Neil Doncaster, the Chef Executive of the Scottish Premier League, has talked of the way in which a new club formed after the liquidation of Rangers FC PLC (in administration) could be admitted to the top league.
But to do so would fundamentally alter the nature of Scottish football– and should be opposed by all who value sporting integrity.
Doncaster was quoted as saying he was “baffled” that no one could understand that a Newco and a CVA are in fact pretty much the same thing.
Now, I’m pretty sure that Neil Doncaster knows exactly why a company achieving a CVA – an agreement with its creditors – is not at all the same as a company being liquidated and an entirely new and separate company being formed to buy its assets. He has had legal training after all.
No, this is all an attempt to get around the squaring the circle argument I’ve mentioned several times. A new company has to look new enough to avoid getting landed with the old debts, but at the same time it must appear old enough to retain the history and the honours of Rangers, such as they are.
A totally new club would have no difficulty avoiding any debts or penalties. Why would it be liable for anything to do with a totally different company? But then how could it avoid starting at the bottom of the league structure like all other new clubs?
There is simply no process in place by which a brand new club can join the SPL. Read the rules. Read the football licensing policies. It can’t happen.
On the other hand, if it is argued that this new club deserves a place in the SPL by right, as it is really Rangers in new clothes, how can it walk away from the debts that have been run up?
Doncaster’s solution to this issue seems to be that the new club could be allowed into the SPL if it agrees to some entry conditions. These would not be penalties for the past, you understand – that was all a different club. They would be the price that the new club must pay for being allowed to join the SPL.
What he means in reality is that a new club could be allowed to buy its way into the SPL.
If the new club agrees to, perhaps, a lesser share of revenue and maybe some points deductions over a couple of seasons it could skip the queue of established football clubs that would love to join the SPL. It could avoid the whole tedious gaining promotion business and simply purchase a place in the top division.
Now at this point we more to a franchise model rather than a sporting pyramid one.
In the same manner as so called “expansion” teams in the NFL can buy their way into the league when additional places are created, this new football club could, we are told, simply agree an entry fee and then play in the SPL.
But such a process would fundamentally change the nature of our game. No longer would the top division be made up of the twelve clubs that had earned a right to be there on the basis of their football results. No, it would include a side that was there simply because it was willing to pay the entrance price.
Now introducing such a system would logically lead us to a number of questions.
Could Dundee, or indeed anyone else that fancies it, decide to make a bid to replace another SPL club? What about non league teams? If one of them managed to get itself a rich patron, could it then make an offer? Would the SPL place be up for auction to the highest bidder?
Or would this proposed route exist for one new club and one new club only? In which case the game also changes fundamentally – but in a very different way.
This summer Scottish football will stand at a cusp. A point in history where the future direction of the game will be decided. There are two competing forces in conflict here: sporting integrity and money. And those who run our game must make a choice.
Does our game become one where places in the SPL can be bought and sold?
Or does it reject the new club and set its stall out as a game with sporting integrity at its core?
If ranjurs are admitted back to SPL, albeit the notion is fantasy, I would love all those SPL clubs voting against them, plus the entire SFL to simply abolish their SFA, SPL, SFL memberships and reform. This would leave them and their lapdogs with no league, no money, no hope. That’s the true price of their integrity. Cheating, deceitful, remorseless, and that’s just McCoist….
Doncaster has established beyond a reasonable doubt that he is not up to the job.
It’s hard to say what his greatest fault is. It could be his complete lack of comprehension of the notion of fairness. It may be his absolute inability to realise how strongly supporters of every other club feel about his efforts to get Rangers* off the hook. It might also be his utter stupidity in thinking that if he ignores the scale of Rangers wrongdoing then everyone else will too. Another flaw would be that he has never exhibited any discernible leadership qualities whatsoever. But I think the one that tops the lot is his abject cowardice, best exemplified by the fact that he still hasn’t released the damning results of the SPL investigation into the dual contracts scandal.
If only his departure could be backdated to the day before he arrived.
We are a country in moral decline and money is and always will be the root cause. Rangers will survive while others struggle to make ends meet, will they care……not one bit. They will enter the SPL as a new co. And too f**k with everyone else. The clubs that vote against them will be villified and treated like scum all because they did the right thing……..and do you think rangers will care, as long as scotland and its governement have rangers, the world too them is a better place.
I have so many questions in my head about this highly suspicious saga. When he first arrived in Scotland Doncaster looked and sounded like someone who was going to be strong and play by the book. Well, all that seems to have changed. He looks and sounds like a man that has been ‘got at’ by some dark forces behind the scenes to remind him of what he is dealing with here as well as the ‘punishments’ and ‘rewards’ that could form the outcome for making ”correct” or ”unwise” decisions. Does the SFA, SPL, have too many skeletons in the cupboard to come down on Wrankers the way it should come down on them? Have the SFA and SPL been involved in too many underhand deals and collusions to make the right decision for fear of the ‘ spill the beans backlash’ that could come from making such a decision? The SFA links with Wrankers over the past decades has been ”unhealthy” to say the least. It seems to me that this is no longer just about football any more and anyone who thinks that it is is kidding themselves or is missing the point. This is now about the survival of the establishments ideology manifest into one single football club in Govan against what they see as the outsiders trying to interfere and influence the elite of the powerful and the privileged in Scotland. They seem to be saying…just who is it that is running Scotland nowadays…US or THEM? However, I do think that they have underestimated the range of the forces that are lined up against their shenanigans and will ignore them at their peril. It is indeed a watershed for Scottish football the outcome of which will decide if the dwindelling football supporters decise to ” do walking away” or if sporting integrity wins over corruption and the dawn of a new era is on the horizon to bring hope to Scotland for new generations to come. I still have so many questions!
Sporting integrity or money?
If the choice is money then you end up where Rangers FC PLC iA are now.
If its sporting integrity then money from TV and gate receipts will be there as well. If sporting integrity is abandoned then we will have chancers like Craig White (Whyte) and money from sources that are laundered.
The choice is easy!
Thanks for the comments folks. Not much love for a new club in the SPL here!
Absolute fantastic article and I am very impressed with the comments too.
“A new company has to look new enough to avoid getting landed with the old debts, but at the same time it must appear old enough to retain the history
and the honours of Rangers, such as they are”.
Spot on!
Makes you wonder what would happen if either half of the Old Infirm had such a shocker of a season (by stunt of fair refereeing perhaps?) that they finished last. Bet what you like that they’d be a quick move to a 16 team league. And less improbable, what would a bottom six finish for one do to a TV deal that assumes 4 OF derbies a season?