be, by all accounts, the last England Under-21 squad, plus Micah Richards and the two Welsh veterans. Fair enough, that squad did well - however, while most of their contemporaries on the continent have moved-on, some, like the Germans - Ozil and Co becoming established full internationalists, most of the England squad are still struggling to get regular games in the Premiership, because of the big English clubs' need to spend big on foreign players. Also, the FA hasn't taken the Olympic Games challenge seriously; they put England's Euro 2012 campaign first for a start.

English football is, with each passing year, becoming more and more EPL-obsessed, the big clubs don't want the Olympics as a distraction, so they have never bought-into London 2012.

The last time the UK entered a team in the Olympics was in the qualifying rounds towards Munich 1972. Bill Currie of Albion Rovers was, by the way, the last Scot to play for Team GB, when he featured in the first leg of the final qualifier, against Bulgaria. Team GB won that one 1-0, but - fielding an all-English squad - lost the second leg, in Sofia, 5-0.

That 1972 campaign, like the 2012 one and all the rest, was an English-run operation. The FA has always been football's voice on the BOA. Every other sport - even curling, which is only played at two ice rinks in England - started a "British" governing body to run the Olympic Games teams. The SFA has never bought-into the Olympics, it was always left to Queen's Park to liase with the AFA, the SFA "blazers" have never held Olympian ideals - maybe if they had, they wouldn't be sitting on so-many unsold tickets for the games at Hampden.

The 2012 Men's team has been ill-prepared and badly organised. That 1972 squad played TEN warm-up games prior to the Bulgarian double-header. (Sporting trivia piece here - a certain Martin O'Neill, then an 18-year-old, won his first Northern Ireland amateur cap in one of the ten warm-up games). The 2012 squad will play ONE game, in Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium, just before the Games. realistically, they have little chance of medalling, and when they don't, the wrath of all England will descend on poor old Psycho. Why - well he boobed badly, didn't he - HE LEFT OUT BECKHAM.

How could he, didn't he realise the London Olympics were being organised purely to suit Brand Beckham - the fool (Pearce - Beckham's foolishness has long since been established).

The Daily Telegraph's website, that forum of all things middle English, has seen over 600 postings on Beckham's absence, since it leaked out this week. Only one has mentioned the lack of preparation, the harum-scarum way it has all been (dis)organised - the rest are either for or against Beckham.

And you thought Rangersgate was the only show in town?

Scotland and England, two neighbouring nations, separated by radically different views on football.

Rules Are Meant To Be Broken - But - There Are Limits

IT IS now getting so murky in the on-going soap opera that is Rangersgate, that we will shortly have to upgrade the floodlights. This latest move, the supposed SFL document outlining the stark choices facing their clubs because of "the Rangers problem" has hardly helped shed light on what is going on.

I honestly don't know, but I do know devious deals are being concocted in back rooms at Hampden and elsewhere; and I suspect the final outcome will not be good for Scottish football.

End game, is, obviously keeping the Rangers "brand", tainted, battered, despised though that "brand" is, in the forefront of Scottish football. WHY? Even without the still-to-be-proved minor details of "the cheating years", let's be honest, do we, in 21st century Scotland, still want "Ra Peepul" swaggering through our streets, chanting their 17th century slogans in support of a club which really deserves to die, if only on the grounds of euthenasia.

I particularly liked the not-so-veiled threat in the document, which I would paraphrase as: Let Rangers into SFL 1, or we start SPL 2. OK, suppose it comes down to SPL 2.

#  Will this be a 10-club or a 12-club division of the SPL?

This is crucial, since if it is to be a 12-club league, and assuming Charles Green's Rangers (CGR) is in as of right - where do we get the other 11 clubs from? Obviously, the hope is that those SPL-compliant clubs in the SFL First Division will move up: Dundee or Dunfermline (the loser in the fight to be "Club12"), Falkirk, Hamilton Accies, Livingston, Morton, Partick Thistle and Raith Rovers all meet the SPL criteria and can move up. That's 8 of the necessary 12 clubs sorted. Where do we get the other four from?

If we look in SFL Division Two, we find one club -  Airdrie United, who meet the SPL's 6000-seat ground criteria, so it would appear, they are in. On then to SFL Division Three, where we find another two clubs, Clyde and Queen's Park, who have 6000 shiny seats, ready to be filled. Right, let's count again: 1 (CGR) + 7 + 1 + 2 = 11. We are still one club short.

So, SPL 2 cannot be a 12-club league, unless the SPL is willing to waive their own rules. I would suggest, having listened to their fans and kept Rangers out of the SPL - the clubs would not have the absolute gall to hurriedly re-write these same rules to let them back in, for all the gold in Sky's account.

So, it will have to be either a two division set-up of 12 + 10, or two 10-club divisions. SPL protocols would have to be met, a fresh fixture list drawn-up, all in less than four weeks - dream on.

I must admit, I am starting to have some sympathy for Charles Green. OK, he has scored a series of media own goals - but, the media's part in the whole Rangersgate saga has hardly been our finest moment. He has been guilty of a lack of clarity, of playing fast and loose with what we perceive to be the facts of some aspects of the case, he has almost certainly told a few porkies along the way.

However, his claim to the (tainted) legacy of Rangers FC may be flimsy, his motives may be subject to question, but, he's the guy in possession. He currently has the keys to Ibrox, he put his money in to the club, while good, solid "Rangers Men" stood off. IF Rangers are so-important to Scottish football, he's the guy Scottish football has to deal with.

I have been saying for weeks, this case is too-big, too-murky, there are so-many unanswered questions, too-many ifs, buts and maybes. The forces of law and order are involved; civil litigation is a certainty, criminal investigations are on-going and criminal court action seems certain to follow.

The 2012-13 Scottish season CANNOT start with any team purporting to be a continuation of Rangers FC involved. To allow CGR in is to risk the entire future of Scottish football.

By all means, if Mr Green meets the "fit and proper person" test - a test which ought to be made under stricter conditions than the nod and a wink which got Craig Whyte in, then the SFA must give his version of "Rangers" associate membership of their body. IF the Rangers "brand" is so-welcome that it has to be got back in i the guise of CGR, then promise Mr Green a place in the re-vamped unitary body which will run league football in Scotland, in 2013-14 - BUT, this is on the proviso that all the unanswered questions have been answered and that there is no legal impediment. We then have a season in which to play football, while sorting things out in a more-feasible time scale.

In the meantime, if Mr Green and his associates have to be playing football, with those players who remain from last season's Rangers; and let's be clear, he needs to find some source of income to keep things ticking over, then given SFL 3 will be one team short this season, CGR could play friendlies every week against the "idle" team. That might keep enough of "Ra Peepul" off the streets to lessen civil disorder in Scotland, and would be good for the mainly young players left.

Clan Rangers - the 21st Century McGregors

THIS is my 300th post. When I started this blog it was simply on the basis that, I felt I had some worthwhile thoughts to put forward on the state of Scottish football. I have seen plenty after all; my first visit to Hampden for a national cup final was in 1956, my first action with the Tartan Army was a year later. I have seen the likes of George Young, Eric Caldow, Jim Baxter, Denis Law, the Lisbon Lions, Billy Bremner, Jardine and McGrain, Graeme Souness etc play for Scotland; Tom Finney, Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore, Kevin Keegan, Paul Gascoigne for England; George Best, John Charles, Pele, Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Maradona, de Stefano, Puskas, Zidane strut their stuff. I have had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing quite a few of these legends - I think I have some knowledge which I can contribute to man's appreciation of the place football holds in this nation.

But, as I pen this 300th post - I am depressed; that depression is down to a single thing, the seemingly endless saga of Rangersgate. What are we going to do with a constituency which, even though it has no clear leader, no definite structure and no apparent goal (other than to continue to believe that We Are The People) we must call Clan Rangers.

