Just the other day, I did a piece on Sevco and the new “share issue.” It focussed on the sheer stupidity of what they are doing, and the media’s coverage of it, which was skewed to paint a suicidal policy as something that strengthened the club.
But there’s a political battle amongst the Sevconuts over this, and that battle is interesting.
Recently, Sevco’s leading fan organisation, Club 1872, fell out with the club over their response to the Castore Catastrophe.
That has created the conditions for a perfect storm.
It was with much fanfare some years ago that Club 1872 proudly announced to the world that they had reached one of their early goals; a 10% shareholding in the club.
This was supposed to open the doors to all manner of possibilities including getting fans on the board. We laughed when we heard that; they tried it once before and Chris Graham resigned within hours, embroiled in a bigotry scandal.
Nobody was in the least bit surprised.
But the dream is now and well and truly dead, with the latest shuffling of the board reducing their overall holding to a little over 5% … that’s a complete betrayal of what their club sold them on when they started the scheme in the first place.
I don’t feel any sympathy for them; don’t get the wrong idea here. I simply think it’s an absolute disgrace that their club has so completely screwed them here, and it comes at a time when they are leaning on the supporters more than ever.
Let’s be honest, the MyGers scheme is a direct challenge to Club 1872’s authority, in that it also promotes the division of the Sevco support into two tiers – those who “support” the club through such schemes and those who don’t.
Both ask fans to put up additional cash above and beyond season tickets, shirt sales and other related activities.
Both promote the idea that you aren’t a “real” fan unless you’re shovelling money down these black holes.
But whilst Club 1872’s funds are supposed to be for the continuous accumulation of shares MyGers boasts that every penny goes to the manager and the running of the day to day operations … it is not difficult to see this as an existential threat to Club 1872’s ability to collect dues from its own members.
I mean, at this stage what’s the point?
Because the club itself consistently dilutes the values of those shares, as it has again here.
There’s just no way that Club 1872 will continue to command the loyalty of fans when its very reason for existing is so thoroughly undermined again and again.
The fans who have sunk money into that organisation have been screwed.
The organisation has no more authority than it did when it was founded, and in fact when the club took the decision to ignore them over the Castore fiasco it made it clear that they cannot expect to get special treatment, and why would the club afford that to them?
They own a mere 5% of the shares, after all, and the directors can reduce that further whenever they like.
Once upon a time, Club 1872 thought its directors would be key players in the Ibrox operation; they know better now.
Their members have been lied to, not by the organisation itself but by the club.
For some of them that might be alright; they don’t mind as long as they think the club in some way benefits from their subs … but for others it’s a non-starter as it flies in the face of what the organisation was set up for.
It was intended to have real influence and hold people to account, not fund their mistakes.
Right now it does neither.
You have to wonder how long they can carry on with their organising purpose so thoroughly shot full of holes, and if they go there will be no organisation amongst the Sevco support even remotely capable of asking for and getting answers from their club when the next big crisis comes along.
Hell, maybe that’s the point here.
Help us keep The CelticBlog going strong …. share our articles on social media and subscribe so you never miss one.