They say there used to be football in Scotland...
Wednesday, July 4th, 2012 04:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caddymanI have to say that I am no expert in football finances, by a very long chalk, but the decision reported on the BBC News website that the SPL (Scottish Premier League) have voted to deny entry to the newly reincorporated Rangers rather looks like a triumph of stupidity.
I accept that there should be some kind of punishment for breaking the rules and rangers broke the rules and themselves big time when they amassed debts of what, £130million plus..? As a consequence they were punished by the SPL (and or the Scottish FA) by having a significant points deduction in the 2011-12 season that effectively ended their title challenge and were prohibited from making any moves in the transfer market other than to unload players.
Now to me, that all seems like a hefty punishment.
When the new owners of the club restructure it in an attempt to resolve the position, or at least to begin the moves to putting the club on an even keel, it seems rather churlish to decide that a simple re-registration in Companies House (or whatever the Scottish equivalent is called) is enough to force the team out of the SPL. The existing sanctions are quite enough to make life hard for the club as it is, but they have a fighting chance on the back of their fanatical support bringing in the crowds and income that will keep them alive – and enhance the coffers of other Scottish football clubs too, at least in the various cup competitions.
I’m not sure how gate income is divvied up north of the border. I know that in England it has been the case for over 20 years that football clubs keep their own gate receipts for league games (an example, I recall, of the top flight giving everyone else the financial finger), but in the FA and League Cups, I am reasonably sure that some gate monies are shared around. If that’s true and is the same in Scotland, the short-sightedness of the SPL members may come back to haunt them big time and quite quickly.
The TV deals will suffer, too, surely. Scottish football is already the poor relation compared with the English Premiership. Does anyone seriously think that Saint Rupert’s Death Star Broadcasting Company will cough up more money for the TV rights to a Rangers-lite SPL that only has Celtic as a perennial European contender? I very much doubt it. And without Rangers to spark off, where will Celtic get the year in, year out competition they need? Sure, other clubs rise to the top for short periods, but Celtic and rangers ain’t called the Auld Firm for nothing.
I would have liked to have seen more Scottish football on UK telly; I think it’s been neglected (and I’m not even Scottish, so I don’t have the requisite chip on my shoulder about it), but I think in looking to the possibilities of a couple of teams that are not Rangers having a shot at European competition over the next two or three years, the Scots, or at least those in charge of the SPL may have just nuked their domestic game beyond repair, if they don’t reconsider quickly.
Rangers fans will never become Celtic fans, and are unlikely to switch allegiance to any other SPL team in the short term.
Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe football fans do see the game as the commodity so many TV and Club Executives try to sell it as. But I don’t think so.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18703183
I accept that there should be some kind of punishment for breaking the rules and rangers broke the rules and themselves big time when they amassed debts of what, £130million plus..? As a consequence they were punished by the SPL (and or the Scottish FA) by having a significant points deduction in the 2011-12 season that effectively ended their title challenge and were prohibited from making any moves in the transfer market other than to unload players.
Now to me, that all seems like a hefty punishment.
When the new owners of the club restructure it in an attempt to resolve the position, or at least to begin the moves to putting the club on an even keel, it seems rather churlish to decide that a simple re-registration in Companies House (or whatever the Scottish equivalent is called) is enough to force the team out of the SPL. The existing sanctions are quite enough to make life hard for the club as it is, but they have a fighting chance on the back of their fanatical support bringing in the crowds and income that will keep them alive – and enhance the coffers of other Scottish football clubs too, at least in the various cup competitions.
I’m not sure how gate income is divvied up north of the border. I know that in England it has been the case for over 20 years that football clubs keep their own gate receipts for league games (an example, I recall, of the top flight giving everyone else the financial finger), but in the FA and League Cups, I am reasonably sure that some gate monies are shared around. If that’s true and is the same in Scotland, the short-sightedness of the SPL members may come back to haunt them big time and quite quickly.
The TV deals will suffer, too, surely. Scottish football is already the poor relation compared with the English Premiership. Does anyone seriously think that Saint Rupert’s Death Star Broadcasting Company will cough up more money for the TV rights to a Rangers-lite SPL that only has Celtic as a perennial European contender? I very much doubt it. And without Rangers to spark off, where will Celtic get the year in, year out competition they need? Sure, other clubs rise to the top for short periods, but Celtic and rangers ain’t called the Auld Firm for nothing.
I would have liked to have seen more Scottish football on UK telly; I think it’s been neglected (and I’m not even Scottish, so I don’t have the requisite chip on my shoulder about it), but I think in looking to the possibilities of a couple of teams that are not Rangers having a shot at European competition over the next two or three years, the Scots, or at least those in charge of the SPL may have just nuked their domestic game beyond repair, if they don’t reconsider quickly.
Rangers fans will never become Celtic fans, and are unlikely to switch allegiance to any other SPL team in the short term.
Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe football fans do see the game as the commodity so many TV and Club Executives try to sell it as. But I don’t think so.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18703183
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-04 06:13 pm (UTC)Scottish football is notoriously harsh on clubs that break financial rules, especially when compared to its English counterparts, and had they not treated Rangers likewise all integrity would have been lost. Added to that is the increasing spite felt by the non-Old Firm clubs against Celtic and Rangers because of their increasing noises about leaving to join the Premiership/Football League/"Atlantic League"/whoever else will have them and it is inevitable that the clubs will take an opportunity to kick either club when they can.
As to the TV money they have actually been shrewd on this as they agreed a long-term bigger money deal last winter and Rangers will be well back in the fold before that comes up for renewal. There will be the loss of one or two marginally increased gates from the Rangers visit but it will make less than a difference than one might think as attendances outside the Old Firm are so low that they generate nowhere near enough income to sustain the clubs anyway and all the Old Firm only add a couple of thousand at the turnstiles these days rather than than the 10 or 12 they used to. Income has been falling for these clubs for several years and would most likely have continued to with or without Rangers because it is basically a two horse race and there is only so long you can sustain interest in trying to finish third until people get sick of it. This is something the Premier League might have to think about in the future if its super rich clubs start to pull away from the rest too much. Also on the plus side, if Rangers pay two visits to places like Central Park, Cowdenbeath and the DL Stadium, Dumbarton next season the couple of thousand they add to the gate will triple or even quadruple it for what are very sparsely supported clubs and will bring in a significant financial boost to these part timers so one of the Old Firm might even give something back to the Scottish game after taking so much.
Personally I think it is a good decision as it shows no club is above the law. If it encourages more clubs to be prudent and not just throw bad money after good then maybe there will be fewer going the way that Gretna, Airdrie and Clydebank did and the way that Dundee and Livingston so nearly did. Perhaps if the Premier League did it a bit more there wouldn't be basket cases like Portsmouth living from hand to mouth every year.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-04 10:34 pm (UTC)We shall see. I hope your view is more accurate than my dark forebodings.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-05 12:18 am (UTC)Other countries have done it before, with Fiorentina and Napoli both being relegated in similar circumstances, as well as Stade de Reims in France who didn't recover like the other two. Rangers will be back and Scottish football will survive but regardless of any of this football in Scotland has been crippled by the recession. The same thing happened in the 1920s and as a result a whole division was abandoned mid-season and stalwart clubs like the original Clydebank, Vale of Leven and St Bernards disappeared with the Old Firm still riding high so alas Scottish football being on the brink is nothing new.