When the 18th century powers-that-be got on the case of Rob Roy, the McGregor name was banned. The 21st century powers-that-be are on the Rangers case, but the name isn't banned and those red white and blue symbols, not to mention the tartan can still be seen. Indeed, later this morning Charles Green, the man who would be clan chief and his estate factor - known to all as "Ally" will be eagerly waiting to see how many loyal clansmen and contracted mercenaries turn up at Castle Murray, to prepare for the new season of looting and pillaging.

Except, the ptb, "the blazers" across at Castle Hampden and their allies, "the wigs" from their fortress in Parliament House in Edinburgh are insisting that Clan Rangers has died and that the mercenaries are free to sell their skills elsewhere.

Clan Rangers don't have anywhere to play in the new season, they certainly cannot loot and pillage in the lands of the SPL - where there is a belief that over the past decade and a half, Clan Rangers have been breaking the ancient rules. This belief remains unproven, but in any case, they have failed, over the past year and more, to pay their due taxes to the Queen and that, for a clan which places great store on its loyalty to the crown, is beyond the pale.

It is a mess. At least, the wigs are moving - Lord Hodge having asked the court-appointed estate managers, Duff & Phelps to clear-up one or two points, whilst even more powerful bailiffs, BDO, are waiting in the wings to go in and clarify other matters.

Sadly, the blazers at Castle Hampden are apparently running around like headless chickens. They seem to be relishing this rare opportunity to give the previously all-powerful Clan Rangers a right good kicking; but, not so bad a kicking that they kill them all together. Rules are being flouted and bent, alliances formed, revenge being plotted, but, at the end of the day, for all the ills Clan Rangers have brought down on the other clans over the past 120-odd years, the blazers seem to find comfort in having them around.

This is not a good scenario. Yes, Scottish football requires re-shaping; for sure the lesser clans of the Highland, East of Scotland and South of Scotland Leagues, not forgetting the underclass of that fierce clan known as the SJFA deserve a chance to play in the big leagues. Did not the former High Heid Yin, one-time First Meenister Henry McLeish demand changes to bring this about. The blazers were stalling on that one, until Clan Rangers went wrong and kind of forced their hand.

But, to try to re-shape it during July, so the new, flatter playing field can be opened in early August, is impossible. The various sub-sects of each of the big clans: the SPL and SFL have to meet and agree to the changes; ditto the lesser clans, while God help anyone trying to get the underclass of the SJFA to agree on anything. Change will take longer than the four or five weeks available.

It is surely time for the blazers to pronounce, Clan Rangers are banned for at least one season, while we sort-out the mess their collapse has precipitated. Then, while the Clan Rangers followers will doubtless march around, as is their want, banging their drums, tooting their flutes, parading their colours and declaring: "We Are Still The People", there is a good chance that, long before the end of the year, the wigs have done their work, the Polis have laid their charges and we await due process.

By then, I have no doubt, factor Ally, his worn and wrinkled old retainer Scrotum Jardine and the like will still be around - I have a feeling Charles Green will have retreated, bloodied, to his Yorkshire home.

At this moment in time - we need leadership from Hampden. However, I am not holding my breath. 

Sporting Integrity - Good : But What Happens Now?

WELL, I could see it coming, but I didn't think it would get here as quickly as it did, I refer to yesterday's train of thought among the movers and shakers of the SPL, that: "Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, those turkeys who turn up every week to watch the pish we put on the park are serious - if we don't kick Rangers oot, they'll stoap comin".

That said, the outbreak of "sporting integrity" has to be welcomed. The alleged major crimes - the legality or otherwise of EBTs, the double contract allegations remain, at present simply allegations, and of course, lest we forget, are nothing to do with the New Rangers, as controlled by Charles Green. These alleged crimes were committed by David Murray's Rangers; Craig Whyte's Rangers allegedly committed other crimes and it was encouraging yesterday also to learn the Crown Office has instructed Strathclyde Police to look into certain matters pertaining to the switch from DMR to CWR. I am sure there are lawyers in Edinburgh and Glasgow licking their lips at the prospect of the fees heading their way.

But - where do we go from here? For a start, we are apparently heading for a major overhaul to the basic building blocks of Scottish Football. The SFA will hope to take-over both the SPL and SFL and integrate the three separate bodies into one Scottish Professional Football League - shouldn't be too-difficult. The SRU has managed to run the game and a league programme for the past 40 years and given the kicks to the head which some SRU "alickadoos" of my acquaintance have suffered - and yes, I handed out my share as a player - and took one or two - if they can do it, why not the SFA.

However, as I have cautioned before, trying to turn SPL and SFL into SPFL and at the same time bring things closer to the overall SFA - whose remit goes beyond merely the senior league game, isn't a week-end's DIY. If they get it wrong, Nick Knowles and his team will not ride to the rescue for a televised special and to rush into change into the back of: at best managerial incompetence, at worst, outright criminality around your biggest club, is asking for trouble.

I still say, Charles Green's Rangers (henceforth known as CGR) should be taken out of the equation; by all means grant that club membership of the SFA, but don't have them playing until all the unanswered questions as regards the administration process and the liquidation process have been answered.

Suppose, for instance, the Polis discover that the sale of DMR to CWR was, in fact illegal. Might they then charge Duff & Phelps with reset for selling-on the assets and the "goodwill" (I know, there hasn't been much goodwill shown) to CGR?

To avert chaos, CGR CANNOT be allowed to play in senior Scottish football in season 2012-13.

What then? Naismith, Whittaker, Aluko and McCabe have joined Wylde and Cellik in walking away. I suspect, since he gets a game there, Fleck will happily stay at Blackpool; McGregor, Davis, Wallace, Goian and the Americans, as current international players, simply cannot afford to transfer to CGR and play in even SFL1. Even Kirk Broadfoot, that alleged untalented clogger, is an SPL-standard player; Sasa Papac has also gone - that's an entire first team who have or will depart.

The SFA, however, has a duty of care to those who are left, the kids, or, as one esteemed posted on the Scotsman's Rumour Mill dubbed them: 'The Apprentice Boys' - what of them. What too of the "Rangers Family", that army of fans who put so much money into the coffers of Scottish football, by their readiness to follow-follow?

Many of these fans might still be replaying fixtures from the 1689-90 season, but, they turn-out, more-often and in greater numbers than any other away support in Scotland - do they simply have to find somewhere else to go on a Saturday?

CGR is not DMR, it isn't even Bill Struth's Rangers, but, like that loyalty which keeps young men from different parts of Scotland joining different batallions of what the British Army and the politicians insist is "the Royal Regiment of Scotland" - maybe so, but to the recruits, following in the footsteps of their fathers, who fought in the Falklands, their grandfathers who fought in Korea, Cyprus and Malaya, their great-grandfathers who fought in World War II and their great-great-grandfathers, who suffered and died in the trenches of the Somme an at Loos, today's kids are not joining 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 Scots. They are joining the Royal Scots, the KOSB, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, Highland Light Infantry, the Black Watch, the Highlanders (Camerons, Gordons, Seaforth, Argyll and Sutherland): they are going into the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards or the Scots Guards. The uniforms might change, the banners will be renewed, the names will change - but the thread remains unbroken.

For as long as CGR play in light blue, out of Ibrox, they will be simply "Rangers" - the fans of the other clubs might howl: "Rangers are deid" - they might as well howl at the moon, "Ra Peepul" will never admit that their club has died.

So, Scottish football has to find a way of keeping "Ra Peepul" on-side, with the minimum of disruption. How?

