RANGERS, the stage is yours. The ball very much in your court. A scene has been set and the next line is to be delivered by someone in a smart blue suit and brown brogues.
The SPFL say they did nothing wrong. We know this because camera-shy Scottish Professional Football League chairman Murdoch MacLennan yesterday released an in-house interview, which went on for 4000 words, quite a lot of it referencing how much legal assurance his board asked for over the last two weeks.
The clubs on the board admitted mistakes were made but, in a letter sent to all 42 members, insisted no impropriety had taken place and now was the time for some solidarity. Good luck.
Personally, I can’t see any ball being kicked for months but there is a sense that plans are at least being drawn up across Europe. In Scotland, we are waiting to see if a smoking gun is really a water pistol.
Rangers claimed they had evidence of serious wrongdoing earlier this month. It was so bad that chief executive Neil Doncaster would pay with his job, as well as SPFL solicitor Rod McKenzie.
The Ibrox club have accused the SPFL of the “bullying and coercion” of clubs into agreeing their proposal to end the seasons in the bottom three leagues, which almost certainly would mean the same happening in the Premiership – with 81 per cent of the 42 clubs agreeing with the board.
MacLennan has told Rangers to show everyone what they have learned. The other clubs want to see these revelations as well. Publicly and privately, they do not believe Rangers have much on the chairman and his buddies.
And as for us, the public? In desperate need of some entertainment, we are on the edge of our seats, breath willing to be taken away by one of those statements which come out of Rangers with more regularity than Gregor Stevens used to foul opponents back in the early 1980s.
So, Rangers, all eyes are on you. It is time to show your hand and light a fuse under the Scottish game, and it needs to be done now.
Do not wait for an EGM that may not happen, nor pretend that it’s so jaw-droppingly explosive that they can’t show it to anyone for a few weeks yet. With clubs on the precipice, with our national game facing perhaps it’s worst crisis, now is not the time to be coy.
Rangers say they have a dossier of evidence, but they don’t want to let anyone see it. Not quite yet. This means one of three things.
It genuinely is so shocking that the Glasgow club believe merely releasing the details in the normal manner would not justify the contents which will shake the country.
Or what they have is not that great and a couple of weeks of dirt-digging is required. They need to sex it up. Maybe Brechin City have been developing weapons of mass destruction.
There is of course a third theory.
Rangers have nothing. Zero. Not a single shred of evidence which could see anyone lose their jobs. It is a fantasy, as the SPFL are telling us. That all this is doing is preventing progress – even if that progress is far from perfect.
Rangers, backed by Hearts and Stranraer, have until a general meeting on May 12 to come up with their own plan for a way forward and convince everyone else that their way is the right way. That is guaranteed to fail unless they do have proof of serious foul play.
But if they do, if this isn’t some pathetic ruse, an attempt to buy some time and appease their supporters who believe Celtic’s ninth league title in a row be declared invalid, they have no choice but to let us all know what has been going on.
MacLennan apparently hates Rangers. We know this because of a story in Private Eye which claims Shifty McGifty, as they call the former newspaper executive, would tell everyone this while working for a Scottish title.
If this is true, getting signed witness statements will not be difficult. Old Shifty is not a popular man in the newspaper trade. Indeed, it would be fair to state that the 70-year-old would struggle to find many character witnesses to back him.
MacLennan has still not taken a single question from a journalist. They would ask about the Eye story, his feelings towards Rangers, why Dundee were allowed to change their vote – this has never properly been explained – given that the club couldn’t even be bothered to call the SPFL on the Friday of the vote on stopping the season; they sent a text message instead.
What happens next depends almost entirely upon what Rangers have up their sleeve. It's possible there is nothing there, if this is merely deflection tactics, playing to the gallery and playing up to the ‘everyone is against us’ narrative so many conspiracy theorists lap up when if there has ever been a time to set aside childish and selfish attitudes, it’s during a flipping global medical emergency.
Perhaps they do have something. There is a bit of me hopes they do, and it is a real game-changer. But as time goes on, I suspect they are at it. If this is so, then it’s not Doncaster and McKenzie who should be sacked.
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