Sometime in the course of the next few weeks, the full scale of damage done to Sevco by the man many of its fans hail as a saviour will become shockingly clear. With Phil’s revelations about impending resignations from the board there are only two conclusions to draw; if he’s right they are either about the SFA investigation into Resolution 12 – which means it’s Andrew Dickson and Alastair Johnston – or it’s related to King.
Dave King has been a disaster for Sevco and only most blind can remain in the slightest doubt about that. He has presided over complete chaos. If he was the chairman at another club his exploits and scandals would be front page news day after day. His legal entanglements would be better known than the plot of EastEnders.
Sky Sports News would be camped outside the ground permanently.
King is said to have led Sevco out of gloom and uncertainty. If that’s true, then he led them from that into darkness and that now threatens to swallow them up.
Over the past month, he has been on the offensive, trying to put pressure on both the SFA and the SPFL.
He has been throwing allegations about like confetti.
He knows that the SFA investigation is going to hit close to home. He knows the Takeover Panel is moving towards a denouement that will end his tenure as Sevco chair, in disgrace. He knows that Ashley has him where he wants him and that the fans will turn on him when that becomes clear.
And he’s desperately trying to make sure that if he goes down that he goes down looking like a martyr and not like a shameless self-promoter who has been caught out.
It will all start to hit home over the next few weeks.
Sevco will probably be found guilty in the SFA inquiry, although the governing body has shifted the ground rules as only they can. What the sanctions will be remains unclear, but the seriousness of the offence demands a harsh punishment.
In a fortnight, a judge will decide whether Ashley has the rights to full disclosure on Sevco’s merchandising deal; one way or another that is going to tie them in knots for a while to come.
And on Friday, the Takeover Panel is back in court but this time at the behest of the judiciary itself … which means that King is now facing the contempt charge that has been inevitable since the moment he defied the order.
King is washed up.
He may be gone by this time next week.
Indeed, if he is charged with contempt and a warrant issued for him then the SFA is going to have no option but to ban him from any association with a Scottish club. They should have moved to do it already. For all we know it might leave Sevco with no functioning boardroom, and then God knows where they go.
The crisis over there is the most serious in their short history.
And Dave King is the architect of much of it himself. He was supposed to the white knight who came and saved them, who moved them forward and into the sunlit uplands … instead night has fallen over Ibrox. From where things stand, dawn is a long time away.