A BIT of a potpourri column this week as there’s a lot going on across the various sports I choose to favour. Indeed, one of them could do with learning from another on how to deal with a problem which has beset the two sports.
But first, to the midden that is Murrayfield’s management and the abject climbdown by the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) in their spat with World Rugby over the SRU’s implied threat of legal action if their World Cup pool stage match with Japan was cancelled.
By meekly agreeing to “donate” the £70,000 fine to World Rugby following the independent disciplinary committee’s findings against them, the SRU has grovelled and proven to be all bluff and bluster. Where’s the legal action or even an appeal to the Court of Arbitration in Sport now?
More importantly, that is money that is coming out of the sport here in Scotland at a time when every penny is needed and by backing chief executive Mark Dodson – no action against him means they back him – the board and the council of the SRU are guilty of bringing Scottish rugby into disrepute.
Every single one of them should resign right now and make way for people of principle. The fact that World Rugby were so incompetent in their inflexible arrangements does not excuse Dodson’s actions which were presumably backed by those SRU board and council members present in Japan and contactable back in Scotland.
They are collectively guilty of bringing shame and dishonour on the sport in Scotland and at the very least they should forego all their fees and expenses and pay their own travel and hotel bills until the £70,000 is paid off, with Dodson making his own large contribution to the fine – and it was a fine. Donald Trump did exactly the same thing last week, saying his $2 million fine for his charity’s offences was a donation. How far has the once holier-than-thou SRU fallen when it apes the spin tactics of Trump?
READ MORE: Scottish Rugby Union chief must go after conduct at World Cup
Let’s turn to Rangers and the “revelation” – from five months
ago – that the oldco club’s tax bill was far higher than it should have been. It might and probably would have made it easier for David Murray to sell Rangers if the potential liability was smaller, but it didn’t and Craig Whyte was the only one left in the auction.
The issue boils down to the fact that the oldco cheated by evading tax and that is not the case with the present board who have paid full taxes and put up millions to keep the club running and will continue to do so, as they have said. I don’t know how it will pan out with Dave King and co, but I have always maintained that Craig Whyte and Charles Green should never have darkened the doors of Ibrox and I still say that the people who should own Rangers are the fans of Rangers.
The team in blue playing at Ibrox is still the plaything of supposedly rich men. Until the fans own Rangers – just as fans own Barcelona – they will have to hope that various capitalists can stump up to keep the much-revived show on the road.
It is to the eternal shame of Scottish football that the sport still has a sizeable hooligan element attached to it. The lunatic fringe in the Celtic support who let off flares and fireworks, the idiots like Rangers “supporter” Sandy Chugg who battled Wigan fans – he’s now in jail for it – and the morons who have besmirched the names of other clubs are all scum and should be ejected from football sine die.
Here’s how to do it: the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) announced on Tuesday that the 11 men convicted of their part in a violent brawl at Goodwood racecourse on May 5, 2018, would be banned indefinitely from all racecourses and establishments in British racing. The ban will be for a minimum of three years and for those with the longer sentences – one man was sent to prison for 20 months – the ban will be much more extensive.
Racing has had a growing problem with hooliganism, but the BHA is determined to stamp it out and such long bans at least ensure that the rest of us can go racing knowing that the 11 troublemakers won’t be bothering us. It’s a rare example of a governing body using its powers to take nationwide action against hooligans. Why can’t the Scottish Football Association and the Scottish Professional Football League do the same?
Why not say to all the clubs in Scotland “if you don’t ban convicted hooligans, then we will” and then impose bans on hooligans from everything to do with football – refuse them entry and kick them out of stadia, ban them from joining supporters clubs or buying tickets, ensure that all clubs know who they are and exclude them.
Rangers have just done it with a “fan” who caused trouble at Kilmarnock in August and it was an indefinite ban and a season ticket was forfeited without compensation – that’s the way ahead.
I can accept that sometimes daft laddies or lassies can get involved in troublemaking when they are not core hooligans, so start with a sliding scale of ban. It shouldn’t be up to the courts to impose such bans, football itself should do it, and that means action by the SFA and SPFL.
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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