STV News did all of Scottish football a big favour tonight when they pursued Alastair Johnston, who was recently appointed to the Sevco board, for one of the decisions he made whilst at Ibrox, namely the offering of an “illegal contract” to Martin Bain.
Johnston laughed this off as if it wasn’t a big deal.
He attempted to explain it away. His explanation was scandalous; it was to give “piece of mind” to Bain, that he would get the value of that deal come what may. In other words, although “not legally enforceable” Johnston told the reporter that he would have enforced it anyway.
This speaks volumes about the cavalier attitude of this guy, and everyone who served at that club. Laws and rules and regulations are followed when that is convenient. When it isn’t they are ignored or broken as circumstances require. You could not get a better example of the sort of judgement that Fit and Proper Person regulations are designed to exclude from the running of football clubs.
When I asked earlier today why The Daily Record twisted the words of Neil Doncaster to suggest that robust new regulations exist, when none do, I pondered why they would have done this; in hindsight the answer is obvious. Johnston doesn’t qualify, not even close.
The idea that Scottish football governance has been tightened since Whyte is ridiculous. The Record’s headline today was an effort to forestall criticism in the wake of this clown being submitted.
Alastair Johnston ran Rangers in a manner Donald Findlay described as “fantastical.” He poured scorn on the judgement of this man and all who served with him. Let Sevco bloggers say that Findlay simply blew smoke to exonerate his client; we know, in fact, that he told the literal truth.
I’ve heard Johnston speak about his period in charge, I’ve heard him suggest the bank was to blame for lending the club the money and I’ve heard him suggest that they should simply have folded the club’s debt into the larger one of Murray International and written it off … all of it is arrogant, self-serving bollocks from a guy who can’t see past the blue tint or the ego boost that went with being a self-styled leader of The Peepul.
The media, which paints him as a brilliant businessman forgets that his speciality is in accounting, although I’d be damned if I’d hire him to do my own books.
This guy has successfully marketed himself, but he is clueless when it comes to the day-to-day running of a company, and his spell at the helm of Rangers was embarrassing and disastrous.
It will be outrageous if a guy of such bizarre opinions, and who believes rules and regulations and the repayment of debt are optional, were allowed to sit on the same board as a criminal tax cheat, but this is Scotland. This is the SFA. Nothing is too shocking to be true.