With the big-name players, other than Lee McCulloch, going, it is doubtful if the ABs could be competitive in SFL1; but, in any case, as things stand, CGR does not meet the criteria for membership of the SFL as a whole.

Why not therefore, allow CGR to play in the juniors for a season, pending the re-organisation of the senior game?

Of course, IF enough of "Ra Peepul" decided to exercise their right to follow-follow, this could pose problems for the junior clubs CGR visited - but I would suggest,no greater problems than they would pose if visiting some of the smaller "senior" grounds. However, a season in the juniors, with the guarantee of a place in the re-structured SPFL in 2013-14 would do the ABs (the players) the world of good and would in some ways protect the fiscal value of even a discredited "Rangers" brand.

I admit, there are potential problems about this, but, before you dismiss my plan out of hand - come up with something better.

Rangera Are Deid, England Are Out - We Can Come Out Now

I HAD intended, this morning, to ignore Rangers; but, needs must: Will the last person to leave Ibrox and Murray Park please put out the lights and make certain the padlocks are properly secured.

NOW, to England. Like most Scots when a major football competition finals come around, I have a spectating position - on the outside, looking in - and a default supporter's position of ABE, Anyone But England. This was the position when Euro 2012 kicked off.

However, notwithstanding the inane jingoism which I knew we would have to endure from the English-based TV stations, and in particular the excrutiating agony of watching and listening to Messrs Lineker and Tyldesley, I was prepared to give England a chance. I sensed, this time, there was a new realism abroad. The English Barmy Army might not have totally copied the Tartan Army's stance of: We're shite, we know we are, but we're going for the party any way - but there were elements of: we're not as good as we think we are, it will all end in tears, but, we're going for the party any way.

And thus it transpired. Yes, the wilder elements in their media did get a wee bit carried away before the quarter-final; not that they suddenly thought England were any good, more they realised Italy wasn't as good as the usual Italy and might get caught on a bad night. There was a realism - if we do get lucky against Italy, we'll still get gubbed by the Germans.

As it happened, England did get lucky against Italy. On another night it could have been 5-0, or 6-0. They had one real chance - that Johnson scooped shot which Luigi Buffon parried and caught before it hit the ground - just the kind of save he's been making for years. I know, from long experience: when a team has the dominance in possession and chances which Italy had, and doesn't make it count, they sometimes get hit with a sucker punch. But, in this case, England had no punch. That save, mentioned above, was the only one Buffon was called upon to make - until Ashley Cole's woefully mis-hit penalty.

So, England are out - and my first thought takes me back to the legendary quote from the senior SFA figure following out 0-7 hammering from Uruguay in the 1954 World Cup finals: "Ach, once we get back to playing England, the fans will forget all about this one".

The 21st century English version is: "OK old boy, once we get back to the Premiership, the great unwashed will forget all about this".

England sees itself as  the best club in the world: what's that quote, Cecil Rhodes wasn't it: "To be born English is to hold a winning ticket in the lottery of life". To bring it closer to home and paraphrase: "English - We Are The People".

Well, Rhodes is deid, Rhodesia is now Zimbabwe - a basket case amongst basket cases - and as for We Are The People: see the line above.

England, against Italy, were totally out-played, tactically and technically, the only place they were better than the Italians was in the conversion rate from chances - England took 0 chances from the 1 they created, Italy took 0 chances from the 16 or so they created. But, the English press will still try to tell you the Premiership and therefore English football, is the best league in the world. Ayr right.

At least, they qualified - we didn't.

The UK gave football to the world. The English wrote down and organised the laws, Charles Allcock invented international football; the Scots invented the passing game, we were behind the first leagues, we were the first professionals, the first coaches. Then our two nations sat back and let the world over-take us.

England will learn nothing from their defeat in Kiev; they will soldier-on as they always have. We in Scotland have a chance to do something. The closest thing we have to an English club, in playing method and mentality has gone; right now, the SFA and the leagues are doing Corporal Jones impressions - running around in panic, shouting: "Don't panic". We can hopefully emerge with a newer, more-streamlined set-up for our professional game. We just might re-discover our faith in our own players. We could decide to put in place a proper grass-roots development scheme. We might, after so-many years of getting it wrong, get it right.

I live in hope, but, I am not holding my breath.

Apres Moi - Le Deluge

MAY you live in interesting times, we are told, is an ancient Chinese curse. Well, we who follow Scottish football are certainly living in interesting times this 2012 close season. It is now all but certain that for the first time in the history of league play in Scotland, the new season will kick-off without a team called 'Rangers' in the top flight. In fact, all the indications are that the name 'Rangers' is about to be consigned to the history books.

A perfect storm of set-backs - long-term mis-management - both financial and in terms of player recruitment and deployment, blatant asset-stripping, tax evasion, non-payment of VAT, non-compliance with football's protocols, not forgetting hubris, has brought Scotland's establishment club face-to-face with their nemesis: HMRC and the forces of the law.

The club, conceived by four oarsmen from the Vale of Leven in 1872, is in the final stages of administration and will shortly (once the paper-work is completed) be liquidated. There is a belief that Charles Green - the last man standing who is making any effort to preserve the club's long heritage - MIGHT be able to keep the name 'Rangers' going; however, there is an equally-strong belief that, sooner or later, 'Rangers' will pass into history.

The hubris of the club's management, some players and the majority of the fans has finally pissed-off the rest of Scottish football to the extent that if the expected death is announced soon, nobody will play Marc Anthony and read the eulegy, while the dance on their grave will be all-ticket.

The fact it is a secret ballot might, in the short-term, save any SPL club which votes to allow Green's version of 'Rangers' to become 'Club 12' and play in that competition next season; but, Scottish football is a large village - the gossips will have their day and it will all come out, perhaps slightly distorted, in the wash.

Plan B - to quietly by-pass all the known protocols and rules and slip 'Rangers' into the SFL's First Division is also meeting opposition, while the reported defections from those players whose contract with Rangers FC (i.a.)  are still valid, means that even that division might be a level too-high for the young players who will be left, once the "name" players have triggered the early-release clauses they had written into their contracts when they negotiated a wage cut in the early days of administration.

It is interesting, by the way, to find young Rhys McCabe, who made a good impression when suddenly thrust into the first team last season, is reportedly wishing to leave. John Fleck, happy to go out on-loan and reportedly happy to remain at Blackpool, Gordon Wylde - walked away, now McCabe walking away. The common thread is, these are ambitious young players who have done well in the Rangers first team, but have been under-used by Walter Smith and Ally McCoist. Am I alone in thinking, the kids don't see themselves being given a chance at the club, even when finances might dictate they are the sensible indeed only alternative to buying-in proven mature talent.

If Scottish football rules were being applied, by the book, then, at best - and it isn't clear if Green's 'Rangers'actually meet them - his 'Rangers' SHOULD start life in the Third Division of the SFL.

So, we can assume that 'Rangers' are indeed, a special case. The authorities therefore ought to either declare that 'Rangers' are just that, or apply their rules strictly, in which case - 'Rangers' are dead.

The current back-lash of fans other than Rangers fans, against the various fudges being proposed, seems to indicate that, yes ideed folks - Rangers are dead.

Le Roi est mort - vive le Roi, therefore.

And that brings another interesting little problem - for Celtic. All these years of claiming to be the outsiders, the Rebels, the one club standing firm against Rangers - the establishment club. What happens now that, with Rangers' death, Celtic have become the establishment club? How will the Celtic Family cope?

One aspect of their life in the football year 1AR (after Rangers) will be no different. Celtic were and are as hated and despised elsewhere in Scotland than Rangers were. To be fair too, Rangers always seemed to consider themselves "above" the petty play-ground squabbling of Scottish football. Celtic FC has always played its part in the management of the game up here. Sir Bob Kelly was a major player in the SFA and SFL, as were the likes of Desmond White and Jack McGinn in the past and as are Peter Lawwell and Eric Riley today. Celtic FC has never been particularly bothered about the opinions of the fans on the terraces, but they have built and maintained friendships and alliances in the boardrooms of Scotland and in Hampden's corridors of powers.

