13 July 2012

So farewell then Rangers

The overwhelming decision by Scottish Football League clubs to accept a newly formed club called Rangers to replace the now defunct Rangers (1872) is a victory for sporting integrity and common sense.  The new Rangers will start at the bottom of the league - like any other new entrant to Scottish football.

Scottish football authorities have been trying to shoehorn a new club into the upper echelons of the league to preserve as much of the failed status quo as possible and may well not take this latest 'no' for an answer.  They shouldn't bother - the vast majority of Scottish football fans want Rangers (who afterall went belly up owing the public £80 million in unpaid taxes) to be treated like anyone else.

A competent management shouldn't be trying to rewrite history they should be adapting to the new reality - financial and otherwise - and act for the best interest of all involved in the game.  These people have overseen a slide down the international rankings of the national team, the collapse of several not particularly generous TV deals and have refused to restructure the game to prevent the slide into mediocrity.  Until now.

But a restructure is needed - not just to save one half of the poisonous duo that have dominated Scottish football for more than a hundred years.  And it is clear that Neil Doncaster and Stewart Regan - the not so dynamic duo who have been trying to force the reformed Rangers up the league structure - are now so damaged (35 out of the 42 clubs in Scotland rejected their advances) that they should resign.

Out of this crisis should come a plan for the long term future of all Scottish football - overseen by people with the best interests of the game at heart.

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