The great SFA swindle

By GWG

In a week that saw the death of Malcolm McClaren the creator of the Punk Rock era, a era that was not to everyone’s liking but still a man of great genius who was able to promote some pretty dire bands making them into household names and paving the way for other more talented musicians to further that style of music. McClaren knew exactly what he was doing and years later he produced the film “The Great Rock-n-Roll Swindle” which told the real story behind his creation and how he conned the music world and the media into accepting what was total rubbish, he set out to prove that if you have the people at your disposal you can sell anything and this he done extremely well.

Which bring us to the “Great SFA Swindle”

The successful era’s of Martin O’Neill and Gordon Strachan which seen six titles won from 2001 to 2008 with Celtic in the driving seat both financially and on the playing field whilst across the river in Govan Rangers were in meltdown with a chairman that had sold the crown jewels and every asset of any worth, many of us predicted armageddon was just around the corner with David Murray putting all his (and others peoples) eggs in one basket and lo and behold it happened, the Bank of Scotland, Glasgow Rangers and David Murray’s traditional bankers who had bankrolled them at their customers expense for decades giving them everything they asked for suddenly went to the wall with the English Halifax bank originally a building society taking up the reins and the debt at that time was a staggering 650 million for the Murray group of companies, give or take a few quid, even then it was clear that the new “English” bankers wanted their money with the interest paid on the set periods if that wasn’t bad enough for Murray the big bombshell came with the collapse of the banking world and the slump in property where Murray had put all his eggs into, suddenly his debt had rocketed to a unbelievable 750+ million with assets worth only half of that debt armageddon indeed. But more trouble was around the corner in the shape of Lloyds banking group who through taxpayers money was induced to take over Murray’s debt including 31 odd million owed by Rangers FC the figure of 31 million is what is ONLY owed to Lloyds and indeed there are other debts to finance institutions and other creditors bringing the total debt owed by Rangers to a figure nearer the 40+ million mark.
For a institution like Rangers they must have financial clout and to get that clout they must be successful in the game and the only way they can be successful in the game is to come out from behind Celtic’s shadow, this process began in June 2007 when ex Rangers player and former agent Gordon (Smudger) Smith was unelected to the high office of chief executive of the SFA a appointment that was somewhat staggering considering he had no experience in the administration of the game and has now been seen by recent events no knowledge of the rules of the game, many of us at that time voiced our objections to him holding the reins of power in a organisation that even then was pro Rangers, more was to follow.

2008 saw another questionable appointment to the SFA inner circle. Martin Bain was appointed a director to the SFA which is a limited company and is governed by the certain rules and regulations one being a director must be a responsible and a able person to oversee his duties as a director, part of his profile reads:

Martin Bain joined Rangers in 1996 and held a variety of roles including Commercial Director and Director of Football Business before being made Chief Executive in February 2005.

A Director since 2001, Bain has brokered many of the Club’s major deals in sponsorship, media rights and player acquisitions.

As Chief Executive he is now responsible to the Board, shareholders and supporters for the overall running of all Club operations, as well as strategic development.

Martin Bain sits on the Board of the SPL, which is responsible for corporate governance, strategic development, the delivery of the SPL objectives and the application of the SPL Rules.

Martin is also a member of the Marketing and Communication Group of the European Club Association.

The European Club Association is the authoritative, independent voice of European Club Football and it currently represents 144 top European football clubs.

If you go by this man’s previous record, a record that indicates overspending and carelessness with other peoples money (Banks)

Overseeing of assets being sold off.

Responsible for the dross that their club signed.

In fact this sentence say’s it all about him “Bain has brokered many of the Club’s major deals in sponsorship, media rights and player acquisitions.”

So what is the SFA doing appointing another man clearly not capable of bringing progress to Scottish football, the answer may lie in his brief at the SFA “Martin Bain sits on the Board of the SPL, which is responsible for corporate governance, strategic development, the delivery of the SPL objectives and the application of the SPL Rules“

So now we have two “Rangers” men holding the highest office’s in the national association but it doesn’t stop there, enter the head of communications one Darryl Broadfoot yes the same self confessed Rangers man who’s quest in his previous life as a journalist ( and a poor one at that) was to blacking everything Celtic and promote all things nice and beautiful for ‘ra Gers’.
Getting the picture? There’s more.

Hugh Dallas. And this is the most obvious one of the all. “Head of Refereeing Development” now this guy is the complete megalomaniac with dictates left, right and centre mostly about anyone’s right to question his declarations or his now discredited referee’s, this guy should not be under estimated he is the enforcer of this discredited and corrupt organisation, it’s his appointments to over ambitious referees that set the benchmark for what is expected and he makes Don Corleone look like a really honest guy. Dallas’s strategic placing of Stuart Dougal as a columnist on the propaganda rag The Daily Record is seen by some as a master stroke that nullifies any criticism that would come from dubious refereeing and there has been plenty!
The Dougal opinionated column in the Record is a total joke and has been exposed as such, shouldn’t be long now before he’s released to carry on with his grand tour of Scottish Orange halls.

So there we have the swindle all set up nicely over the past two years, obtain total power and you can CONvince anyone that it’s for the good of the game, the latest in this farce is Smudger Smith making statements that the rules will be changed for next season and it’s been an ongoing change over the past few years but in the meantime an apology should be enough to satisfy the punters, a bit like Basil Fawlty’s “Im So Sorry”
But wait a minute, the rules are to be changed to a three man panel that will oversee contentious decisions the panel made up with a ex-manager / ex-player / and a member of the public,

I give you John Gregg / Mark Hateley / and David Edgar. Watch this space.