Celtic have to say, clearly: "the Old Firm is dead, and if we have been guilty by association of the crimes alleged to have been committed by 'the Old Firm', then we are sorry". They could start by agreeing to the end of the 11-1 voting rules in the SPL and should voluntarily concede the need for a flatter financial playing field - they will still be the richest club.

But, I would like to see Celtic playing a part in re-drawing the football map of Scotland. We have too-many clubs. We have too-many league divisions in the senior game. We MUST have a properly-constituted pyramid system in place. We must have improved grass roots football and systems to bring through more, better-prepared kids. (Celtic's initiative with St Ninian's HS in Kirkintilloch is a breath of fresh air, not every team could afford a similar scheme, but it is a prototype for the way forward).

A single governing body, one 20-team national league (perhaps divided into two American-style "conferences"), under-pinned by regional leagues, is, I feel, the way forward. We can argue long and loud about the small print - but get this basic formation in place first.We don't have a lot of time.

Man The Lifeboats

I HAVE used this example before, and will doubtless return to it again, but, I feel it is worth repeating as Rangersgate refuses to close, but bangs back and forward in the wind of claim and counter-claim. Accidents almost never occur because of one single event, rather a series of seemingly unrelated incidents come together in sequence to cause the final catastrophe. The best-known example is perhaps the way in which the peripheral events around the simple fact that an ocean-going liner hit a floating "growler" iceberg, led to the cataclysmic Titanic Disaster.

One-hundred years on, Rangers FC is the "Titanic" - and I am prepared to bet, even now as the stern of that great institution rears up out of the choppy waters, about to dive to the ocean bed of history, a century hence our great-grand-children will still be talking about it, in fact, there may even be movies about it.

I can only echo the sentiments of my fellow blogger rangerstaxcase, whoever he or she may be, who wrote about a month ago along the lines of a script outlining Rangersgate would probably have been flung back as "too far-fetched" by every Hollywood studio mogul who read it.

I can think of one immediate reason for this, right now, the entire story lacks the most-essential ingredient, we are holding-out for a hero. If you are a member of the Rangers "family", you are waiting for the true Blue Knight, mounted on his white horse to ride to the rescue. That said, the Rangers "family" come across in a very bad light compared even to the Krays - there has been more in-fighting than fighting for the common cause of Rangers' survival; it's as if the Montagues had said: "stuff the Capulets" and set about killing-off each other, ditto Capulets, Hatfields or McCoys - any of the great feuding families of history. (And that's another aside - Chico, Jabba, "off the radar" Jackson, Kings Darrell and Iain and the rest of us in and outwith the SWFA have hardly threatened Shakespeare with our coverage of events).

Let's look at the lengthy cast of villains. We have to start with Bill Struth, perhaps wrongly, I admit, but I keep coming back to him as the guy who came-up with the notion to so-closely identify the club with the Orange Order and protestant supremacy. It perhaps made sense, given the influx of Ulster Protestants to the West of Scotland after World War I, to pander to their liking for Rangers, as the club best able to put the Roman Catholic club Celtic in their place, but, more than half a century down the line, in a changing, more-inclusive Scotland - that move came back to haunt Rangers with a vengeance.

Then there was Struth's arrogance, which passed-on to his successors. Celtic and Rangers have bestrode the football landscape in the same way as Conservative and Labour have the political landscape; but, just as the Tories are perceived as the "nasty" party, Rangers have been the "nasty" football team - they have more enemies than friends. Look, for instance at the fact that until Campbell Ogilvie, who had long since left Rangers, got the job - no "Rangers man" has been SFA president since Victoria sat on the throne.

David Murray may have ended the club's ultra-protestant recruitment stance, for which act he deserves praise, but, almost 25-years on, Rangers are still "Protestant", while Celtic, who have never had a single-religion recruitment stance, are still, 124 years on from their formation, seen as "Catholic". Maybe that's just another example of the bi-polar tendancies of Scottish society, however.

Then there is Craig Whyte - we may never know where he fits into the story. There is no rationale for his involvement, perhaps he was indeed a "chancer" who saw the opportunity for a fast buck, but soon learned he was out of his depth.

Add the many "directors" - I would far-rather call them "yes-men" who were involved during the Murray years: Dave King, John McClelland, John Greig, Paul Murray, Alastair Johnson, Martin Bain, Campbell Ogilvie, Walter Smith and so on. They were happy to ride on David Murray's coat tails as he spent £10 for every £5 Celtic spent. They gratefully accepted the offer of an EBT, they enjoyed the champagne celebrations.

Rangers were posting losses for years: did none of them have the balls to say: "Excuse me David, but is this business model sustainable? What are we going to do about curbing the losses and getting into profit? Where is the growth coming from?"

Far less: "Are you sure this EBT malarky is legal, have you fully checked it out? Whose idea was it? Do they know their stuff?"

Did none of them ask: "How come, when we make a share flotation,our "loyal" support will not buy-into it?"

On the football side, did nobody ask the various managers: "Why, if we never give them a chance, do we have so-many young players on our books? Why are we paying top dollar for inferior foreign players? How is it, we are dominating in Scotland but can barely win in Europe? How come we produce so many Under-21 internationalists, but so few of them ever get a chance in the first team? Is this the best use of our football budget?"

Portsmouth are in administration, owing even more money than Rangers would, even with the Big Tax Case decided in HMRC's favour. That club owes the tax man alone some £175 million; there is a creditor's meeting at Fratton Park on Monday, at which a CVA paying £0.2p in the £. This is less than the Rangers deal knocked back by HMRC earlier this month, but, as yet, there are no indications that HMRC are going to knock-back the Portsmouth deal as they did the Rangers one. Why has nobody connected with Rangers picked-up on this?

The administrators from Duff & Phelps have to be added to the list of villains. From the word go, the fact Craig Whyte was so-keen to have them appointed, cast doubts as to their integrity and competence. Nothing they have done since has alleviated these fears, now Lord Hodge's intervention on the matter of a possible conflict of interest is grist to the mill of those who have harboured doubts.

Then there is Charles Green. He may well be another Craig Whyte, with a better spiel than Whyte - he may, on the other hand, have a viable plan, we don't know. But, thus far, he hasn't cut the mustard.

Come on down: the "blazers" inside Hampden, regardless of whether they wear the insignia of the SFA, SPL or SFL. They are, at the very least, guilty by virtue of doing next to nothing. Their lack of leadership has been appalling. They have failed to exercise their duty of care for the good name of Scottish football. As the Rangers family have said - they weren't around to offer help and guidance when the whole thing blew up and, with the clock ticking on the new season, it seems to me their approach is - do nothing and hope it all goes away.

Finally, we have the Rangers fans, and in particular those well-heeled individuals who inhabit the corporate seats, or who have spent large for Ibrox debentures, shares and season tickets. The fans of smaller clubs, seeing these clubs post losses, down-size and try everything to avert the problems of the general downturn in the economy have mobilised: fans buy-outs are being arranged at Motherwell and St Mirren, many smaller clubs are effective fans co-operatives, even Celtic, under Fergus McCann, broadened their share-holding, greatly expanded their season ticket base and got the Celtic family more-involved than was ever dreamed possible during the long reign of the "Four Families".

But at Ibrox, nothing - "We Are The People", "Scotland's Greatest Sporting Institution", "Simply The Best", "No one Likes Us We Don't Care", these were the sound track to the Murray Years.

