Ian Maxwell’s Scottish Cup Comments Will Not Fool A Single Celtic Fan.

One of the things that grinds my gears – and I’m sure I’m not alone – is when people in positions of authority brazenly lie and treat you like an absolute mug.

Yesterday Ian Maxwell gave a long interview where he covered a number of subjects.

On at least two of them he indulged in pure bullshitting. We should not have to tolerate that.

One of the worst parts of the interview was where he talked about the Scottish Cup Final and made yet another effort to defend the lamentable decision to move it from its usual 3pm timeslot.

No matter what this guy says, that decision is a joke.

“The Scottish FA’s preference was for three o’clock on a Saturday. There are obviously external factors that play a part in any decision about kick-off times and kick-off times have changed. No longer is every game kick-off at three o’clock, there are games played at various times. It’s the end of our Week of Football, it’s very much a flagship competition for us. It signals the end of the Scottish season. We want to give it as much airtime in its own space as possible,” he said.

If the SFA’s preference was for a 3 o’clock kick off then why did it change? He contradicts that statement with the bit about wanting to give the game “it’s own airtime.” If he had left it at that we’d be entitled to feel insulted enough, but he didn’t.

“The English FA Cup final is on at three o’clock, the Women’s Champions League final is at three o’clock. So you have a decision to make: do you go up against them and diminish the competition and reduce the viewership that you could get across the UK or do you move it and try and give it its own breathing space? That’s what we decided to do.”

Who is the “we” in this?

If Maxwell is trying to paint this as some kind of “mutual” decision, then I’d suggest it’s about as “mutual” as the one where Morelos and Kent will walk out of Ibrox in a few weeks for free. Maxwell was strong-armed by the TV companies, because he’s weak and that’s what happens to weak individuals. The “we” doesn’t include the clubs.

Because the clubs made that quite clear in their statements. There’s also no mention there of the Scottish Parliament committee asking them questions … or about how he and the organisation has basically slung them a deaf ear.

“We would have preferred it at three o’clock, but in terms of the gravitas and the scale we can showcase the game, we felt moving it gave us the best opportunity to do that. We engaged with Inverness before the decision was made, they were happier with a later kick-off than an earlier kick-off. I am delighted they have recently announced their agreement with Scotrail that will see them put on additional transport to make sure everyone can get back home – and that’s been a positive.”

According to both the Scottish Parliament and Inverness, Maxwell and his organisation did not one thing to assist them. Inverness and Scotrail had to sort out a solution between them, the SFA did the sum total of nil. So what positive is there?

This guy has allowed a tiny television company to change the kick-off time for a game that has traditionally been played at 3pm on the final Saturday of the season and he’s trying to tell us that the traditional kick off would have been their preference, even as he says that they took the decision not to do the thing they’d have preferred … it treats every one of us like an idiot. It makes mugs out of fans and club directors alike.

It’s not the only thing I will take issue with him for … his comments on VAR were as bad if not worse.

I’ll cover them later on, but for now I just find this shocking and the words that he continues to pour forth on it contemptible. That’s how he treats us, and everyone else in the game. With contempt.