Every bandwagon that ever rolled along a paved road has people who jump on it.
This morning it was the turn of Charlie Nicholas, who backed Sevco’s motion merely as a way of settling an ancient debt against Harper McLeod.
It is pathetic that much of the media either doesn’t know the background to this story – you can read it here – or just didn’t care to reference it … he has had acres of coverage as if his view on this was in any way valid and not born of petty spite.
There is so much petty spite attached to this affair that it’s little wonder most people haven’t twigged yet that something genuinely serious is going on here.
I have written much in the last couple of weeks about what the obvious objective is; the nuking of what Sevco sees as a pro-Celtic SPFL executive.
But the question is, what does Sevco ultimately want?
The answer to that question might lie in an article I posted about six weeks ago.
If the SPFL board is swept out the door by a crisis or scandal, and Sevco is at the forefront of the rebellion, who do you reckon will hold the power on the next executive committee? The Losers Club, including Hearts and their pals at Inverness.
Anyone remotely linked to the current regime, and anyone who has a vaguely suspicious name or educational background, will be railroaded out the door with them.
The Peepul and their allies will be all that’s left.
What lies behind this is a desire to change the composition of the SPFL board so that a brand new one can re-write the rulebook.
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And why is that so important?
Because the article I wrote some weeks ago was about a handful of clubs who have already suggested that regulations on administration be waived for the next two years, due to this crisis.
The SPFL constitution specifically refers to the suspension of those regulations in the event of a “force majeure”.
As they stand, the current regulations would require every side entering administration to prove that unforeseen circumstances caused their crisis.
In the case of Sevco this is going to be hard to do. They were in dire need of cash before the global health emergency. Any attempt to prove that they were solvent would require them to produce the facts and figures to back that up … and the truth is they can’t.
Everything over there is uncertain and messy.
Their only hope of getting through the current crisis lies in a two-pronged strategy, and the first is to convince their fans that things are still alright, enough so that they will part with season ticket money and whatever other cash the club is trying to squeeze out of them.
The second prong is to find enough allies in the game to have certain rules and regulations changed or set aside, with the administration rules top of the list.
Without that, they start our ten in a row campaign 15 points behind us in the league; you might as well wrap the trophy in green and white ribbons and drop it off at Celtic Park.
They won’t catch us from that sort of starting position.
Celtic understands that there was a much bigger agenda here than simply denying us that ninth title flag.
Sevco knows that stopping ten isn’t even the objective anymore; they aren’t going to. They are now fighting a desperate rear-guard action to prevent us shooting way past that and towards our own title number 55 and beyond.
Remember, their entire support is built on the idea that their club is the biggest in the land and that they are only a couple of signings away from flipping the script. That suspension of reality has gotten them through the past eight years … but four in the SPL, watching as we’ve won everything, has tested the belief systems of even their most rabid fans.
Once they realise we’re going to keep on winning with no end in sight – and this is especially true as a result of the current crisis, and the impact it will have on the Ibrox operation – there will be no keeping the truth from breaking through whatever psychological barriers exist.
What I’m saying is that they’ve twigged that they might well be in existential peril here, and when your back is to the wall and you’re fighting for your life you will use every weapon you have to hand. If they can change the makeup of the SPFL board then they have options.
If they can’t – and they have failed at their big shot – they might be out of them for good.
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