They revelled in the good times, nine-in-a-row, the UEFA Cup run. But, when things got bad: "Boo-hoo, nobody will help us; we're the victims now: it's a conspiracy against us".

Well, hell mend ye, you brought it largely on yourselves and, when your club really needed you - you failed it.

Rangers are at Death's Door, the life-support mechanism will shortly be switched off. It is difficult to see how any team named "Rangers" can play in Scottish football next season. I fear the club is now further down the exit slip road than Lazarus was. I can see no way back.

Now is the time for the true Rangers fans to get together and do something. They may be able to do no more than start a new team called FC Rangers of Glasgow and build their own history. They could be seen as something other than: "A permanent embarrassment and occasional disgrace".

After all, if four oarsmen from the Vale of Leven, a bunch of previously disunited Manchester United fans and some Wimbledon fans who didn't fancy Milton Keynes - and fair play to them for that, can do it - What is to stop Rapeepul?

Go on guys - you could be heroes, for more than one day. 



How Do You Turbo-charge A Snail?

IT IS often said that laws passed in haste tend to be bad laws; then we have that old proverb about acting in haste and repenting at leisure. The snail's pace at which our legal system sometimes appears to work, might occasionally infuriate, but, given the length of time Scots and English Law has managed to keep our countries stable and civilised, it could be said that the slow pace works.

I mention the Law today, since, as I have said on here before, one of the certainties about Rangersgate is that some of M'learned friends will emerge with their already well-padded bank accounts further enhanced. And while I am at it, the wilder elements of the Celtic Family, and the other "families" who follow the other SPL member clubs, may yet find Rangers are not as-guilty as they think they are. This show will run and run.

In the past 24-hours we have learned that winding-up the administration process and handing-over responsibility for the liquidation of Rangers 1872 to BDO may take some weeks yet, in fact, when the new 2012-13 season kicks-off, it is jus possible that Rangers 1872 is still in administration, Charles Green's "The Rangers FC" is unable to start in football and we have a right-old shambles on our hands.

The public perception is that there will be no "Rangers" either "oldco" or "newco" in the SPL next season. Nods, winks, whispers and the occasional definite statement - such as what we think Mr Romanov said in his statement of Wednesday night - have produced a belief that the SPL meeting on 4 July will refuse to admit the "newco" Rangers. But, it seems some sort of deal is being cobbled-together to have "Rangers" flung-out but only as far as the SFL Division One, pending the formation of the all-new, shiny, all-singing, all-dancing, complete with bells and whistles 'Scottish Professional Football League'.

Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab - haud me back.

Sure, I would welcome, with open arms, a single professional league structure in Scotland, under-pinned by a pyramid. Trouble is, what they are looking at would appear to guarantee the survival of 42 "professional" teams in Scottish senior football.

Let's be honest, the only thing "senior" about half of the existing 42 clubs is the fact they play in a so-called "senior" league, In reality, they are no more "senior" than many of the top "junior" clubs. Scottish senior football has far-too-many clubs - always has had and unless the SFA grasps the nettle, always will have.

I could live with 20 senior clubs, in a single league. Of course, we are told the TV companies wouldn't wear this, they MUST HAVE four "Old Firm" games per season - and by the way Celtic fans, don't give me that: "The Old Firm is dead" pish - for so-long as there is a team in the Scottish Leagues, wearing light blue strips and either playing out of Ibrox or with even a remote but traceable link to Rangers 1872 - there will be an Old Firm.

However, getting an agreement on any new league will take time, something Scottish football doesn't have, because of the uncertainty over the status of "Rangers".

So, how does the game buy time? Well the SPL has given a lead, by sending-out their fixtures with "Team 12" listed - the thng is, we don't know what this is.

So here's the Socrates plan:

1.  The SFA should accept Charles Green's version of "Rangers" into membership, but suspend that membership for one year pending the settlement of some outstanding issues regarding the former Rangers 1872 and the Green version's right of succession.

2.  They should take the registrations of the former Rangers 1872's retained players into SFA care pending clarification of the players' status. Those whose contract agreements with Duff & Phelps - under the terms of the wage cuts which were negotiated in February - permit them to leave, may do so. Those who remain will be re-registered to "Team 12"; this team will be re-named "Sporting Integrity Glasgow" and will play out of Hampden Park, wearing an all-white strip, with an all-dark blue change strip. This team will be managed by the existing Rangers 1872 management team.

However, the transfer fees from those former Rangers 1872 players who choose to exercise their exit clauses will be distributed pro-rata to offset the football debts outstanding to Rangers 1872, after an agreed portion has been used to cover the set-up costs of SIG. The overall management of SIG will be delegated to independent officials acceptable to the SFA and the club will be run on a not-for-profit basis with any surplus used to pay-off Rangers 1872's football debts.

3.  The one-year's period of suspension of the Green "Rangers" will be used to negotiate and implement the new Scottish Professional Football League system, ideally this should be along North American lines, with two equal ten-tema "conferences" playing down to end-of-season play-offs. This SPFL will be under-pinned by regional league pyramids, working from the template used by the Scottish Junior FA, but taking congisance of the need to integrate these junior leagues with the three "senior" non-league organisations, the Highland, East of Scotland and South of Scotland leagues.

4. At the end of the year, ie, the end of season 2012-13, SIG and Mr Green's "Rangers" will be re-integrated, playing out of Ibrox.

This scenario will allow the now-departed men who got Rangers 1872 into trouble to be excluded from the game, it will allow due process of law and the liquidation of Rangers 1872 to proceed and will give clarity for the future.

It is not an ideal scenario, but, in this case, nothing would appear to be ideal - but I think it answers some of the problems Scottish football is currently facing.

I Come To Bury Rangers - Not To Praise Them

I RATHER hope the latest twist in Rangersgate - the Daily Mirror piece by the excellent Alan Nixon which suggests that Charles Green's version of "Rangers" (TRFC) are considering buying Bury FC, moving them from Gigg Lane to Ibrox and competing in the English League in future - pans out, for various reasons.

Bury Rangers: what Celtic fan, or given the way goodwill towards Rangers has evaporated elsewhere in Scotland, ANY Scottish fan, would not wish to do that?

Rangers out of Scottish football and potentially heading towards the riches of the EPL - what Rangers fan would not vote for that?

Rangers, walking away from - if the forums on various Scottish football-related websites and newspaper chat rooms are to be believed - the total hatred of everyone else: what Rangers fan wouldn't gladly walk away with a departing V sign?

Rangers heading to England - which Scottish police force wouldn't relish that - although perhaps missing the overtime?

Rangers heading to England - that might play well with SFA, SPL and SFL administrators, struggling with "sporting integrity" and "commercial considerations".

Rangers heading for England, playing every second game in the south. My, how "the A Team", that dedicated band of "top" Scottish sportswriters who only cover Rangers, Celtic and Scotland would relish the additional expenses to be garnered from trips to such football hot spots as: Swindon (Paolo de Cannio), Scunthorpe (a Tuesday night visit there is on the cards), Yeovil and Milton Keynes.

Of course, it might all be "paper talk", this is the "silly season" for football rumours after all, but, Nixon usually has his finger on the pulse on his patch. And Andy Goram did start his career at Gigg Lane.

Mind you, we will no doubt be told today: "It cannot happen - the SFA/SPL/SFL/FA/Football League/UEFA?FIFA/Scottish Government/Westminster Government/EU/United Nations will never allow it". PLEASE, in professional football today, money talks, and if enough cash speaks loudly enough - it will happen.

Of course, the directors of Bury were quick to issue a statement saying that while they welcomed investment, they saw their club moving forward as "Bury FC, playing in the town of Bury". Aye right - notice anything? The talk of investment came before any mention of the town of Bury.

