As a fan of a football club that was hours from extinction my heart goes out to Glasgow Rangers fans. No fan loyal to a club wants to go through the helplessness of watching a thing they love fall apart and possibly disappear due to the bad management of others.
In modern day football there are too many rich men who want to be involved with the game for the wrong reasons. Often it is purely ego driven, and for others football is the vehicle to open doors for their business. Sometimes it is simply a grab for the real estate on which the club stands and the goal is to move them and make money. In all such cases the venture is doomed for failure and the ones who lose out are the loyal fans.
Rangers fans now have to wait on the benevolence of their fellow Scottish Premier League clubs as to whether they be allowed to continue albeit as a very different club but trading under the same name in the top flight of Scottish Football.
There is an SPL board meeting at Hampden on Monday to discuss the league’s inquiry into alleged dual contracts at Rangers. A vote may well be taken then but depends on whether a new company can be formed by then. A more realistic target would be the AGM next month, and all eleven clubs can vote then.
For the sake of Scottish football one feels that Rangers should be made to start again, and that may sound harsh and will no doubt upset many a Rangers fan. The club which is, and probably will soon again be one of the leading lights in Scottish Football needs time to regroup, it also cannot be seen to be getting special dispensation just because of its heritage. There is a right way of doing things and due to gross mismanagement they did not do things properly and they must pay the price.
It would do Scottish football good to have Rangers playing in a league against the likes of Alloa, Arbroath and Airdrie. When would they have last all played in the same division? It will inject interest into the lower divisions, and could give Scotland’s football competition the jumpstart it so desperately needs.
Add to that the Scottish Premier League will no longer be a two horse race and once again the game and the competition will benefit. Sometimes out of the bleakest situations comes huge positives, and as much as Rangers fans will not be seeing it at the moment, this could in fact be the moment that revived Scottish Football. It may well be a moment in twenty years time when Scotland are once again playing in the European Championships they can pinpoint interest in the game being revived.
As for Fans of Rangers stick with your team if they play in the lower echelons for a couple of seasons, think of the good you will be doing the game as a whole, and lay the foundations for a more stable future. Manchester City were in the depths of English football but they have risen again. Their fans stuck with them the whole time and now they are enjoying deservedly their moment in the sun, as you will again down the track.
Guys thanks for your comments but I hope that it will not be a one horse race and that it will encourage other clubs that they now can achieve what their fans have longed fro a long time.
However there is a good argument to restructure etch game in this area. I long for Scottish football to be strong again and the envy of Britain as it was when I was growing up!!! All the best strikers were Scottish.
“Add to that the Scottish Premier League will no longer be a two horse race” – nope, it will not be a race at all because only one team will be ‘competing’.
I think Rangers should take this moment to walk away from Scotland and apply for the conference in England – talk about interest then!
GRFC – the canary in the coal mine of world football. SPL no longer a 2 horse race and now is going to be a one horse race and about as enthralling as football is in places like Iceland and Malta. SPL organisational hierarchy should be dissolved for letting things get this bad.
Well Said !!!!!