They say there used to be football in Scotland...
I 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