Skullduggery or Incompetence?

The debacle that surrounds the implosion felt both within Ibrox Park and Scottish football as a whole has been well catalogued, blogged, tweeted, televised, you name it and the Scottish media, fans groups, supporters, journalists and Uncle Tom Cobley have had their say.

Suffice to say that we are where we are. The 11 SPL Clubs plus Rangers voted overwhelmingly that the new Rangers Football Club were not permitted to enter Scottish football in the highest division. Really, only the most rabid of Rangers die-hards could suggest that this was the wrong decision.

This, then, creates a vacancy within the SPL. Now, I agree that the decision to be made as to who is invited to fill the vacancy is, perhaps, not as straightforward as it might be. There are two candidates being Dunfermline Athletic FC and Dundee FC. The Pars finished bottom of the SPL last season and were relegated whilst Dundee finished second in Division One of The Scottish Football League but were not permitted promotion as this would impact financially on the SPL. Nonetheless, this vacancy has not exactly crept up on the SPL and you might expect that a plan existed to be actioned as soon as the decision to reject the Rangers application was reached. Perhaps Dunfermline, perhaps Dundee, perhaps a play-off. Seems simple, really.

This is where the SPL are at, an organisation with a vacancy.

In overall control of Scottish football are the SFA who, through Chief Executive Stewart Regan, have warned of plague and pestilence within our game unless Rangers are allowed to regain their rightful position in the top two as quickly as is manufacturedly possible. This rumour mongering has prompted Division 2 side Stenhousemuir to announce that they will vote to allow a brand new football club to enter the SFL in Division One, thus avoiding what might have been 2 capacity attendances during season 2013-14 at Ochilview, assuming they retain SFL2 status and Rangers gain promotion from SFL3. I have no idea what arrangement they have with East Stirlingshire who share their stadium and are in SFL3 (as usual) but it may be that they take a percentage of gate receipts, catering sales, hospitality packages etc etc. It may be, therefore, that Stenhousemuir are costing themselves financially both this year and next by allowing a new club to bypass them within the League system.

This is where the SFA are at, an organisation in fear that the money might dry up, an organisation who never for a minute considered that either Rangers or Celtic might not be in the top 6 of the top Division - even as both these clubs attempted membership of the English Premiership or the formation of a brand new Atlantic League. Incompetent? You betcha.

Finally, we have the Scottish Football League who, we are told, will meet on Friday 13th July to determine which League they believe The Rangers should start their footballing lives in. Now if this were Clydebank FC or Spartans FC, it would be straightforward. The SFL clubs would determine which they felt brought more to the table and would elect their choice as an Associate Member into Division 3. It would not even cross their mind to consider entry at an higher level. But, this is Rangers and so they will apparently vote on a straight choice between Division One and Division Three with the not so veiled threat that the SPL will magically start an SPL2 within weeks should the vote not go as they might like.

This is where the Scottish Football League are at. They are an organisation comprising of 30 football clubs.

But.

THEY ARE AN ORGANISATION WITH NO VACANCY. THEY HAVE 30 MEMBER CLUBS AND WILL DO SO UNTIL THE SPL GET THEIR FINGER OUT.

What, then, are we to make of the fact that the SPL refuse to announce who will fill their vacancy and thus create a vacancy within the SFL? How can the SFL vote to admit a club to fill a vacancy when such a vacancy does not exist?

Skullduggery? Send Rangers to Division 3 and we have left our options open to invite them back into the SPL should our plans for an SPL2 either fail to materialise or see the SFL clubs refusing to join?

Incompetence? Nah, this Bankies fan is opting for skullduggery. The only basis for not announcing the club to replace the now defunct Rangers is to leave the door open for Rangers to miraculously reappear in the SPL.

Here, then, is my statement, a statement echoed by many throughout the country in their own ways:

If the new Rangers Football Club start life in anything higher than SFL3 then I shall never attend what is commonly known as a Senior football match again.

I may go to the odd Spartans or Gala Fairydean game, I shall reserve that right as most SPL/SFL clubs regard the East of Scotland League (a Senior League) as having the same status as the ludicrously named Juniors where my team play. I shall oppose any move by my club, Clydebank FC, to rejoin the SFL or some contrived Lowland League swiftly formed to permit Rangers to start in Division One. I shall, sadly, not attend the annual fixture between Dumbarton FC and Clydebank FC but shall, instead, donate the entrance fee to the Bankies.

I have news for all fans of SPL and SFL clubs who will take a similar view. There is life beyond the so-called Senior Leagues. Clydebank, Irvine Meadow, Auchinleck Talbot, Petershill, Ashfield, Linlithgow Rose, Bo'ness, Bonnyrigg Rose, Tayport and so on are all a similar standard to Partick Thistle. Honestly. The difference is those teams are part-time. Oh, and whilst Dumbarton seem to be proposing an admission fee of £23 for themselves versus Morton, Clydebank versus Auchinleck Talbot is £5.

The pictures below sum it up. Happiness is a brand of football called honesty. When we lost our team, we did it properly. We did it the right way. This new fangled way is wrong. It is skullduggery AND incompetence.

'Mon the Bankies.

Gordon Moffat scoring for Clydebank FC - 31st May, 2012.

Chris Mackie scoring for Clydebank FC - 31st May, 2009.