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Neil Doncaster must tell panic-stricken clubs to forget SPL2


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Dont know if this has been posted before:

Neil Doncaster must tell panic-stricken clubs to forget SPL2

By jim Traynor on Jul 16, 12 08:49 AM in rangers

STEWART Regan and Neil Doncaster will walk up the Hampden steps today like condemned men trudging towards the gallows.

The leaders of the SFA and SPL know their time could be short. One call for a vote of no confidence in SFA chief Regan has already been rejected but there is no doubt clubs and fans are blaming the two leaders for much of the chaos.

If they are to turn this tide of disapproval they'll have to prevent a whispering campaign becoming a clamour for their removal. If they're smart they'll start today by doing the right thing.

Regan could begin by apologising for having tried to manipulate clubs into voting Rangers (we can drop all the newco stuff now because they will be called Rangers) into the First Division. Apparently he used Hibernian's Rod Petrie to help spread the word. Go figure.

Anyway, while SPL chairmen listened, the lower-league clubs, when it was their turn to be advised, didn't. They withstood the pressure and decided the Ibrox club must begin at the very bottom.

Fair enough but there will be casualties as broadcasters and corporate partners queue up to renegotiate their deals now that Rangers won't be seen at the top level for at least three years.

From the beginning it was my view that Rangers should be sent to the bottom tier for the mismanagement and non-payment of taxes which helped tip them over, but the release of figures showing the potential carnage that might be visited upon a handful of clubs changed everything.

Integrity, if that really ever was one of the main drivers in this sorry tale of crime and punishment, had to be combined with reality. A compromise solution should have come into play because the stakes were so high.

Even if you wanted to allow for exaggeration or a degree of scaremongering by knocking several million off the £16m the authorities insist will be lost to the game annually during Rangers' top-flight absence, the risks in refusing to accommodate them in Division One were too high.

The SFL should have grabbed the opportunity to become the architects of a new way by giving the SPL what they desired - Rangers in the First - in return for radical and intelligent changes to the game's structure and culture.

Having said that, let me also stress that had Rangers not been punished there should have been no thought of compromise. But the fact is they have taken a kicking and I don't think we, as a nation, have been shown in a complimentary light.

Many fans were driven only by a need to make sure fair play applied and they are blameless but there's little doubt old scores were being settled by others. There was a nastiness about the way some fans, and clubs, lined up to have a go.

It was a pack mentality which made us appear brutal and cruel, and yet there are still some who don't believe Rangers have suffered enough. Regan might be one of them because the SFA continue to insist Charles Green and his investors agree to accept responsibility and punishment without appeal for any as yet undiscovered "crimes" which previous owners may have committed.

They are to agree never to return to court to contest sanctions and are being ordered to give up a number of trophies won in the EBT years.

What was once a raft of sanctions has become a barge almost too wide to navigate up the Clyde yet around the end of April, when Bill Miller was close to buying Rangers, his "incubator" club was to be allowed into the SPL.

His people believed that was all but agreed and while sanctions were attached they were "soft" in comparison to the ones the SFA and SPL are still trying to staple on to Green's concern.

Petrie was involved in the talks with Miller's people before the American backed out so perhaps the Hibs chief, who has been a go-between for Regan and Green, could explain what has changed. Who decided the punishments had to be tougher? Regan? Doncaster? Petrie himself? Or was it someone else?

Frankly, it shouldn't matter because it's time Green stood up for his club and told Regan, Doncaster and Petrie where to stick further sanctions. Shouldn't be too difficult for a Yorkshireman and he might also make it clear the only thing the SFA boss should be handing out now is Rangers' association membership so they can get on with the business of starting over in Division Three.

If Rangers weren't important to the game's finances clubs wouldn't be fearing closure without them so, if he's smart, Green will use this to his advantage by making his own demands which reflect the wishes of Rangers fans. Especially if he wants to move those season tickets.

And if Regan is sharp he'll dispense with the courier, Petrie, and blow away all doubts about Rangers' future by stating categorically they'll be in the Third Division. He should do that first thing today before sprinting to the office of his fellow Englishman, Doncaster, and telling him to wise up as well. Neil has to make sure his SPL clubs veer away from this nonsense of SPL2.

These two men must realise that, in the eyes of many clubs and fans, they are damaged goods. They allowed the process of dealing with Rangers to get away from them and don't have much time left to regain control through bringing their squabbling, panic-stricken members to heel. If they want to remain in office somehow today Regan and Doncaster have to end the chaos.

SPL clubs have been talking and meeting all weekend desperately seeking ways of minimising the effects of last Friday's SFL decision. As well as SPL2 it has also been suggested the top flight might decide to run with only 11 clubs instead of allowing Dunfermline, relegated last season, or Dundee in to make up the dozen. That would be yet another act of folly.

There wouldn't be a vacancy for Rangers in the SFL and, if they couldn't join the SPL, the Ibrox club would have nowhere to go. Green would be well within his rights to sell the assets and get himself as far away as possible from this madness which would be even more destructive if Rangers were wiped from the face of the game.

With Kilmarnock, Dundee United, Motherwell, and St Mirren facing closure if their TV payments are slashed the level of panic and fear is understandable, but as they all run around like men on fire they have to remember they charted this course themselves.

First, they allowed their fans to decide and then they asked the SFL to make a decision. But now they're bleating that they've somehow been turned over because a deal to put Rangers in the First Division was supposed to have been agreed.

Perhaps they need to turn their wrath on the men who gave them that impression in the first place rather than scream at the smaller clubs. If they continue to do that, or attempt to undermine Friday's vote, they'll just enrage the SFL further.

Ways of coping with the savage cuts which will be made must be found and people need to calm down and keep their heads. Especially Regan and Doncaster.

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