We are weeks on from press reports that the SFA was to get a new Chief Executive. Everyone knows who the guy is going to be. Everyone knows that the deal is just about done. What the Hell is the delay? I have a sneaking suspicion that I know the answer. A lot of us do.
The answer of course is Sevco. The rudderless ship is preparing to stick them through for a European license, allow King to continue down his path unimpeded and perhaps even to bury Celtic’s case over Resolution 12. Thereby the “new man” can waltz through the doors and the whole ship can sail on as before, with one last set of favours done for Ibrox.
They would have to be stone stupid to think that will fly.
The truth is, one way or another all of these issues, or the backlash from them, will be waiting for him the minute he walks through the door. There is no escaping it. Only the stupidest person at Hampden believes that the SFA can appoint this Ian Maxwell and then claim that all their troubles are behind him. The stink of what’s happened up there can never be washed away unless a full and frank accounting is made of all that’s come before.
Maxwell appears to be a good guy. An honourable one too. One broadly aligned with the reform agenda. I will hold fire on that until we see what he actually does. I am not terribly impressed by talk before the fact. He’ll be judged on action, or lack thereof. It’s probable that he will inherit a inbox brimming over with Hellish To-Do lists; that’s a measure of the unprofessional nature of the organisation which he’s about to take on.
But for anyone to think a sudden emptying of the inbox into the bin constitutes a “fresh start” is a delusion they shouldn’t even entertain. For Maxwell it would be a dangerous one. I wouldn’t put it past his future bosses that they do something so toxic that it haunts him throughout the whole of his term. He better be aware of it. He better be guarding against it.
There is a lot to do. The reform agenda will meet incredible resistance from many quarters, including the media, who really have no interest in real openness and transparency. I read an article yesterday which had been written by a Dundee fan back in 2010, when his club was going through its own painful administration process; his take on it was that the governing bodies had a whole big set of rules to punish clubs after the fact but none that would stop a club from spending its way to the point of collapse in the first place; that’s one of the things that has to change.
It’s also high-time the SFA did some basic education for club directors. Not only to remind them of their own responsibilities but to give them a refresher in what those of the governing body actually are. Ann Budge said last week that UEFA grants European licenses and that FFP is concerned only with whether clubs can pay off their debts; rank nonsense in both cases, but she’s not unique in appearing not to know how this stuff actually works.
But the real problems don’t come down to what clubs and club directors don’t know as much as they come down to the one club and its directors who just simply don’t care. That club is the one playing out of Ibrox and it becomes clearer every day that it is run by people who will keep on breaking rules and regulations until somebody actually stops them.
Nobody wants the job, but the events of last Friday show why someone has to take it on. There is no reason that their club waits until the last minute to present financial information to the SFA, or that they did so in a fashion inconsistent with best practice and which should see them refused a UEFA license, except that they choose not to.
As King openly challenges judges and regulators, so too you find the club testing the limits at Hampden, pushing the boundaries, seeing what it can get away with. And historically, as we all know, that’s been any damned thing it wanted to.
The time has surely come for putting this to bed. Make them play by the same rules as everyone else, and a good start would be to open an investigation into King himself and his conduct as Sevco chairman thus far, and if you really wanted to go all the way for giggles the investigation could include the means by which he came to run the club.
That, as everyone knows, is a minefield of trouble because as everyone knows it always was. Everyone except the SFA who gave him fit and proper person status in the first place. Any organisation with such deep seated contempt for its own rules was never going to be able to control a guy who has no respect for rules at all and the truth is that nobody at Hampden has even actually tried to. That needs to change. Now.
No other item in Ian Maxwell’s in-try is even remotely as important.
Join the best Celtic Facebook Group there is right here.
Like our Facebook page and comment on and share the articles by clicking here.
You can also follow us on Twitter at @The_Celtic_Blog