Of course there are supposed to be rules about clubs not playing in "countries" other than those in which they are situated. But, Cardiff and Swansea play in the English League and last time I looked Cardiff and Swansea were in Wales, not England. Berwick Rangers play in Scotland, Berwick is in England and Derry City play in the League of Ireland, whilst their ground is in Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom.

FIFA likes to pretend its laws - football's laws - are superior to the law of the land in whatever country any of its member FAs is situated - should they try to stop a  merger between TRFC and Bury, I imagine a quick visit to the law courts with a restraint of trade action would put them off. If, for instance, Charles Green was running a bakery in Bury making and selling a particular niche market product and he felt he could better run that bakery in Govan, nobody could, or would, stop him from moving. Bakery, football club - both commerical operations, where's the difference in moving?

The thing is - I WAS FIRST. I wrote months ago that moving Rangers to England made commercial sense. The vultures circling the dying corpse of Rangers, gravelly wounded by the mis-management of David Murray and the non-nursing of Craig Whyte have become the flies crawling over the corpse. No Lazarus-like revival can be achieved in the fetid swamp which is Scottish football.

To get Rangers back to where they were as a major force in European football will require access to the single quick-acting drug necessary - BIG MONEY - and that can only be accessed in the necessary quantities in English football.

Moving to England is the only way entrepreneurs such as Green can get the quick pay-back they want and the longer the SFA/SPL and SFL stall on sorting out the status of TRFC and where they will play in Scotland, the more-likely a merger with Bury or a similarly-destitute English club becomes.

For so-long as Mr Green has a major stadium and a major club not in membership of the SFA and either of the two Scottish senior leagues, he can look at the move to England. The moment the SFA and either the SPL or the SFL clasp TRFC to their bosum, that move dies.

Time for action and a definite decision from the men inside Hampden - something which has been sorely lacking since this whole Rangersgate nonsense kicked off.  

Status Quo? Down Down? or Rockin' All Over the World?

RANGERSGATE shows no sign of closing soon - there continues to be claim and counter-claim, opinion and differing opinion, with both sides (pro and anti-Rangers) digging-in, Western Front style, for a lengthy campaign.

One had hoped for a bit of clarity from yesterday's SPL board meeting at Hampden, but, what clarity did emerge seems to have become fuzzy in the haze of conjecture.

I thought the SPL board did at least indicate the nub of the problem facing them, through their point about the status of "Rangers". This is something of the moot point in all this - is The Rangers FC, as overseen by CEO Charles Green: the "successor" club to Rangers FC 1872 (in liquidation), or is it a brand-new club?

Until this issue is resolved, the SPL cannot move forward, once the SPL decides Rangers' status we cannot know if "Rangers" or some other club takes-on the fixtures delegated to "Club 12" in the season 2012-2013 SPL fixture list.

I wrote yesterday, that it might be no bad thing if Green's Rangers were admitted into membership of Scottish football, but had playing membership suspended pending the clearing-up of all the relevant issues. I stand by that, but, after 24 hours trawling through the various blogs dedicated to this matter, feel even this might not be the best solution.

For a start, there is this status issue. Peter McConville, who writes the 'Random Thoughts on Scottish Legal Matters' blog, posted yesterday to the effect that Green's group might indeed be able to claim they (The Rangers FC) was indeed Rangers 1872-continuing; another legal blog held the view they were an entirely new entity. However, argument is the fuel of any legal system, after all, did not Lords Carlaway and Glennie, two of Scotland's most-senior judges, not disagree on another matter concerning Rangers just last month.

The Scottish football public - at least those members of that constituency prepared to contribute to on-line discussion threads - seem to be (if not Rangers' fans) of the opinion that some sort of punishment has to be handed down to that club. They cannot, however, decide if the Green team should carry that punishment.

As I have said before: if The Rangers FC is indeed the successor/continuing football club, then they have every right to be admitted to the SPL, but MUST carry the can for the PROVEN football misdeeds of Rangers 1872 (in liquidation). They should be forced to pay-back the football debts to Hearts and Rapid Vienna, they should pay any penalties for the non-compliance with the accounts timeline and if - or as now seems likely when - it is proved that Rangers 1872 (in liquidation) was using double contracts which were not divulged to the SFA, then the penalties for this rule breach should fall on The Rangers FC. This is only fair and transparent.

However, the misdeeds of Rangers 1872 (IL) have opened a far-bigger can of worms. There is the increasingly untenable position of SFA president Campbell Ogilvie for a start. Merely suspending The Rangers FC from membership and perhaps placing Mr Ogilvie on gardening leave might not suffice.

I have come round to the conclusion that what is needed now is an independent review of Scottish football, almost, if you like and you forgive my melodrama here, a sort of truth and reconciliation tribunal similar to that set-up at the end of apartheid in South Africa.

The trouble with this is - who in the Rangers family is going to play FW de Klerk, and who from elsewhere is going to play Nelson Mandela? For it is generally accepted that football, whether in Scotland, the British Isles as a whole, UEFA or FIFA, is somewhat short of untainted officials.

GIVEN the above, the SFA and SPL's clear intent not to give the Green team a clear assisted ride into the SPL, if I was Mr Green, I would be looking at a Plan B.

He has a team with a good stadium and nobody to play against - look for a club with a not-so-good stadium, no money, but a guaranteed league place and take them over.

If I was Mr Green, I would be speaking with 1), the administrators of Portsmouth FC and 2), that body which Phil Mac Giolla Bhain so-brilliantly named the MCC (the Walter Smith-led Magic Cardigan Consortium). They have, at least, £6 million to spare. Put that £6 million together with the Green Group's £5.5 million, buy Portsmouth, transfer them to Glasgow to play in the English League as 'Portsmouth Rangers', eh voila - they have a "Rangers" team playing in England. Those players seeking to get out of their existing contracts would surely be happy to play in England, with a view to the shortest possible trip into the English Premiership, so the squad would be competitive; the Rangers fans would be delighted - most are still in denial and would relish showing two fingers to the rest of Scottish football; Mr Green would see - potentially - a speedier return on his investment and the MCC, being "True Rangers Men" would be able to get behind a successful winning team again. Scottish football would, on the other hand, be rid of a big bully who has beaten them up for years.

I call that a win-win situation. Of course, the down-side is, and there has to be a down-side: who would the remaining Scottish sides hate? After all, the wicked witch might be gone, but they need a replacement. And, the in-fighting between the Green team and the MCC would be wonderful to behold.

And, finally, how would the Celtic Family cope with being "The Establishment Club"?

Scottish football, don't you just love it.

Don't Hang Them - Just Suspend Them

TWO posts ago I suggested it would be no bad thing if "Newco" Rangers were admitted into membership of the SFA, but had that membership suspended for one year, whilst matters arising from the liquidation of Rangers 1872 and the extended fall-out: alleged double contracts, Duff & Phelps' actions in taking the SFA to the Court of Session and so-forth were addressed.

Following the news of the plan to unify the SPL and SFL into a single "Scottish League" and the suggested implementation of a pyramid system, I now believe the call for a suspension of any club named "Rangers" from participation in Scottish football, until the hysteria has abated and calm, sensible decisions have been taken, is now to loud to ignore.

That Scottish football at "professional" level has for so-long been run by three different bodies - the SFA, SPL and SFL was a nonsense. I think, deep down, everyone knew it was a nonsense, but, entrenched positions had to be maintained, while naturally the turkeys were never going to vote for Christmas. I liked the suggestions brought forward by Henry McLeish's review body, but was amazed that those suggestions which were speedily implemented were pushed through so-quickly. I still felt the sensible suggestion of a single SFA running the entire game and the formation of the pyramid would never happen - there would be limits.

