Yesterday, the governing bodies did the club from Ibrox a favour. This afternoon they’ve announced yet another commercial deal which Ibrox is refusing to participate in.
The words “you deserve all you get” are easily applicable here.
The governors of our game are weak, and Ibrox preys on that weakness.
They are a renegade club, doing whatever they like. Their behaviour threatens every commercial deal that the SPFL wants to sign. Every single one. But still this bizarre tolerance of their behaviour continues.
Now, the deal in question involves NFT’s and so I reckon the whole thing is ridiculous in the first place. NFT’s should be nowhere near football. The only difference between an NFT and a Ponzi scheme is that Ponzi schemes are illegal and NFT’s at the moment aren’t.
The market is unregulated.
Companies appear and disappear at a rapid rate.
Things are sold which lose their “value” within months or even weeks.
The whole concept underpinning it is vaguely preposterous, and I’ve been meaning to write on it for a while now.
I’ll get to it. But football has enough problems with gambling and other vices without adding to them with worthless junk like this, which does nothing but exploit the loyalty of football fans.
Ibrox’s excuse for not participating this time is the same as with cinch; they are already in a pre-existing agreement with another company. Two of them, in fact. This means they don’t have to participate. It is bullshit.
The SPFL’s regulations explicitly bind its member clubs to take part in its commercial activities; it is there in black and white. The organisation has rolled over to Ibrox on cinch by not imposing its writ on Ibrox, and this just repeats the scandal.
The SPFL does not have the stones to challenge their club on this stuff any longer, and that threatens every deal that Scotland’s top flight might want to sign. If one club can simply withdraw its participation, then why wouldn’t other clubs follow suit if they think they’re getting a raw deal?
The SPFL is essentially becoming a lawless environment.
Signing an NFT deal in the first place is a blatant money-grab at the expense of fans and so I would have been happier if clubs didn’t want to participate on the basis that NFT’s themselves are a shady business to be in … but to allow one club again defy the rest is ludicrous and especially at a time when they are asking Scottish football for favours.
Yes, the SPFL deserves everything that it gets.
James, I think you’re off the mark on this one.
Rangers’ behavior with the Cinch deal is deplorable – there’s no sugarcoating that one. The existence of a prior deal with Park’s company is dubious at best and has never been properly documented (when was the last time you saw them on advertising boards at Ibrox?!). They deserve whatever penalty ultimately comes their way on that one.
The NFT deal, however, is much more straightforward IMO. Rangers have a preexisting relationship with a 3rd party that has been well publicized and for which there has been at least some level of promotion from the club. This isn’t a phony excuse on their part not to participate with this sponsorship because they legitimately had a well known preexisting relationship with a competing company. The only way for the league to handle this is to mandate that commercial agreements cannot have ‘exclusive’ language that prohibit clubs from participating in league wide sponsorship agreements in the same way UEFA mandates that with participation in their competitions. The league needs to do that – like yesterday – but until they do preexisting contracts with exclusivity need to be respected.
I kind of agree with Benjamin with regards to this one, however if the rankers sign up to the league rules including whatever contract the governing body’s have then they should accept them if legally binding, perhaps therein lies the issues as stated above. Seems everyone’s scared and fearful of challenging the lodges except Ashley
Ashley isn’t daft though.
He’s suing them through the English courts.
Our Police service and court system seems to have severe difficulty in dealing with any legal issues at Ibrox.
That’s why it’s cost the public purse well over £20M already with that figure set to rise even further.
Because Ashley uses English Courts and Lawyers.
The ‘funny haunshakes’ don’t transfer too well in that situation.
Some will say that both the Scottish & English system are heavily laced with the Masonic culture so it doesn’t matter. While true to an extent, however the Scottish version or ‘rite’ is nearer to the KKK, (Scottish Masons were instrumental in forming that evil organisation. But it was only business to them. The Slave Trade was the engine that powered the Cotton and Tobacco industries which resulted in the obscene wealth accumulated by the Merchants in Glasgow, Liverpool and Bristol).
The Masons in Scotland with their overlapping relationships with the O.O. and whatever Klub/Kumpany/ Engine room subsidiary from Liebrox are a different beast.
Ashley is quite correct in relying on English Jurisprudence..
Ashley won his case months ago and still we wait on how much he is owed.
Don’t promote the deals you don’t get prize money
Sevco should really have their share of SPFL funds withheld.