Following the sanctions imposed on Rangers by the Scottish Football Association (SFA), ‘Gers manager Ally McCoist suggested in some desperation that they might as well start all over again in the third division (fourth tier) of the league.
Following the sanctions imposed on Rangers by the Scottish Football Association (SFA), ‘Gers manager Ally McCoist suggested in some desperation that they might as well start all over again in the third division (fourth tier) of the league.
However, this proposal has now been slapped down by the chief executive of the Scottish Football League, David Longmuir. He says that any application from Rangers would have to be treated in the same way as those from Annan Athletic, Cove Rangers and Spartans.
In strict bureaucratic terms that may be true, but it hardly shows a flexibility of approach or a concern for the overall health of Scottish football. Longmuir says that Rangers cannot expect any special treatment, but this pays no regard to the damage their disappearance would do to the game as a whole in Scotland.
Continuing with his tunnel vision, Longmuir says that there is no vacancy. But if Rangers were forced to withdraw from the top tier, presumably that would then have knock on effects all the way down the leagues so a vacancy would occur, although perhaps clubs would vote to give it to a minor league side!
It increasingly seems to me that the administrators of Scottish football are living in a parallel universe where a boneheaded attachment to the rules is all that counts. As a series of reports has shown, Scottish football faces a series of structural problems which no one has been able to solve. Getting rid of Rangers would just compound those problems.
Whatever one thinks of Alex Salmond’s views, he is a canny and effective politician and perhaps the time has come for him to knock heads together.