Last night, stories appeared in the media saying Sevco were ready to take a seat “at the top table” of Scottish football again.
(When was the first time? Anyone?)
As usual, a story of monumental importance was completely missed by most of the hacks because they were too busy focussed on the bit of it that might (or might not, it’s hilarious how dumb these people are) reflect well on the Ibrox operation.
The focus was on how Peter Lawwell stepping back from the SPFL board might give Stewart Robertson a chance to get his own feet under the table.
If he wins the election.
Which he failed to do last year, after a campaign of bile out of Ibrox in the aftermath of the Scottish Cup Final made it impossible for him to win the votes.
That bile has continued to flow ever since, and in the interim has club has become famous for catastrophic errors in judgement, including the hiring of a manager no-one had ever heard of after a single interview if he was even given that.
In other words, quite what abilities Stewart Robertson has shown to deserve that seat I could not tell you.
It’s no foregone conclusion that other clubs will decide he merits it.
That wasn’t the big story anyway, it was just the one they chose to write.
The big story is about what Lawwell leaves behind, where he goes next and what it means in the grand scheme of things. Because if you can’t see that this is a move forward, one that’s quite possibly been well prepared in advance, then you really have been reading too much of The Daily Record.
Lawwell, in his best Martin Bell white suit, has moved first.
We’ll see where the opposition chooses to deploy, but Lawwell has positioned Celtic’s first piece right in the middle of the board, opening the war for the centre squares.
The chess-match for power has begun. At last.
The SPFL board is a talking shop as far as the big stuff is concerned.
Robertson isn’t moving Sevco to “the top table”; he was at that already. If he’s stepping down and moving them onto what’s effectively Neil Doncaster’s procedures committee that’s a step backwards for them. There’s no juice on that board.
The power lies up the corridor, with the SFA’s main board, the one that sets the rules and has the UEFA mandate.
Lawwell is moving up.
Before I go any further, let me clear up some confusion over all this.
The SPFL and the SFA boards are so interchangable it’s ridiculous.
Lawwell was on the SFA Professional Game Board in 2015.
As Nick Cage says in The Rock, “Well, gosh … kind of a lot’s happened since then.”
So although to some this is simple sleight of hand, with him simply moving back there now that his SPFL term has expired, it’s not as simple as that.
Because he would certainly have been re-elected to the SPFL board had he chose to run again.
The timing of this is everything.
Lawwell wants to be on that board.
At a time when this club is going toe-to-toe with the SFA on any number of issues.
Am I the only one who found it curious that we made not one single public comment on events at Ibrox, even after the match delegates report failed to appear?
Celtic kept its guns spiked on that one … I was angry with them for that, but I knew things were happening behind the scenes.
We are no longer swinging at every pitch.
It’s pointless.
Not when you plan to clean house anyway.
The SFA was the first organisation to jump into the Supreme Court verdict. When you read the SPFL statement it was oddly similar to that which came out of Regan’s office.
Co-ordination. Lawwell knows it. Celtic knows it.
And he wants to get in Regan’s face and find out what the Hell is going on.
Let the SPFL “leaders” hold their sham discussion on whether or not to look at EBT use; we know they’re never going to do it. They don’t have a mandate in the first place. The mandate for that and for much else lies with the SFA.
Lawwell’s going where the real power is.
As I’ve said, Robertson was on that board last year, but for Sevco it was enough just to be there.
He had no strategy. He had no fresh ideas.
Lawwell has both and finally he is going there with an agenda of his own.
We want the power in our own hands.
It’s what he uses it for that will determine what happens in the next ten years of Scottish football, or even if the game itself lasts that long.
The SFA Professional Game Board is a complex mish-mash of interests.
The voting breakdown will be interesting, and will decide whether we can get anything done but the numbers look as a good as they have in a long time. Lawwell will be joining Fraser of Aberdeen, who I wrote about earlier in the week in terms of his disgust at the LNS verdict, Murray, the top man at Thistle whose views on the big stuff aren’t known to me but who has no vested interest either way, and Mulraney of Alloa, whose own allegiances are not exactly a secret.
Rob Petrie is already there too.
Celtic has the juice, at last, to get issues on the agenda and wage war from inside.
Lawwell is moving to the one organisation that can move this issue forward.
Remember, LNS was branded as the SPFL’s own inquiry, but it was rubber stamped by the SFA and its agenda decided there.
Besides, if you don’t think Lawwell has a fair idea how the voting will go in the SPFL board elections you’re crazy.
Anyone in his position would already have the numbers and be planning the next move.
If Celtic don’t have the numbers on the SPFL board to push our agenda through there’s no point being on it. Better to take the show to the SFA. If we do have the numbers we only have to make sure the right person takes his place.
All of this will have been choreographed in advance.
The coming season will define Scottish football for a generation or more.
Celtic cannot make the wrong moves here.
The SPFL board isn’t the appropriate launch-pad for the revolution we need; you have to think it’s no coincidence that Ian Maxwell is going to the SFA along with Peter. Remember, these guys didn’t lose in elections, they’ve walked.
They’ve decided not to put themselves forward and have chosen the SFA Professional Game Board very deliberately.
It’s taken a lot of horse trading to get things just so.
Now we wait to see what the next moves will be, and who makes them. But believe me, Celtic is making its play. This is the start of something, and it’s only properly being analysed on the blogs. There’s a lot of supposition, but it seems reasonable. There’s a lot of smoke being blown … but there’s fire too.
This one is going to run all season long.