Articles

Sevco And Its Media Allies Want Stewart Regan Fired Over His “Integrity”

|
Image for Sevco And Its Media Allies Want Stewart Regan Fired Over His “Integrity”

Just when you think you’ve heard it all, along comes something like this …

One of the most apt descriptions I ever heard about the tendencies at Ibrox was when someone compared them, to me, as a mad dog that would bite any hand, even the one that was feeding it. For years Regan has protected the denizens of Ibrox, looking the other way, bending regulations, even making new ones up on the cuff … whatever it took on the day.

Now they want his job. Now they want him fired.

Under normal circumstances any move to have Regan ousted would suit me just fine, but these aren’t normal circumstances; this is the Sevco mad dog, turning on those who thought keeping it close would curb its excesses. Like everyone else who’s tried to treat King and his mob with respect – even Ashley did at the start – the SFA chief executive is finding out this morning there is simply no appeasing some people.

Give them a little, they want a lot.

Give them more and they come back for the rest.

Finally there’s nothing more you can do for them … and they destroy you, or they try to.

What balls King and his board have, challenging anyone on integrity.

These people justified the scandalous behaviour of their own criminal fans at Hampden and are now leaning on Regan over the independent report. They ought to take note of that word – independent. This isn’t Lord Nimmo Smith style stuff, hand-picked, his remit limited, secret guarantees given on the side. The SFA gave this guy one simple task; report on procedures and processes during the Cup Final and tell us what lessons we can learn.

There wasn’t much more to it.

There didn’t have to be.

Everyone knows what happened. Hibs fans, exhilarated at their club winning the first Scottish Cup in over 100 years ran onto the pitch to celebrate. Some decided to goad Sevco players, some Sevco fans. The more rabid section of the Ibrox support ran on to challenge them and have a punch-up, incensed at the last minute winner and the sight of celebrating fans wearing green … always a red rag to a bull for these muppets.

Nothing more complicated than that.

All the excuses and pitiful justifications won’t alter it one iota.

The SFA could have done nothing to prevent it and for once they’ve done everything right. I called on them to censure Robertson for his comments in the aftermath, and that may well happen now that the inquiry is done. Regan, doing it right, decided to wait.

When the report was published Sevco released an angry press statement which made no sense to those of us who’d actually read the report. As is typical, they demanded meetings. The SFA said no meeting was ever scheduled. Sevco say they are lying and it’s this that has led to their media arm, The Daily Record, to start questioning whether Regan should be fired.

Regan should be fired, and so should Doncaster, but not over the childish tantrum of a power greedy, arrogant institution which has forgotten its place.

It owes its very existence to this guy, and with no audited accounts, doubts about its financial future and serious questions as to whether its last source of external funding was even legal it exists right now pretty much at his indulgence. I’ve complained about all of those things and suggested that if Regan cares about our game he’ll take action on them … but the SFA remains silent and complicit.

Record Sport has accused Regan of “misleading them” and the Ibrox club over this issue, and they have an even bigger cheek than the club.

Their stock in trade is “misleading” people – outright lying to the layperson – with Ralston’s article, as well as a slew of others by its resident hacks, blowing the Cup Final “riot” out of proportion and even publishing outright bollocks.

Where was the condemnation for the “dressing room source” who told Idiot-in-chief Keith Jackson that “every member of the squad” had been “assaulted” that day?

Wasn’t that misleading?

Not according to their own “standards” of “integrity” because in spite of that story being blown to bits within hours of its publication – by players and their wives no less, absolutely unimpeachable sources – Jackson and his paper allowed it to remain the “official” version of events … scandalous and blatant and insulting the readers and everyone else in Scottish football to, as they put it today, “score cheap points.”

The PR offensive over what we all witnessed on Cup Final day goes on, then, even after an independent report has been published and this is all being done to cow the SFA into taking no further action against their club.

It is shameful that a national newspaper is colluding in this.

But that’s what we’ve come to expect from everyone involved in it.

Regan may or may not have been upfront here; if that man told me the sky was blue I would seek a second opinion and wonder who benefited from a lie. But I would not believe a word that came out of Ibrox or The Daily Record, even with all the “supporting evidence” in the world.

Some of these people have long histories of falsifying stuff.

I’d love it for these people just to get on with tearing each other apart, but we should all be aware of what’s going on here, and that there are no “good guys” in this fight, simply a group of dishonourable toe-rags clawing at each other.

But the delicious and deadly irony is that these are the very people Regan has been protecting and defending and covering for.

They were never going to thank him for it.

In Brendan We Trust.

You can now follow The CelticBlog on Twitter at @The_Celtic_Blog

Share this article