Courting Disaster

WHEN I wrote my last blog posting, I had decided to say no more about Rangers. I had decided it had gone on far too-long and hard though it might be for Ra Peepul to accept - liquidation and a new start in Division 3 of the SFL seemed the only noble stance. In fact, I suspected, were this to happen, Rangers would return to the SPL a stronger club, not least because they would have had a nucleus of good, young players, who had grown-up together in the fight-back from Scotland's senior basement to the country's top-flight.

I felt too, without half of the Old Firm gate and television money and, with the likelihood that - without the sworn enemy to face, the more-distant members of the Celtic Family would not be so-keen to follow the Hoops. There was, therefore, a chance that the SPL playing field to which Rangers returned in 2015 or whenever, might be a more-level one; and certainly, without the Old Firm block vote, the cash cake might by then be more-evenly distributed.

That of course was before the Court of Session threw-out the Rangers' signing ban. All bets are now off, until the SFA comes back with the new sanction.

For me, I can see three possibilities.

They can either ban Rangers - be that the 1873 formation continuing or a newco - from the Scottish Cup for a minimum of one season, which I don't see as being a great hardship.

They expel the club altogether - which I feel they will be reluctant to do.

They tell the Court of Session to take a hike, by returning the same verdict of a 12-month transfer ban, while reminding Rangers, under FIFA legislation the club's only recourse is to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration in Sport, the global sport of football's deisgnated appeals chamber. They further remind Rangers that in by-passing the CAS and going to Edinburgh, they have placed the SFA in a position of jeopardy and should they again resort to the Court of Session, expulsion will follow.

Option 3 might by a tad extreme, but, by refusing to accept the SFA's authority Rangers were, in effect, saying: "We're too-big to touch". Such bullies MUST be tackled head-on.

Whatever transpires, by going to court, Rangers have made certain that things will change. The SFA will now HAVE to conduct a complete overhaul of their rules to make them water-tight and to avoid UEFA or FIFA getting involved and forcing change upon them.

Rangers have supposedly suggested that they will be let-off with their breach of football's rules (in going to the civil courts) because, they never questioned the SFA's right to punish them, merely didn't like the punishment they were landed with. We'll see, I don't see that playing too well in Switzerland.

I have felt for some time that Scottish, indeed British football is about to receive a severe shake-up. Several matters are coming to a head.

UEFA's financial fair play rules are about to kick-in; these will hit the English Premiership clubs badly.

There now seems little doubt that Rangers will lose the Big Tax Case, bad though this will be for the already listing club, it will prove equally serious for those English clubs in the Premiership and Championship who went down the EBTs route - and these clubs have always been HMRC's main target; their job was made somewhat simpler by Rangers' cavalier disdain for good corporate governance under the Murray regime.

The fall-out from the four Home FAs' and the British Olympic Association's total mis-handling of the selection criteria for the London squads, male and female, may well be another nail in the coffin of the notion of four separate FAs within the United Kingdom.

The FA's arrogant refusal to step back and join with the three Celtic FAs in forming a proper UK Football Board, specifically to handle the Olympic Games squads' selection and management, was a massive own goal. The BOA's arrogant refusal to entertain the agreed-upon "English" Team GB squads confounded the folly, while the FAW and SFA under-mined their quite proper objections by allowing matches to be played in Cardiff and Glasgow.

The United Kingdom's enemies within football now have reason to "get" the four Home Associations. By allowing Team GB squads including players from all four FAs to take the field, without the express permission of the FAW, IFA and SFA, the FA and the BOA are clearly breaching FIFA Statute 8, paragraph 3. This places in jeopardy, in addition to the four countries' international independence, their four places on IFAB, the laws-making International Football Associations Board.

Everything could come together, the four FAs copuld be forced to merge. Were this to happen, while the three Celtic FAs will find plenty within football keen to help them "nobble" the English, when it comes to the big jobs in the single entity UKFA, bang will go European football for the likes of Dundee United, Motherwell, Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs (unless they become "Edinburgh United").

Rangers going to the Court of Session will be another stick with which FIFA can hammer the four UK associations - unless the SFA show hitherto hidden talent for avoiding big trouble.

Ironicaly for Rangers,who will be in no position to benefit from my Doomsday scenario, should the worst happen, the big beneficiaries of the whole sheebang will be Celtic. Can you think of another Scottish club which will be in a position to go straight into the UK Premiership which the UKFA will form after amalgamation?

Yes, the above is a Doomsday scenario, but, after this week's court case, it is I feel, a lot less unlikely than it was this time last week.