Over on the Scottish Football Monitor site – which is still the most important website in Celtic’s blogosphere – there is a curious post in relation to Hearts.
There was a Question and Answer session between the Jambos Kickback Forum and the Foundation of Hearts Chairman Stuart Wallace, where Wallace was specifically asked about Financial Fair Play and whether the Hearts board – on which Wallace sits as a fan rep – would respond to a scenario where a certain club which did not meet FFP regulations assumed a European spot in spite of clearly being in breach of those rules.
The answer was so vague and redolent of management speak that I can’t help but think that it’s a sign that few in the club are bothered one way or another.
“Stuart stressed that responsibility for day to day footballing matters rests with the football club and the exec team there. However, as a point of principle he sees part of his role as FoH Chair as representing the views of the FoH members generally were he asked to give an opinion.”
And that was the answer.
It’s pretty clear that Stuart Wallace himself would speak out on the matter, but it’s not entirely clear if anybody on the Hearts board would actually support him and insist that something was done about this situation.
Right now, as things stand, the top four clubs in the SPL qualify to play in Europe. That’s Celtic, Aberdeen, Sevco and St Johnstone. Hearts appear out of the race, and it gets worse if their Edinburgh rivals Hibs were to turn the trick and win the Scottish Cup. That would cut the number of places from Premier League teams to three, with only the teams second and third qualifying for the Europa League via the SPL route.
That puts Hearts two places off the pace, and perhaps it’s as simple as that. Perhaps in the name of “sporting integrity” (stop laughing) they don’t want to appear as if they are trying to do off the pitch what they’ve been unable to do on it. I see why a club might be sensitive to that kind of allegation, and the attendant media barrage.
But you know what? Scottish football has been run for too long based only on what happens out on the pitch. There is an entire framework of rules and regulations which underpin what happens out there, and guarantee – or are supposed to guarantee – that the clubs who take part in the games are all following the same guidelines.
Whether it’s the eligibility of the players, the financial wellbeing of the clubs, the merits and relative backgrounds of the directors … these rules aren’t bloody there for convenience sake. They aren’t there to be picked and chosen from depending on what suits the people in the blazers.
This isn’t a buffet where they can decide to have cold cuts one day and the beef stew the next, and garnish either with a selection of whatever takes their fancy … those rules are for everyone, all the time, and if a team was paying its players with drug money nobody would stand for it.
Sevco is spending more than it earns, being funded by soft loans from directors. That violates UEFA’s financial guidelines. If the SFA has not furnished UEFA with information which indicates that their club does not meet that criteria then, with prize money at stake and the potential pot of gold from continental football up for grabs, I would consider that an act of fraud. I mean, it’s no secret. There is not a single person in Scotland who is not aware of this.
UEFA will not ban Sevco from playing in Europe on the basis of this. I’ve taken a good look at this matter and although it’s in their power I very much doubt they’ll do it. But at the start of the article I said that one club will be cheated out of a European place and I stand by that.
If we had FFP guidelines here, Sevco would already be living within its means.
That they are currently struggling at a time when they are financially doped is indicative of how bad the overall strategy of the club is.
But if they were forced to break even, or prove they were moving in that direction, it is not unreasonable to think that Hearts and St Johnstone would occupying third and fourth place at the moment and the whole issue would be rendered moot.
In a very real way, therefore, one of them will be cheated out of European football because FFP regulations have not been applied to this club already.
If the SFA submits an accurate set of figures, if we’re going on past precedent UEFA will insist that Sevco has to meet financial targets to compete in Europe in 2018-19.
That will accomplish what the SPFL, SFA and the clubs has been too soft or complacent to achieve so far, the levelling of the playing field.
If it happens.
But even if it does, once again, this is typical of the people who runs these sides and the governing bodies themselves. This is hoping someone else steps up to do the job. That job should have been done already, with our top flight voluntarily adopting FFP across the board. Certain clubs are clearly opposed to this measure; it is unconscionable that no vote has ever been taken on the matter at the SPFL or the SFA, and I can only conclude it’s because some people don’t want one.
St Johnstone are actually the club most directly affected by this, as it stands.
They are the club in fourth. Should Celtic, as expected, win the Scottish Cup, they would qualify for Europe in the final spot. If Hibs win the trophy they, too, are being massively disenfranchised by the cheating at Ibrox, and I have no trouble calling it exactly that.
Their board of directors has not raised a murmur over this issue.
Do they give a damn?
It has been suggested to me that clubs won’t act because the matter has been largely decided as far as next season goes, but you know what? That’s nonsense. Sevco got to the Scottish Cup final last year and had been promoted on a lot of bombast and hot air about “overinvestment” and King promising to spend tens of millions; it was fanciful garbage but nobody can ever say this was a club that promised to run its affairs right.
Sevco has been in existence since 2012.
It has posted significant annual debts in every single year since.
It has never pretended that it will change its ways. As long as there is a mug willing to pay the bills they will keep on spending what they do not have and other clubs will continue being screwed over by that. It’s those clubs who have to take a stand.
Those who point the finger at Celtic and ask what we’ve done, I say this to you; stop looking for scapegoats for your own inaction. My club is completely unaffected by this. I agree that’s not an excuse for standing aside; we should be leading reform and it cheeses me off that we don’t try to. But I do not believe Celtic would be opposed to such rules if they were brought up and put to a vote, as our club runs on a break-even basis anyway.
This falls to the rest of the league, the teams whose fans buy season tickets every year on the basis that what we have in this country is a game run fairly and for the benefit of all clubs.
Neither the SPFL or the SFA is going to do this willingly.
It is as simple as that.
When Sevco is granted a European license for next season the blame will not lie at Ibrox; those are the most unscrupulous men in British football. They are doing what I’d expect of them. The blame will not lie at Hampden, unless Sevco has lied and they SFA either accepted those lies or are knowingly lying with them. And even then I will not completely blame Regan and his cohort for it.
The blame lies with Aberdeen and St Johnstone and Hearts and Inverness and Ross County and the other clubs who make up the SPL or who have been in that league these past five years.
Nobody didn’t see this coming.
This has been flagged again and again and again since Sevco reached the Championship and was one season away from the top flight.
I literally don’t know what these clubs are waiting for before the act.
I honestly do not know how their fans can buy those season tickets to watch an obvious fraud.
Their clubs have surrendered a clean game to one run by cheats, in which they themselves are clear victims.
Does anybody even give a damn?