'BRITNEY' (Graham Spiers) and I go back a long way - right back to his early days as a young gun on Scotland on Sunday; so, I never miss his insightful 'Spiers on Sport' columns on the Herald website.
He was particularly good this week in article number 1690 which he has written on a certain Scottish Football League club based on Edmiston Drive in south west Glasgow.
Yes, said club, once known as 'Dignity FC' has shown precious little dignity these past few years, since falling into the clutches of a noveau riche entrepreneur based in Edinburgh, from there into the even worse clutches of a "billionaire with off the radar wealth" from Motherwell via Monaco.
Today, that club is owned by - who knows, but I somehow sense the influence, somewhere in the snake pit of paperwork of Beelzebub Enterprises. Just a thought here - while the forces of Darkness and Mammon tear their club apart, why cannot these staunch, upright, bowler-hatted "Christians" who form the club's traditional support seek the assistance of the footballing arm of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland in battling evil - and why cannot the footballing arm of RC Church Scotland reach out a brotherly arm to their colleagues in sport?
I know, naive or what?
But, I digress. Britney bemoans the lack of class and dignity surrounding the club which he grew up supporting these days. He asks: "Is there nobody who can bring the warring directors, former directors and would-be directors squabbling over the soul (soul??) of the club together"?
Actually Britney, there is. You have perhaps heard of the Scottish Football Association, you know, the body supposedly running the game here. Surely the on-going, seemingly unfixable and very thorny issue of this particular club is a bare-faced example of "Bringing football into disrepute".
Come on Cousin Vinny, slap a sanction on them, suspend the club until the matter of ownership, management, a few fit and proper person tests are resolved and get it sorted.
The longer this mess goes on, the more damage is done to Scottish football. If the SFA cannot, or will not, sort things out - they might as well shut up shop.
The Easdale brothers are keen to have greater influence over affairs at the club - but, their past record in business raises eyebrows and questions. The South Africa-based Dave King is probably the ordinary Bears in the cheaper seats' choice as Saviour of the Club, but, again, there are questions surrounding his business record and probity.
The ownership has been a mess; the last two owners have been less than diligent. When you look at the options, it could well be out of the frying pan onto the hob - further clean-ups might be necessary.
The longer you wait before cleaning-up, the harder that clean-up becomes. So come on SFA, fingers out of arses and - ACTION!!
It's not often I find myself lost in that particular area of the A8, I tend to avoid it the same as I would dog shite on the pavement. Too many UKIP posters and upside down flags for my liking, however I was amused to read that The Samaritans have reported a significantly high amount of calls from that area in recent months. Even so, I would happily share an evening in the company of the uneducated zombies rather than a moment with any member of the SFA.
ReplyDeleteAll joking aside, your post has an uncomfortable ring of truth about it that should sound alarm bells around every Scottish club. If it can happen to the most protected team in Scotland, it can happen to all of us. For the sake of Scottish fitba, the fingers-up-arses-brigade MUST investigate and ensure that Scotland's dignity remains in tact for the future of generations to come.