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An Uncivil War Erupts In Sevconia As Their Blogs Turn The Guns On Each Other.

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Last night, I was sent a most extraordinary piece of work; you can check it out at this link.

It was from the Sevco fan site Davie’s Left Peg, a blog which posts only sporadically and has connections, it seems, to some of the guys over on Sevco Media.

The author is clearly a passionate fan, who cares about his team.

He also cares about what’s going on off the pitch.

Now, the article in question – entitled “I’m the Leader of the Gang, I Am!” – does have a wee dig at some of the Celtic sites, as you can imagine, but it makes some points that are more than valid. It echoes some of the things we’ve said here and which have been said elsewhere.

The writer or writers are fiercely committed to transparency at their club, and for that I can only wish them success in getting it.

As fans they are entitled to it.

The basis of the article is their anger over the way Follow Follow reacted to the weekend’s cyberattack on the Sevco Media site.

The entire thing was taken offline for several hours, by attackers purporting to be from Anonymous. In fact, the attack clearly had its origins in Celtic cyberspace and was largely amateurish although it succeeded in breaching the site security.

The message left on the site for those who logged on – calling them zombies and basically saying “yer club is deid” – wasn’t the sort Anonymous would have left.

That takedown and that signature drew much hilarity amongst the Celtic pages.

But the thing is, it was also celebrated on Follow Follow.

And that is why the authors of the Davie’s Left Peg piece decided they had to respond.

They didn’t raise the matter gently either; they got out the flamethrowers.

Not only did they attack the Follow Follow editorial team, but they decided to re-litigate a bunch of previous allegations against the founder of that site, Mark Dingwall.

It’s a shabby tale, one that’s been told elsewhere and which I feel no need to go into; suffice to say if you Google his name and “financial irregularities” you’ll certainly find what you’re after.

As the site points out, Dingwall is a key promoter of Club 1872, which is having a fund raising drive right now to raise £1 million to buy shares in Sevco. They must be expecting a firesale of them soon; what do they know that we don’t?

Something, you would assume, and they have the perfect inside man to get them that info.

Because, as the article reminds us, the club and Club 1872 are tied together so tightly they might as well be joined at the hip.

The link is James Blair, who serves on the Club 1872 board and also on the board of Sevco itself; as the writer(s) have surmised, this is as obvious a breach of the fan group’s independence from the club as it’s possible to get.

Now I find some of what was in the article farcical; the assertion that the club betrayed the fans who invaded the pitch at Hampden is just bonkers. Those guys broke the law. They went on there for a fight, not to “rescue” anybody as the article suggests.

Any club that gave material support to people who were up in court for a punch up on the park would rightly be subjected to the harshest condemnation. It was bad enough that they released an inflammatory communique which tried to justify that action in the first place.

But in the main, the writers have got it spot on.

Some of the fan organisations at Sevco have been way too close to the boardroom for the good of their members and now that those organisations are under one umbrella it’s easy to see where problems can arise if those who have influence there are guys with a history of exploiting fellow fans and selling out to whoever has his arse planted in the chairman’s seat.

If it is the duty of a supporter’s organisation to maintain a critical watch on the people running their club, and to put up protective walls to stop one from taking advantage of the other, then by every conceivable standard Club 1872 is failing the wider body of the Sevco support.

Their unflinching loyalty to the Dave King regime is frankly ridiculous considering the damage that man’s actions could do to the club itself.

There appears to be nothing that will bring the strands of their support together.

The level of vitriol they are throwing at one another is extraordinary; that article has to be read to be believed. Those loyal to Club 1872 are determined to crush all dissent; that’s what King wants, above and beyond everything else. Those who don’t toe the line get brutalised.

Uncivil war continues to rage amongst the Sevco supporter organisation and its critics.

Even within Club 1872 there are factions who cannot and will not see eye to eye; don’t’ assume that everyone on their board is at it.

Many of them do believe they need to be wary and scrutinising the goings on at the club.

But they are surrounded on all sides and simply overmatched by the presence of folk like Dingwall and the influence of Blair.

All of this looks like a mess to outsiders like us.

It’s also sort of amusing.

This is what blue on blue really looks like; Sevco fans tearing strips off each other in the most vicious language.

But in fact, it’s not funny in the slightest if you’re on one side of this and all you want to do is follow your team.

What I find incredible is how deep the hatred over there goes.

I have had personal falling outs with Celtic bloggers. We don’t see eye to eye on certain issues, we might not even like each other as people. But I would promote their work any day, and they’ve done the same for me. We could sit down over a beer and work on projects with the good of Celtic and the pursuit of our broader goals in mind. All that nonsense would not get in the way of us doing what was right, and you will never read one Celtic site launching swinging attacks on another.

It just doesn’t happen.

Over there, such explosions are commonplace.

That club, in spite of the positive press, is in dire financial trouble and this window has only made that worse. The loan from Close Brothers is deadly. The implications of it are enormous. The Morelos smokescreen only adds to the confusion.

If they are in as much peril as we say they are – believe it; it’s a fact – then this is the very worst possible moment for two of their forums to start flaming each other. But this is not an isolated incident. It is a culmination of months of backstage sniping which has stoked a profound loathing between the various groups involved.

And the only way it will be settled is when one thoroughly routs the other.

A major battle is looming between them, and it has to happen because otherwise this will go on and on.

At the moment when these Peepul need to be watching King and his board they are pulling each other’s hair out, and worse is just around the corner.

It is a disaster waiting to happen.

Who’s turn is it to buy the popcorn?

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