JABBA THE AGNIVORE

CHEATS

A rather strange admission by Bill Mcmurdo yesterday. He is arguing for Trigger's Brush FC helping out Hearts, and even Dunfermline. He says that the Oldco had a long history of helping out other teams, saying, 'It is well-known that Rangers have extended favours to teams in the past. I remember two occasions from my boyhood when teams got end-of-season “surprise” results at Ibrox that helped them beat the drop.' How wonderfully altruistic of them!

I remember years ago I ran a competition in my class in conjunction with the local Lloyds chemist. Apparently Lloyds gave each branch a fund to encourage them to reach out to the local community; they even gave awards to the branches that did the most. So the manager was enthusiastic and offered to judge the competition and provide, not only prizes, but goodies for all the kids in the class.

The pupils were to design posters, warning of the dangers of skin cancer and reminding people to wear enough sun lotion. One of the girls asked me if she could finish her poster at home and I, without thinking, said yes. Of course, the Lloyds manager chose the girl as one of the winners. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. It was obvious that the girl's mother had a hand in her poster, but I could hardly say anything. It was my fault and I made sure that I never made that mistake again.

So what does this story have to do with anything? Well, my point is that helping somebody in a competition invariably means that you are giving an unfair advantage to one person over the others that are competing fairly. This is the same for teams. It is one thing to go easy in a charity match and let the other team win to make the others feel good; quite another entirely to lie down to help a team in a competition. Bill McMurdo suggests that this happened in matches against Dundee Utd and Airdrie. If Rangers helped certain teams to stay in the top six, or even to avoid relegation, then it was to the detriment of other teams. There is a name for people, teams or other organisations that indulge in this sort of behaviour - cheats!

Gary Locke, meanwhile has given the Brushers an excuse to start bleating all over again about injustices etc. He has asked Trigger's Brush FC, among others, to play a fundraising match at Tynecastle. TBFC, of course, ran to the papers, trying to make out that they are they only ones he's approached. Cue all the 'nae chance' and 'let thum stew in thur ain juice' statements. Fungus The Bogeyman, aka Mark Dingwall of the Rangers Supporters' Trust, voiced the opinions of many when he said that Locke had a cheek asking. This is the lumbering dolt, remember, that told people to boycott Tannadice and then sneaked into the match himself!

This has also brought up the old chestnut of Trigger's Brush FC being Rangers, the same team that used to play at Ibrox. I've explained my position on this many times but I'll make one final point. If it is still the same club then why did SFA membership have to be transferred? If it was the same club then membership would just continue, wouldn't it? Also, if it was the same club, why did it not start with a 15-point penalty at the beginning of last season for going through a second insolvency event?

I've only just read Gordon Waddell's piece in the Sunday Mail and, depressingly, he's joined the 'our football authorities are to blame' brigade. Unlike Hateley, however, he has decided not to blame the SFA but, instead, have a go at the new SPFL. He says that it should 'learn a few lessons from its less-than illustrious genesis.' Nothing like laying your cards on the table straight off, eh? Anyway, he derides the SPFL for not having financial controls in its rulebook. Isn't it strange how all these characters are desperate for financial controls these days? I wonder why.

There were folk away back in the 1990s that were calling for some kind of financial control, or at least some kind of financial restraint, in Scottish football. These Jeremiahs were shouted down amid the general clamour to hero-worship David Murray and drool over all his plans for the future. Rangers were going to be a big force in Europe, dominate Scottish football and probably end up moving to the English leagues, where they would vie with Manchester Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea etc to be the biggest, most successful club in Britain. Of course, as we now know, all this was built on soggy foundations.

Other Scottish clubs had to spend just in order to keep some kind of place in the top tier as Rangers swept all aside. Any calls for such spending to be curtailed would also have to be extended to the cash being thrown around by Murray, and there was no way that was going to be countenanced! Murray continued to build castles in the sky while the agnivores of the Scottish media fell over themselves in praise of him. When the house of cards collapsed it almost dragged the whole of Scottish football with it.

These desperate attempts to shift the blame from Murray and Rangers is typical of our media agnivores. It does not even enter their closed minds that Rangers were to blame for their own downfall and that Murray was in any way guilty. No. It has to be the fault of the SFA, SPL and everybody else for not stopping Murray, or Whyte for that matter, in their tracks. As I've said before, they would all have been up in arms if anyone had stood in Murray's, or Whyte's, way. There is also the little matter of Whyte's involvement with Green when SFA membership was transferred to Newco. Despite the protestations coming from Ibrox, the fact that nobody is allowed to see the findings of the 'independent inquiry' speaks volumes. And yet, any suggestion that there should be a real, independent investigation into this matter is met with howls of protest. As usual, this lot want rules in place but don't want them to apply to their own team!

Finally, now that the longest day has been and gone, let me be the first to say, The nights are fair drawin' in!

Mark Dingwall, he say "No!"