Now, thanks in no small part to the Rangers crisis, it looks like happening. HOWEVER, be warned, as we all know from bitter experience, rules implemented in haste are generally repented over at leisure.

Clearly, there are some within the Game here who believe Rangers are: "Too big to fail"; I am not so certain; however, the debate which has followed liquidation does indicate the club's importance to the economics of Scottish football.

The misdemeanours of the management of Rangers 1872 - Messrs, David Murray and Craig Whyte in terms of financial jiggery-pokery and the business of BDO, the liquidators appointed by HMRC. IF - and it has to be accepted there are grounds for believing this to be the case - then it is Murray and Whyte, their employees and agents, who must be pursued with the full vigour of the law, although it also has to be acknowledged, given the muddy nature of business waters, it could take years for charges to be brought and proper verdicts reached.

This has nothing to do with The Rangers FC, as Charles Green's consortium has called itself. However, as I have said before, if TRFC is indeed, RFC (continuing) then the Green group MUST be punished for the misdeeds of Murray and Whyte IN FOOTBALL TERMS.

If TRFC is an entirely new company, then it MUST start from scratch. The RFC SPL place cannot be theirs as of right (and the naming of 'Team 12' in the 2012-13 fixtures seems to indicate this is the view of the SPL).

The newco TRFC, as SFA/SPL/SFL rules stand CANNOT be admitted to membership. IF the men who walk Hampden's corridors of power consider them to be the rightful heirs to the legacy, however tainted, of RFC, then there is an argument for admitting them. Realistically, though the Rangers' fan base may be, in the memorable words of Ian Archer, brought back into common usage by the marvellous Rangers Tax Case blog: "a permanent embarrassment and occasional disgrace", that's a lot of bodies and a lot of cash to throw out.

As I have said, often, there is much to decide and not a lot of time in which to reach that decision. Better to start season 2012-13 with the status quo as far as leagues are concerned, whilst independent SFA-appointed tribunals look into matters arising, while plans are implemented for the new pyramid-under-pinned, all-in-one Scottish League, including TRFC, comes into being at the start of season 2013-14.

The question then would be: at which level would TRFC come in?

KUDOS to the Celtic fans who have come-up with suggestions for a name for the team which TRFC will put onto the park, when they are finally allowed to.

My favourites came from the following - the poster on Rangers Tax Case who suggested: "Trigger's Broom FC" and Phil Mac Giolla Bhain's 'I can't Believe It's Not Rangers'. Celtic-minded blogger PMGB also came up with a cracker for the ill-timed and wonderfully cynical Walter Smith-led potential saviours: 'The Magic Cardigan Consortium' - aye, the MCC, not exactly a body well-known for a modern outlook to running a sport. I also liked the suggestion of 'Swordsman' a well-respected and long-time poster on The Scotsman's "Rumour Mill" web forum, who, when the now-over-turned SFA ban on Rangers signing players was announced, suggested 'The Apprentice Boys' as the name for the virtual youth team it seemed Rangers would be forced to field.

It's Gonna Get A Whole Lot Harder For England

AS I have oft said before, I lived and worked in England for a number of years: well, not exactly England, for most of the time I was based in the People's Republic of West Yorkshire, which is, in many ways, like Scotland without the accent. But, I digress, I like the English on a personal level; they are, by and large, a lovely people, held back somewhat by the fact we Scots are a samll, far-away nation, of which they know nothing.

But their media, particularly those members from within the London media bubble - oh dear! And it is the English media which continues to drive this Scottish animosity towards English teams. They are a wee bit like Rangers fans wi bools in their mooths - We Are The Chaps, rather than Weaarpeepul; the same superiority, the right to rule.

Thus, survives and thrives the Scottish cult of ABE (Anyone But England), whenever a major international tournament comes around. But, not this time, not (as yet) in Euro 2012. The English, even the truly awful Clive Tyldesley, went into events in Poland and Ukraine for once unsure of themselves. They went in, in fact, in almost Scottish mode - delighted to be there, but, forward tho' they couldna see - they guessed and feared.

And, so far, they have done better than their worst fears had them expecting. Sure, they got lucky against France, with the lesser end of a draw, but, the way they came back from 1-2 down to beat Sweden must surely have lifted them and brought back something like the old English self-belief. A lot of the credit for this has to go down to the comparatively unloved Roy Hodgson; maybe not a "great" manager in the mould of Ramsey, Busby, Shankly, Stein, Ferguson or Robson: more a Grade Two boss such as Clough, Revie, Mercer or Venables. He has been in the game a while, knows his stuff and while there isn't a truly great side in Group D, he got a win when he needed it, albeit against what isn't, in truth, a great Swedish side.

Now comes his big test. The looser cannons in the English media pack will now go into full England Expects mode, the clamour for the England squad to become Wayne's World will now reach earache level - how Hodgson handles this will go a long way towards deciding what happens next.

I am thinking back to Spain 1982. England went into that World Cup, not having qualified for the tournament since they went, as Champions, to the 1970 tournament. In 1974 and 1978 they had to sit and watch Scotland - (song moment) - "We're representing Britain, and here's the reason why, England canny dae it, fur they couldnae qualify" - thank you Andy Cameron.

So, England in 1982 were as desperate for victory as they are today, and, like today, they had injury problesm, with top players Kevin Keegan and Trevor Brooking both injured. But, they got through the group and were playing well, when the big two recovered from injury. Too soon, they were introduced into the team and England went out. Might history repeat itself with Rooney?

Shevchenko and Voronin might be past their best, but, they are, I feel, still capable of exposing England's week link, their central defence: where frankly, Lescott has never been international class, while Terry, who even at his best, has barely been international class, is now, I fear, over the hill and perhaps fearing a possible spell as a guest of Her Majesty.

England may yet qualify, but, I feel the quarter-finals will be the limit of their ambitions in 2012.

At least, they are at the party and I hope they enjoy what time they have left.

There are still more questions than answers

MA HEID'S burstin' wi awe this Rangers guff.

To paraphrase Churchill's 1939 quote about Russia: events surrounding Rangers are a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. Churchill then went on to say that the key to the whole thing was Russian national interest. So, extrapolating forward, what is the key to the Rangers case?

It is probably Rangers interest. But which Rangers? Is this the Continuity Rangers - owned and fronted by Charles Green? Or is it the Rangers tribute act - dubbed 'the Bootleg Rangers' by a poster on Rangers Tax Case, and fronted by Lord Walter of Cardigan? Quite honestly, it is long past time for the SFA to grow a pair and sort the whole thing out.

As I understand it, as of now: Rangers 1872 are still in administration, with Duff & Phelps as administrators. HOWEVER: their plan A, for the club's debts to be discharged via a Creditors Voluntary Agreement or CVA having failed, they have gone to Plan B - which involves liquidation, after the sale of the sellable assets to the Charles Green-led consortium for £5.5 million. This deal is being processed and on its completion, the Green Team will own Rangers.

HOWEVER: the question is: will Green own a club which is a continuation of Rangers 1872, keeping the ground, strip and history - or does he own "New" Rangers?

If he ends up owning Rangers 1872 - and he doesn't, as yet, since the paperwork hasn't been completed, then he can presumably (on completeion) take over Rangers's SFA licence, continue to run that club in the SPL, subject to the rules of football and represent that club in its dealings with the SFA. This means, since the accounts weren't in in time, no European football in season 2012-13.

It should also mean that any sanctions for breaches of football rules - the on-going investigation into the so-called "double contracts", the failure to post accounts in time, the verdict on the failures of Craig Whyte such as the Appeals Tribunal's new sanction, given the transfer ban was over-turned. It also means that, since Duff & Phelps breached SFA rules by taking that appeal to the Court of Session rather than UEFA/FIFA or the Court of Arbitration in Sport, then any SFA sanction following this breach, should fall on the Green-led Rangers. The Green-led Rangers should also carry the can should any of the other allegations against former managements of the club be proved.

