Jon Mackenzie is a Scotsman who lives on the Isles of Scilly where he co-edits Scilly Now and Then. Here he gives his views on Rangers entering administration:
This is a very sad day for Rangers FC and the Scottish game – no matter which club you support, but what surprises me is how long it took to occur. Frankly I thought Hearts would have been the first big Scottish club to go this way and like many people, I was not surprised when Mr Romanov found the funds to pay the taxman this very day.
Jon Mackenzie is a Scotsman who lives on the Isles of Scilly where he co-edits Scilly Now and Then. Here he gives his views on Rangers entering administration:
This is a very sad day for Rangers FC and the Scottish game – no matter which club you support, but what surprises me is how long it took to occur. Frankly I thought Hearts would have been the first big Scottish club to go this way and like many people, I was not surprised when Mr Romanov found the funds to pay the taxman this very day.
The simple fact is that football clubs, particularly in countries with small populations, like Scotland, cannot be run as big businesses with scope for major financial investment. They should be run for what they are – community institutions.
Take Hibernian, once a PLC with disastrous consequences which led to debts of almost £17m but now a club on a very solid financial footing – if and when the current regime sell up there is nothing stopping a businessman taking out a loan to purchase the club and immediately plunge them into debt. Is this not what happened at Manchester United when the Glazers took over?
Is it perhaps time for the government to step in and create new legislation regarding the ownership of football clubs? They are all institutions in their own way – Dumbarton, East Fife, Dundee etc. They have rich histories: Dumbarton, founder members and original winners of the Scottish League; East Fife, first three-time winners of the League Cup; Dundee, one of only 8 clubs to win all three domestic honours in the Scottish game. The histories of every football club, and indeed their legacies for the future, should never be put at risk by businessmen looking to ‘invest’ (and I use the term in the loosest possible sense when it comes to football) in the hope of lucrative returns.
Besides, most often it doesn’t work and such failures are not restricted to the game in Scotland. Take the Premiership in recent years and the likes of Portsmouth, Leeds United, Bradford City… the list goes on. In what other business are staff paid more than the manager and the manager paid more than the owners with wage to turnover ratios at 70% plus? It’s completely absurd! A few years ago the PWC annual review of Scottish Football declared that almost half the SPL were technically insolvent and judging by their business models was it any wonder?
Almost every club in Scotland should own their ground and most used to but over the years of ownership changes and indulgent speculative excesses we have local councils stepping in to save the day – Aberdeen hoping to become the latest in a long line of beneficiaries. This is simply not right – surely season ticket holders should ‘own’ these ‘clubs’ in the same way that members own Working Men’s Clubs and the Co-operative? We recently had a scenario where Chelsea FC tried to buy Stamford Bridge back from the fans and was it not a victory for common sense when the fans refused? The ownership model of Barcelona FC is another example many fans should lobby for their club to adopt to safeguard their long-term future.
Without doubt television money, or rather the lack of it, has diminished the Scottish domestic game on an international level and there is talk that the possible demise of Rangers could have a further negative impact but with or without Rangers, television revenue need not impact the competitiveness and fans’ enjoyment of the domestic product.
The SPL simply must do what most fans want and increase the league to 16 teams and hope to improve the footballing fortunes of the national team by giving more young players a chance to play top-flight football. If more Scottish players subsequently joined bigger leagues and the national team attended major competitions there can be no doubt the interest of television companies in the domestic product would be greater.
A bigger league will also help many clubs who play by the rules. Three seasons ago, Inverness CT operated debt free. It was the same two seasons past with Falkirk. Last season Hamilton’s losses were negligible and what did all these clubs get for their prudence? Relegation! This year it looks like we will lose either Hibernian or Dunfermline and it is not in the spirit of fair play as both clubs have taken great strides in recent years to manage their debt while the wage bill at Hearts exceeds turnover and the players are not paid on time. The football authorities owe it to clubs who do play by the rules to extend the league and reduce their risk of relegation, whatever the financial implications are to the bigger clubs and their absurd European aspirations, for the greater good of the Scottish game.
And yet, for all my criticism of the money men in football and their contribution to the demise of the Scottish game, it is only right to consider if the fans ought to shoulder some responsibility too. The weight of their expectations, and quite often unrealistic expectations, is a burden which many club owners have to carry. Every club has a natural level and likes to punch above its weight but only one club can finish top and one will undoubtedly finish bottom.
A good football man, Mick McCarthy, has just lost his job at Wolves yet leaves them in a better state than when he took over, but the fans wanted him out. And as much as I understood the sentiment, the recent fan demonstrations at Blackburn Rovers against Steve Kean seemed rather harsh because, like Wolves, a fight for survival is their natural level in the Premiership. Of course they want to sign new players to get the team out of their predicament but can the club afford it? Supporters must also be realistic.
Then again, perhaps they would be if they were better informed. There exists, unfortunately, at almost every football club, a dichotomy between supporters and the board of directors but I lay the blame firmly at the door of the boardroom. It is an abuse of the unconditional loyalty of supporters, the one constant at every club. The variety of methods available to directors to communicate with season ticket holders in particular – for they are the real ‘supporter’ as opposed to the ‘fan’, has never been greater and they should keep them up to date with accurate and honest information in all matters which effect the club on and off the park.
The current plight of Rangers FC transcends the norm so this is not a time to ponder who is to blame as most reporting seems to focus upon – the courts will sort that out and rightly so because this goes much deeper than anything the game in the UK has ever seen. In the meantime, all football fans should look ahead because the situation presents opportunities on so many levels for them to lobby to improve the organisation, ownership, administration and economy of Scottish football for the future prosperity and benefit of every club.
And as for Rangers, they are a blue whale in a puddle! Even if liquidated, they will not sink because they are too big and the people that matter most, their loyal fans throughout the world, will somehow, engineer a way to make sure there is a Rangers FC afloat in some form. I wish them well and hope their loyalty, and that of football fans across Scotland, is not further abused after the dust has settled.
(The latest developments in the Rangers crisis will be discussed on the Radio Scilly sports show at 10 a.m. on Saturday).