Today Bayern Leverkusen were told they could not train on the Ibrox pitch, as UEFA observers don’t reckon it’s in good enough nick.
This disenfranchises their team, something which some of the hacks are at great pains to point out, spinning it as an advantage to the home side.
In fact, it’s a flat-out disgrace. Sevco’s pitch is a mess. Their club is a mess.
We have to go and play on that shambles of a surface at the weekend.
You wonder why some clubs bother to keep their houses in order when that one just doesn’t care at all. They have squandered so much money on their second rate squad that they have cut back on other areas of the club. This is one of them, and so others have to suffer for it.
It is obvious that Sevco hasn’t spent real money on keeping their pitch in good nick.
The so-called “harsh winter” has not affected Hampden or Celtic Park or even Firhill in the same way and those grounds are in the same city.
It is media spin and nonsense to suggest that this is down to the weather. It’s down to what the club has prioritised, and what they have not. A club running low on cash has to make cuts somewhere … this is one of the areas they picked.
UEFA should fine them for it. This isn’t a club playing in the lower reaches of European football without the budget to do this right, it’s one with a £50 million turnover and which has prioritised buying and paying expensive duds over getting the basics right.
There ought to be sanctions for that. That pitch wouldn’t be fit to play Sunday League Football on.
It is an outward sign that the club is scratching itself.
It’s an outward sign that very bad tidings indeed are coming down the pipe.