Joint First Among Equals - That's The Situation In Scottish Fitba

PART of me supposes all this current talk about league reconstruction is partially-driven by damage limitation, just in case the RTA finds another way to blow promotion from the SPFL Championship to the Premiership. I could be wrong, but, the thought is there.

 

I mean, we now know, and this is something I admit, I ought to have known, but didn't - the league set-up in Scottish senior football is an unequal one. Leagues, by their very nature ought to be organisations of equals, however, since the SPFL's television contracts are driven by having a minimum of four "Old Firm" games per season, and any fewer means less money comes in, the SPFL cannot be a body of equals.

 

The other 40 clubs seem quite prepared to go along with this. They allow the Bigot Brothers, when in the same division, to vacuum-up the major portion of the TV revenue, and are quite happy to feed off the crumbs they have dropped into their laps.

 

This might well be one of the reasons why the outrageous behaviour of the Bigot Brothers' fans goes largely unpunished - sectarianism sells, and it isn't simply the two clubs most-involved who benefit, the rest get a wee share of the profits.

 

So, given Scottish Football is such a rotten institution - why do we bother? Scottish football is dying on its feet, the need for surgery is far-more radical than we had imagined, and, we don't have the qualified surgeons in this country to perform that surgery.

 

In my innocence, I thought, all that is needed is for a system to be devised which offers those clubs who have invested in new stadia a chance to prosper, while, at the same time, finding a means whereby the smaller community clubs can also thrive and survive.

 

Silly me, it is all about keeping as many snouts in the trough as can possibly be fed, and, the other snouts will get sufficient swill, if they let the two big bores at the end have first dibs.

 

Scottish football will never cure Scottish football's ills. If they cannot and will not - who can?

 

 

The above picture is, according to a well-known pro-independence website, a sneak preview of the new Rangers away kit. Kinda suits them don't you think?

 

This one really needs no caption, does it.



AND, before I am branded a Rangers-hater, can I just say, after those TV and newspaper pictures of events at Stair Park at the weekend, for how much longer can the Celtic apologists continue insisting they are the good guys. Their serial denial of any form of wrong-doing from the self-styled "Greatest fans in the world" is now, more than ever, tedious.

It wasn't simply "Juan Guy" who was keeping that squad of polis busy on Sunday.

Both the Celtic Family and Ra Peepul now have cases of bad behaviour before the SFA's beaks, how much whitewash will Hampden need to buy to cover these ones up?



I WILL be heading for Rugby Park on 23 January, to watch Glasgow Warriors take on Racing 92, in a European Rugby Champions Cup match. There is every chance the crowd at that game will be the largest of the year at the old ground, and, it will be the only chance Ayrshire sports fans will have of seeing genuine, world-class talent on display on the ground. I am so looking forward to seeing Daniel Carter playing.