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At the moment, there is a backlash against Rangers. The thing is that right now it’s very difficult to identify what constitutes ‘Rangers’. Large-scale mismanagement by Mister David Murray eventually led to the liquidation of the company behind the football club I grew up supporting. So has the blame been directed towards Mr Murray? The trouble is that he was only visible at Rangers for the successful times. Once finances openly became a problem, he sidestepped things and appointed John McLelland as chairman.
Under pressure from Lloyds, Murray then sold on the club to Craig Whyte. A man whose purchase of the club is now under police investigation so is hard to discuss. His running of the club isn’t really in question though…withdrawing PAYE from employees wages and not passing it on is fairly straightforward in its cynicism.
Whyte then won the right from the courts to choose the administrators appointed to run the club…and in came Duff & Phelps. A potential conflict of interest and their handling of that is now being investigated…so again, it’s hard to comment. It was D&P who oversaw the sale of the eventually liquidated company’s assets to Charles Green. A man with involvement in 14 dissolved companies behind him (Figure: Daily Record 15/05/2012), who named a businessman as a financial backer who was neither his backer in financial nor moral support terms, and whose lack of communication has been said to have contributed to an exodus of first-team players from the club.
Charles Green and new chairman Malcolm Murray have today apologised for Rangers’ conduct and the effect that it has had on Scottish football. Somebody did need to apologise and show some remorse…the trouble is that none of their predecessors have done so. Scottish football is rightly left looking for somebody to chastise…but the only consistent figures around the club are the fans.
As a Rangers fan, I’ve said before that I think the only way the club can move on is to accept blame for things done wrong, take relegation to the third division, and start again. However, when I say that, I feel it with regard to David Murray’s time as proprietor. A complicated position to take as the outcomes of the ‘Big Tax Case’ and the SFA’s ‘Dual Contract’ investigation have still to be known. I feel we should take the hit on those because we celebrated the results. I bounced up and down with delight watching top quality players winning trophies. If I took the high…I have to take the low.
With Craig Whyte, it becomes more complicated. This didn’t feel like something I was (even unknowingly as with DM) complicit in. I worried that a shyster had come in and then I watched as a season collapsed and administrators came in. Whyte refused to accept any responsibility (last quote I saw he was still talking about how much he’d improved Rangers’ situation – very much from the Harold Shipman school of treatment).
As with his predecessor, Whyte skipped out…and the people left to soak up the blame on their own are the Rangers fans. Unfortunately, from that point on, the tit-for-tat effect has meant that things have degenerated. Fans of other clubs have pointed to a lack of contrition…while Rangers fans mourning the abuse of their own club as much as of the game in general have been frustrated by the ability to recognise that they haven’t escaped the effects of the wrongdoing.
It’s now become Rangers fans v fans of all other Scottish clubs. Over what? Over the sins of the past. So what do fans of other clubs want? They want Rangers to start again in the 3rd division. What do Rangers fans want? They want the club to do whatever it has to do start again, begin generating momentum, and atone for the sins of the past. Which is probably best achieved by being in the 3rd division.
What do Rangers fans want other clubs to do? They want any hypocrisy in calling out the (undeniable) self-interest and mismanagement of Rangers to be shown up. They want Scottish football clubs putting the boot in to be subject to the same highs & lows of a newly fair and financially well administered Scottish game as they are. What do fans of other clubs want? They want their club to do the right thing whatever financial effect it has on them.
How would either side react if one wished the other’s club dead and hoped that they’d be lost to the game? They’d consider it poisonous and repellent.
Do you remember what I said about football fans having a lot in common?
Directors, Chairmen, Chief Execs, Office bearers…they’ve all contributed with varying degrees of malevolence, cynicism, greed (the office holders at Ibrox most of all)…or just laziness and ineptitude, to a situation in which Scottish football is apparently financially unsustainable without the top-flight presence of one club or now even with the top-flight presence of one club.
Rangers fans didn’t do that, the people running their club did. And the people running your club let them.
I hope we all have clubs left to support by the end of this season…and I hope that you feel the same.
Here’s to a fair and financially sensible Scottish game that we can have a chat about together in the car.
Possible?
Peace.
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About the Author
Twice runner-up in Scottish Comedian of the Year finals, Teddy was named ‘Best Up and Coming Comedian’ at the Scottish Variety Awards in 2010. He’s written for two BBC Radio 5 ‘Unsporting Reviews of the Year’, and has also worked as both writer and script editor on the BBC1 Scotland football shows ‘Offside’ & ‘Only An Excuse?’. He’s been a Rangers season-ticket holder for the past 17 years, but he’s all about the football not “all that other shite”. Also has a fondness for Dynamo Kyiv that can be traced back to an unhealthy obsession with Alexei Mikhailitchenko (or Oleksiy Mykhalychenko if you prefer to transliterate from the Ukrainian rather than the Russian. That’s the unhealthy obsession we’re talking about.)
“brilliant Scottish comic” Kate Copstick, Scotland on Sunday
“Head, shoulders, knees and toes above the rest…mighty stage presence and impressively high punchline ratio” Brian Donaldson, Scotsman
“freshly minted topical gags…pin-sharp lines…great routine…a class act” Steve Bennett, Chortle.co.uk
“has flourished…cracking lines” Jay Richardson, Scotsman
