I picked a Hell of a week to go on holiday, right?
Happily, I was able to get some work done on a couple of early mornings whilst I was there, or I would feel like monumental events had completely passed me by. I’ll look at our signing targets, the unfolding shambles at Sevco and a couple of other things later on in the day but we all know what the elephant in the room is.
In the week since the tax case verdict came out we’ve heard a lot of the usual whiffle out of various people; they are the same gutless wonders who’ve tried to ride the middle of the road on that situation right from the start. Some are in the media. Others are in football. They have suggested that these matters are behind us, that it’s time to “move on.”
Let’s be clear here; there’s no “moving on” until this thing is settled.
Rangers never were “punished”. Don’t let anyone kid you about that. They were liquidated and the NewCo was made to start in the bottom tier, but that isn’t punishment. Those was just consequences. The issues which arose from the Craig Whyte era were a joke; a fine that was never paid, a transfer “embargo” that let them sign nearly a dozen players and an inquiry that was a joke right from the start.
I repeat; Rangers has never been punished for what it did. A decade of cheating went unanswered by governing bodies that were in this up to their necks. Scottish football isn’t moving on from any of this until the fundamental issues are addressed and this matter is dealt with.
The red herrings about players not giving up medals, about fans having suffered enough … it’s all pish. No-one ever asked players to give up medals, and if an entire support can delude itself that a football club is an ephemeral thing with no form or structure they can kid themselves they’re still “going for 55” whatever the history books say.
But those history books have to reflect reality, and that of what took place here.
The LNS inquiry was a sham, and a brand new one is what’s required. Until it is set up, until it sits, until it examines what went on at Ibrox and Hampden during the EBT years (and beyond them) we’re stuck in the mud. We’re going nowhere.
This was the biggest scandal in the history of sport in the UK. It dwarfs everything that’s come before it. Title stripping is not new. It’s not some draconian punishment dreamed up by those who hate Sevco and hated Rangers. It is commonplace in sport where widespread allegations of corruption and cheating are proved. The Supreme Court is the highest legislative body in the land … what further proof are people looking for? What further affirmation is required to act?
People better come to grips with this and what has to be done, or this will linger like a virus that won’t quit, until the game collapses with it.
Five years after Rangers died, a lot of people still aren’t getting the message; we’re not getting past this until it’s all sorted out.