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If I were to write a parody of a pseudo-intellectual kiddy-fiddlers take of the situation, I couldn't have done it better in 100 attempts.What a :BELM:

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The last paragraph of this "article" says - More people in Scotland per head of population watch their domestic top-level league than any other European nation.

Every second week at we bring roughly .8-1% of our population to Ibrox, Two clubs in the 1st division have average attendances under 1000. If you add thoses two clubs to the crowds the 2nd/3rd division bring in you would be lucky to have an average amongst them of 500 people, Just another example of us making the Scottish game look more appealing than it really is.

The rest of the article is just as bad with it's no more Rangers, widespread tax evasion and the irony of namedropping that upstanding citizen mcconville

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'Rangers' starting in the lowest league is a victory for fans over an inept elite

A grassroots network has exposed the connivances at the top of the game. Now's our chance to rebuild Scottish football

David Longmuir, chief executive of the Scottish Football League, right, and Jim Ballantyne, the SFL president, at a press conference at Hampden Park, Glasgow, on Friday. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

Mike Small

guardian.co.uk, Mon 16 Jul 2012 10.30 BST

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It's worth getting a few things straight before kick-off. This isn't about "relegating" Rangers. Rangers don't exist any more. This isn't about Craig Whyte. Craig Whyte's not around any more. It's about a culture of failure, a total lack of transparency and connivance from the very top of the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football Association in a rigged cartel that has brought Scottish football to total crisis. The good news is that the inept coterie at the top of the game has been bypassed by ordinary fans and smaller clubs. This is what democracy looks like.

Just when you thought the corporate takeover of society was just about complete, an event takes place or a movement pops up to renew your faith and make you realise that big change is not just possible, it's inevitable, because right across society the elite that runs our world is being exposed daily as a corrupt and incompetent failure.

Sevco 5088 Ltd being forced to start their existence in Scotland's lowest league is one of these events, and the sweeping grassroots network that made this happen is one of these movements. Only a few months ago this was completely unthinkable, and only a few days ago it seemed like efforts to parachute this new entity into the First Division – the next tier down from the Scottish Premier League – by Neil Doncaster, the now utterly discredited SPL chief executive, would succeed. Sporting integrity, or integrity of any kind, would, it seemed, be crushed under the weight of corporate expectation, a conflation of embedded sports and business journalists and the staggering sense of entitlement of Rangers and their allies in the governing bodies.

Instead, incredibly, we've just seen the transformation of Scottish football, realised almost entirely through Twitter and key websites that have proliferated as the story has dominated every media outlet for over a year: the award-winning Rangers Tax Case, fans site Pie and Bovril, rebel journalist Phil - The Failed Journalist, Wings Over Scotland, Scotzine and Paul McConville to name a few. These sites give us hope that what may follow is not just a renaissance in Scottish football but in Scottish media. A core part of this saga has been the failure of the sports and business media with allegations of laziness, partiality and just a complete lack of any critical faculties.

Whatever you think of the rights and wrongs of Rangers, the fact is that the SPL chairmen would have quite happily connived to drop the newco into the top flight. Without the resistance of a network of ordinary fans unconvinced by the governing bodies' (or the mainstream media's) account of things, the money men's perpetual short-termism would have prevailed. Faced with (unsubstantiated) apocalyptic scenarios, ordinary fans put huge pressure on their own clubs in advance of the vote at Hampden this week, withholding their season tickets.

The collapse of Rangers and the shock it's put through the entire Scottish game has wider consequences. The allegations of widespread tax evasion and the brutal gangster behaviour of football executives has exposed an entire class of feral businessmen.

But this is about more than exposing bad business. The model of endless growth has been challenged. The consequences of consigning Sevco Scotland to start where any new club would start may well mean drastic cuts in Scottish football. Some clubs may have to close or downsize. This is no bad thing. We know we have too many clubs in this country. Endlessly chasing an utterly unsustainable model is failed economics.

