Another day, another he-said, she-said tit-for-tat segment in the Rangers-v-SPFL row that drags resources and attention further away from the bigger picture.
Inverness joined the fray on Sunday afternoon, with a lengthy statement backing the call for an independent investigation into the game’s governing, while also accusing an SPFL board member of bullying and making threats.
Dunfermline issued their response yesterday, with their chairman Ross McArthur believed to be the target of a number of the accusations already made. Few could deny the man a right of reply considering the gravity of some of the allegations, however it only serves to illustrate the game losing sight of what is important.
Today’s EGM is a distraction from the issues that Scottish football should be sorting out, such as the outcome of the Premiership and how the 42 SPFL clubs are going to survive.
A decision needs to be made on the Premiership season. Pure and simple. To think it can be played to a finish is looking increasingly foolish; some of the league’s bigger clubs, with players under contract and greater cash resources, may be able to field a squad beyond the end of this month.
But several of the other clubs will struggle to and are in no position to offer contract extensions. Ross County are one of those. Motherwell and Hamilton two more. They are in a state of limbo at the minute, waiting on some sort of clarity.
That is before we come on to the financial aspect. While clubs in England may be able to foot the bill for any testing required, in order to get games played, the six-figure costs mentioned are simply not feasible for Scottish clubs.
It has always been my view that football should not resume while there is still a strain on the health service. People pointing to other countries resuming or beginning their seasons do not factor in the way their respective governments have handled the crisis, how its citizens have adhered to restrictions, the demographic and general health of the populations.
A comparison I have mulled over in the last couple of days is that between Scotland and Finland. This was after speaking to Toni Reguero, the former Caley Thistle and Ross County footballer, who plies his trade in Finland and is set to start his league season in July.
Scotland have a slightly smaller population (5.45million to 5.54million) but significantly higher infection rates and deaths. Scotland has had 13,627 confirmed cases compared to Finland’s 5,984, with 1,862 deaths compared to 267. Comparatively, they are in a better position to resume playing than we are.
All of this gets lost amid the unnecessary mud-slinging that is dominating time and headlines just now. Rangers failed to produce anything significant to back up their serious allegations against the SPFL. There are questions, yes, and the process was far from perfect. But as yet, there is no proverbial smoking gun and it would be a waste of time to continue down this rabbit hole.
When you have Jim McInally suggesting court action could put next season into abeyance, surely the time has come to take a step back and think we may have gone too far?
The time should be now to give clubs some sort of clarity, allow them to prepare for a new season whenever that may be. It would be a dereliction of duty, from anyone claiming to have the best interests of Scottish football at heart, to continue dragging the game away from what really matters.
