Whether by clause or convention, Celtic and the Ibrox operations have taken turns sitting first on the boards at the SFA and then on the boards at the SPFL. Those days appear to be coming to an end, and it’s not before time.
Yesterday, I said that the story of the week was the SFA green-lighting Ibrox’s latest front in the war against the governing bodies. It has long been the view of the Celtic sites that this crisis should never have been allowed to go so far. The clubs are almost entirely responsible for it because they have let the trustees of those organisations kowtow to Ibrox.
But today there is talk that Bisgrove’s ascension to the board – long thought inevitable – may actually be blocked in a vote of the clubs. This would be the best thing the organisation has done in a long time. What balls Ibrox has to put him forward at a time when they are suing the organisation in court. What a joke it would be if he was allowed to take a place there.
To be blunt, I don’t even know why this is a matter for debate.
What is it that’s being discussed and debated?
The clubs know what theirs has done, they know that the money is coming out of their pockets, they know this threatens other commercial contracts.
They also have good reason to suspect that the Ibrox club has violated commercial confidentiality by leaking details of SPFL business to the media; who else leaked Neil Doncaster’s “pay-off” details last night?
Someone wanted that stuff in the public domain and it’s hard to see how it would benefit any other party in this debate. It’s all designed to put pressure on him and cause fresh ruptures amidst the key players here. That club will resort to anything.
That the SPFL clubs are even talking about this is telling; for too long Celtic and the Ibrox club have swapped positions between them as if by divine right and we should be one of the clubs leading to end that practice once and for all, and right here and right now would be a good place to start, by opposing Bisgrove and making that plain to the other stakeholders.
The Ibrox club has proved that for all its chatter it is not interested in settling its differences with others or peaceful co-existence. They want to maintain that sense of grievance, and why not?
In the absence of them winning things it is that which sells season tickets over there.