This has been a profound failure of governance, not just among the series of dodgy geezers who lined up to fleece Rangers fans for decades, but the entire edifice of Scottish football, especially the leadership of Stewart Regan and Neil Doncaster. The reality is that the SPL, founded in 1998, has failed by any metric you can choose: attendances, club success in Europe, entertainment value, national team success. Incredibly, since the SPL began, five of its member clubs have entered administration. The newly leaked email from the SFA's Stewart Regan marks him out as a clueless fixer, who's failed at every effort to collude with Rangers. BBC Scotland reported yesterday that a vote of no confidence in Regan was proposed and seconded at last Friday's Scottish Football League meeting.

By having the courage to break from the old failed model, the SFL clubs have done the whole of Scottish football a huge favour. There won't be any "social unrest", there will be renewed enthusiasm. More people in Scotland per head of population watch their domestic top-level league than any other European nation. Let's rebuild, let's transform Scottish football. Let's learn the wider lessons not just about the failed corporate economies but the lively powerful networks that can offer an alternative.

• Follow Comment is free on Twitter @commentisfree

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Bears - Just sent the following eMail to Alan Rusbridger the Editor - not sure it will make any difference but it lets them know we won't just sit back and let them spout their crap.

Dear Sir,

I read the commentisfree article at the link shown below and I almost spat my tea all over the screen of my laptop - I have never read a more biased article in any British newspaper. Rangers have not been found guilty of anything and police enquiries are ongoing into the actions of major individuals at the heart of alleged actions.

The author is obviously a celtic fan and judging by the websites that are praised in the article is probably an anti-British republican sympathiser also. The websites that apparently have been so instrumental in their bringing down a corrupt cartel are nothing more than a platform for anti-Rangers and anti-British bile which any sane person reading would quickly discover.

How a quality paper such as yourself can give these rambling incoherent biased agenda driven outbursts a platform in mainstream media is beyond me.

Will you be affording the same amount of space to a fair and accurate report of what actually happened and is still ongoing as I type?

http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/16/rangers-lowest-league-victory-fans?cat=commentisfree&type=article

Regards

Roddy Kerr

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We Rangers Fans are now the Victims of a Republican Political Socialist Attack on all things Related to a United Kingdom , it is becoming clearer by the Day that the Political Ostracism, and Vilification of our Fanbase throughout Scotland is under way.

They have made it Political, and Religious in its Connotation, and has become something of a Cause through Media, and Internet, which will never cease until several things have occurred.

1) The Total eradication of RFC ,and its Fans as a Power in Scotland.

2) The Politicisation of our Police Force, and the Vilification of Rangers Fans, and Protestants in General . (Laws made up Just for us.)

3 ) The eradication of the Unionist, and Royalist support within Scotland, and the Success of an Independent Nationalist Socialist Scotland .

There is a Battle going on now Guys and we really really need to waken up .

Its all about Phsycops, and Brainwashing ,tell a Lie enough swamp the Airwaves and let the Masses Jump on it.

We need to Fight this thing Head on .

I do feel the need to Contact Mr Small and challenge him on several Issues now .

Lets get Cracking .

Rangers don't exist any more WTF .Republican Probaganda.

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The last paragraph of this "article" says - More people in Scotland per head of population watch their domestic top-level league than any other European nation.

Every second week at we bring roughly .8-1% of our population to Ibrox, Two clubs in the 1st division have average attendances under 1000. If you add thoses two clubs to the crowds the 2nd/3rd division bring in you would be lucky to have an average amongst them of 500 people, Just another example of us making the Scottish game look more appealing than it really is.

The rest of the article is just as bad with it's no more Rangers, widespread tax evasion and the irony of namedropping that upstanding citizen mcconville

Heard a few diddy team fans come out with the head of population stat, the muppets don't take into account that it's 2 teams who bing in about 85% of that support, take them away and Scotland is well below other leagues in Europe with similar populations.

As for the article what are these poisonous wee rats going to do in life now that we won't be in the spl. No foaming at the mouth about songs or the pure dead conspiracy against Sellik eff cee.

One of the other benefits of Rangers being in div3 besides watching other clubs die is the mHedia will cut a lot of sports journalists jobs as well. The Sun claimed last week they sell 14,000 extra papers the day after Rangers play in Europe and 50,000 extra after an old firm game.

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