Sevco Managing Director Snubbed In SPFL Election Bid

Stewart Robertson, the new managing director of Sevco, has failed in his bid to be elected to the SPFL board today.

Ann Budge also lost out in her bid to become an executive member.

This is a blow not only to the Ibrox NewCo but to their allies in the media, who are already spinning it as a bad thing for Scottish football.

Ewan Murray, tweeting only minutes after the announcement, called it “very poor”, lamenting that the new people hadn’t been given a chance.

“Even if you don’t accept all the “new” options, take a couple of them on ffs,” he said.

It’s pretty clear which of the “new options” he is most angry at being denied a seat.

Surprisingly, Hibs’ very impressive Rob Petrie also failed to get elected, with the lower leagues (including the Championship) now represented by Mike Mulraney (Alloa Athletic), Ken Ferguson (Brechin City) and the redoubtable, honourable Eric Drysdale (Raith Rovers).

The SPL reps are Duncan Fraser (Aberdeen), Eric Riley (Celtic) and Stephen Thompson (Dundee Utd).

These changes, voted through by the clubs, will now come in for serious media criticism, especially in light of the campaign by members of the press to have Sevco represented at the top table, with the hacks hiding behind that old familiar “for the good of Scottish football” refrain.

This site spoke last week about that media campaign, and in particular a report in The Daily Record which was typically haughty and dismissive of the “wee clubs” whilst suggesting that Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs and Sevco should all have permanent seats around the table as if it was Scottish footballs own UN Security Council.

This contempt for democracy, and this insistence that Scottish football should be run by the “big teams” may well have been a contributing factor in today’s humiliation for three of those sides.

I said, in that earlier piece, that if the Sevco managing director went into that meeting with the same arrogant attitude as was in The Daily Record article (and previous statements from Paul Murray suggest strongly that this was exactly the mind-set they were taking with them) that it would backfire drastically … and that’s exactly what seems to have happened.

Scottish football governance is serious business, although you would sometimes not know that to see the people who’ve been in charge of it.

The notion that any part of it should be in the hands of a representative from a club with no auditor, no NOMAD, who have been kicked off the Stock Market and with two men at the helm who ought never to have passed the “fit and proper” test, one of whom is a tax criminal, is frankly ridiculous.

The media appears to think otherwise.

The clubs, on the other hand, seem to agree … and theirs are the voices that count.

This is a victory for good sense, and good governance.

It is a slap in the face to those who are still fused with the notion that being based out of Ibrox automatically entitles people to something.

Long may this continue.

Scottish football will be the better for it.