There is also a moral case for - assuming the decision is that Green is running Continuity Rangers, forcing through proper reparation for the football debts of Rangers 1872 - the transfer monies owed to Hearts etc.

BUT - If Mr Green in fact owns "New" Rangers, then Rangers 1872 is dead. Duff & Phelps might be able to represent that club at any SFA or SPL meetings prior to the completion of the Green deal, but, if the club is dead, then surely they have to confirm this to the SFA and SPL, "New" Rangers cannot automatically replace Rangers 1872 in next season's competitions, but must apply for a new SFA licence and apply for the vacancy in SFL Division Three which has come about following Rangers 1872's demise and the promotion of other clubs to fill in the cascading vacancies which this has caused.

These points leave aside the serious issues of possible wrong-doing, which on hopes Strathclyde Police and the Crown Office will address.

BEFORE THAT, however, the SFA MUST for the good of Scottish football, start asking hard questions and keep going until they get answers. This will take time, as indeed will BDO's liquidation process and any criminal investigations.

To allow this to happen, I feel the SFA should, dependant on which of the two teams he represents, tell Mr Green, either:

1.  If you represent Continuity Rangers, your club is suspended sine die until all the outstanding questions have been adequately answered.

2.  If you represent "New" Rangers, you cannot apply for a club licence or membership of the SFA, SPL or SFL until all the outstanding questions have been adequately answered.

FINALLY, anent the (too) late arrival on the scene of the Seventh Cavalry, led by Lord Walter of Cardigan, pardon the cynicism but: I asked some days ago where all the well-heeled "Rangers Men" who could have put together a deal to match or gazump Green were. I was told by another journalist: "They're Rangers Men, they will come out of the woodwork once the club is liquidated and there is no danger of them having to put their hands in their pockets to pay for the maladministrations of Murray and Whyte".

Sure enough, right after liquidation was announced on Thursday, over the ridge they came. It would make you sick. As for Walter, pardon me, but, I have never bought-into the myth of "Sir" Walter. He is one of the men complicit in the fall of Rangers; he was a major player during David Murray's ill-fated spend, spend, spend regime.

If Walter gets back in charge, it will be same-old, same old for Rangers - buying gash non-Scots, ignoring the claims of promising young, home-grown talent and spending beyond the club and the game in Scotland's needs.

I look at everyone involved and all I can think about is the Burns line: "Sic a parcel o rogues in a nation".

Duff & Phelps, BDO - Why Not Burke and Hare?

AT SOME point later this morning, the representative of HMRC will formally refuse to accept the details of the CVA being proposed by Messers Duff & Phelps; in effect the life-support system plug will be pulled out and Rangers will die.

The question then is, will Duff & Phelps the attending physicians, who failed to keep the patient alive, have time to sell-off the saleable organs (Ibrox, Murray Park etc) to Charles Green, or will the HMRC-appointed undertakers - BDO - take possession of the corpse and in turn become responsible for the organ harvesting?

I don't know enough about how these things work to say definitely, but I sincerely hope BDO has charge of the corpse, otherwise - things may get decidedly messy. Whatever happens, the accountants and m'learned friends will continue to live high on the hog, whilst the estate of the dear departed is divided up.

And, by the way, since he is a grade one chancer who has spent most of his life living on the edges of legality, don't be surprised if Craig Whyte hasn't left a few booby traps in the path of BDO and HMRC - I have a feeling they will find out that the deeds to Ibrox and Murray Parks are lying in some office in the Cayman Islands for instance.

SO, I intend saying no more about the corporate business side of things, I'll leave that to the guys on the business desks - other than a parting comment; the two pieces of real estate - three if you count the Albion car park MUST be worth more than the £5.5 million which messers Green and Duff & Phelps have valued them at.

What about the footballing side of things? What happens now? I honestly believe the demise of Rangers 1872 offers Scottish football a once-in-a-life-time chance to sort itself out. Will they take it?

Probably not - Scottish football is good at tinkering round the edges, not so good at real and meaningful change.

For a start, any thoughts of "New" Rangers continuing to occupy a place in the SPL have to be kicked into touch. I am not in the "They've cheated for years" camp. I appreciate these things don't have to be proven "beyond reasonable doubt", as is the case in criminal courts; the non-payment of tax/legality of EBTs issue is one for the civil courts, where it's the "balance of probabilities" rather than "beyond reasonable doubt" which counts. But, given that EBTs were legal when Rangers went down that route, it may be that Rangers use of them has been flawed rather than illegal and that difference is just the sort of area the legal brains love getting into - it can keep them talking and arguing for years. Then there is the area of what is and what isn't a contract - again sorting out the difference between a second contract and a side note will keep the guys in the silk gowns in school fees for Fettes and the Edinburgh Academy well into the 2020s.

So what do the admittedly duller brains within Hampden's corridors of power do in the meantime? Well a good start would be for the SPL to declare that since Rangers are in liquidation, their membership of the SPL falls. There is already evidence that Duff & Phelps' pairing of Sooty and Sweep have failed to even keep up to date with the less-than-taxing standards of administration demanded of them by the SFA or SPL.

The accounts are not up to date, certain necessary pieces of paperwork have not been completed - ergo with "Old" Rangers dead and "New" Rangers failing to meet the SFA's paper work demands, then the "New" Rangers cannot as things stand compete in the SPL in season 2012-2013. Get Dundee in - now.

But, what happens as regards the newco? On the face of it, they ought to be asked to apply for the vacant place in SFL Division Three which has caused by the promotions in the wake of the oldco's demise. Dundee's elevation will leave a gap in the SFL Division One, which should go to Airdrie - the losing side in the play-off final; their Division Two place will then go to Stranraer, who lost the Division Two-Three play-off final, leaving the Division Three vacancy to be filled.

This ought to be done by invitation. Spartans could apply, ditto one or more Highland League Clubs, perhaps Gala Fairydean or Preston Athletic might fancy a go, although I don't see any of the junior giants such as Talbot, Irvine Meadow or Linlithgow Rose throwing their bunnets into the ring.

"New" Rangers will. It will then be a case of the SFL deciding: do we want those awfully nice Rangers fans trampling all over our grounds or not? In that case, £ signs will flash in front of eyes and "New" Rangers will be in.

Of course, this scenario overlooks the on-going saga of the SAF Appeals Tribunal's decision on the crimes of "Old" Rangers; the transfer ban was kicked into touch, so the tribunal has to come up with some new sanction, which will apply to the newco. This has to be a hefty one, to appease the wolves at UEFA and FIFA and, as I have said before on these pages - I don't see Zurich and Nyon being satisfied with anything short of suspension for at least one year.

This, actually, is the SFA's get-out-of-jail card. Accept "New" Rangers into membership, but, suspend that membership sine die - with a commitment to review at the end of the 2012-13 season, to see what has been done to de-toxify the Rangers brand, allow for the Big Tax Case to be determined and to see what steps have been taken to sort-out the football debts of the "Old" Rangers.

If sufficient steps have been shown to have been taken - "New" Rangers goes into SFL Division Three at the start of season 2013-2014.

Meanwhile, Scottish football will have a season to see how we get on without them and, just maybe, the necessary changes can be put in place - three governing bodies into one - fewer "national" league teams - better "district" leagues, with (finally) a Scottish pyramid in place and an emphasis on bringing-through good, young, skilled, Scottish players.

The cure will be difficult, at times painful and could be a lengthy one - but - it just might work in terms of Champions League, European Championship and Champions League and Europa League success, some years in the future.