Inside the Big Bad Hoose
As the Rangers saga moves into what – Act 345? some congratulations are in order for the Scottish FA in publishing its recent deliberations into what Rangers was really like under the ownership of Craig Whyte. Or to their tribunal for insisting their deliberations are published, which is not quite the same thing. You will recall this hearing led to Mr Whyte – former Rangers owner and still the major shareholder – being banned for life from Scottish football . The club itself is banned for a year from buying players and fined £160,000.
The appeal against all this will now be heard on Wednesday and I understand we will get a decision that day on whether or not to uphold – or indeed increase – these punishments which Rangers manager Ally McCoist has deemed unfair.
The Rt Honourable Lord Carloway (Chair) Craig Graham and Allan Cowan will be on the three-man tribunal.
The SFA has said they must be free to do their job without fear of intimidation: “It is essential that these panel members are allowed to conduct the appeal without fear of intimidation and we respectfully ask all involved in the process to do their utmost to observe our wishes and the wishes of the panel members.”
Intimidation which happened after the same Ally McCoist demanded that the identity of SFA Tribunal members should be made public. It’s not yet clear if the SFA will pursue that potential breach of conduct with Mr McCoist. But it says everything about Glasgow football culture that anyone should be threatened in any situation and that police advice should need to be sought. Which century are we in again?
And what emerges from the notes duly released this morning after the initial hearing on Rangers which led to those sanctions is astonishing stuff.
The panel considers Rangers Football Club has gone so far off the financial rails that: “the tribunal considered whether it should terminate Rangers FC’s membership of the Scottish FA and concluded that punishment was too severe.”
Notorious culture
Indeed the panel felt the offences were so serious that “only match fixing might be a more serious breach”. And they go out of their way to say that directors had to have known what was going on. The age-old Rangers defence for years going back past Craig Whyte’s ownership to Sir David Murray’s that ‘we didn’t know’ and ‘we weren’t told’ or ‘we left it all to the chairman’ is clearly not convincing this panel. That strikes a blow to the heart of Rangers’ notorious culture for passing the buck whilst winning glory with money it did not have and potentially millions which should have gone to the taxman.
The tribunal talks of the ‘scandalous business activities’ of Craig Whyte – who deems this entire process ‘a joke’ accusing the SFA of never giving him a chance to put his case and of judging him and punishing him without proper due process.
Channel 4 News uncovers the web of connections showing a club in crisis
These are legal brains taking what one must presume is a dispassionate look at a football club which had lost all norms of proper governance under the Craig Whyte ownership and people knew it was happening and did nothing about it. All of which makes the simple and childish scapegoating of Craig Whyte wrong in principle, wrong in fact and wrong in law. Craig Whyte is not the only baddie in all this and the club management more widely, stands roundly condemned here.
Lunatic fringe
And that is why those who say – and there are many of them – that the club cannot and should not be held responsible for Craig Whyte’s actions, are laid bare in all this for what they are – cowards who refuse to face the facts, the truth and the hard reality that Rangers went catastrophically wrong and that is Rangers’ responsibility and nobody else’s – chairmen and directors.
Foremost among those, because of his recent words and actions, must be the current managers of Rangers, Ally McCoist. Who questioned very openly the independence of this inquiry and whose actions in demanding identities be made public were followed by threats from the lunatic fringe. This should be a time for reflection and introspection within at Rangers Mr McCoist, not simply more of the loud, boorish fingerpointing without. Not likely to help Rangers appeal these punishments. Not likely to help Rangers at all.
On Wednesday the appeal will be heard. The gravity of what is at stake for Rangers is clear for all to see. Be in no doubt this appeal is able to increase punishments handed down to the club as well as reduce them.
Alex is on Twitter, follow him via @alextommo