There is a sickness at the heart of Scottish football - the very core of which is now corrupted beyond repair. You see, a cancer was left untreated for generations and, so protected was this cancer that it was allowed to fester and grow - and all with the implicit backing of those who were tasked with protecting and upholding the sporting traditions of the beautiful game in Scotland.
The truth of the matter is that Scottish football was, and continues to be, little more than an organised protection racket for the sole benefit of Rangers Football Club (In administration).
The names of the directors and the 'empty blazers' at the Scottish Football Association (SFA) may have changed over the years but the one overriding and unchanging constant is that the Rangers Protection Racket (RPR) must be maintained. At all costs.
The structure of the top league and the names of the directors of those clubs in the top league have also changed over the years but the good old RPR still permeates the boardrooms. You'll find no shortage of these types falling over themselves in the rush to openly criticise anything relating to Celtic. And those who masquerade as journalists in Scotland have direct hotlines to these people and are always only too willing and able to let them have their say. After prompting and coaching them, of course.
This is in stark contrast with the reticence (think wild horses) of those same people to openly dish out the same treatment to any aspect of Rangers? Even now, when many of those same clubs regularly struggle to pay their own staff on time yet are owed significant sums of money from this pariah of a football club?
Incidentally, the RPR has been out in the open for years on the after dinner speaking circuit, and it has provided a very nice source of income for the retired refereeing fraternity.
And the cry was; 'Penalty to Rangers!'
The latest contestants in the RPR scheme are Neil Doncaster; CEO and designated doublethink spokesperson for the Scottish Premier League (SPL), and Stewart Regan, who holds the equivalent post at the SFA - and who is currently hurtling towards the 'I'm so far out of my depth I've just struck oil at the bottom of the sea' award for his outstanding contribution to blocking people on Twitter.
Doncaster, quite shamelessly, places finance way ahead of even the merest pretence at moral decency. Sporting integrity and silly notions like a level playing field where all are treated exactly the same and, can also expect to be punished equally and without fear or favour, are so far off this mans radar that NASA and the worlds best amateur astronomers would struggle to find them using the Hubble Space Telescope.
How Doncaster - a failed and totally discredited former CEO of Norwich City - ever managed to get his current gig as CEO of the SPL is, in itself, a shocking indictment on those who appointed him and the governance of the game. Incidentally, Rod Petrie, Martin (EBT) Bain and Doncaster's predecessor Lex Gold formed the sub-committee which ultimately rubber-stamped Doncaster's appointment.
As for Pontius Regan, one wag mentioned to me that he should have a big sign on his desk which states:
THE BUCK STOPS - ANYWHERE BUT HERE!
Regan's problems stem for his crass attempts to appear as all things to all people. He's never quite grasped the concept that his main duty as CEO of the Scottish Football Association is to enforce the Articles of that particular Association. Not so much without fear or favour where Regan is concerned, but rather an instinctive leap to procrastination, deflection and an unending search for a suitable destination to which he can then pass the buck to.
Let's be perfectly clear about this, when there are a series of secret meetings held which, paradoxically , are either leaked beforehand into the public domain or, more sinisterly , are entered into by official bodies with undisclosed parties (with equally secret agendas) but are later denied to have ever taken place - that, right there folks, is the very definition a conspiracy.
Collusion and conspiracy has contaminated Scottish football to such an extent that the putrid stench of it will never, ever leave the decomposing corpse of 'fitba' in this country.
one definition of corruption; moral impurity or deviation from an ideal
More about the SPL and the member clubs directors who will do their damndest to ensure that the RPR remains in place another time.
Be in absolutely no doubt about this; unless the Rangers Protection Racket is staked through the heart and completely killed off over the coming weeks and months, then the professional game in Scotland is finished.
The fans of the other SPL clubs have already made both their feelings and future intentions known should the RPR attempt to either keep the current Rangers in the SPL, or parachute any New Co into the league. The fact that Doublethink-Doncaster completely dismissed, out-of-hand, the views of the biggest financial contributors to the SPL coffers speaks volumes about his RPR agenda.
The choices are crystal clear:
Either Rangers - or whatever bastardised version of them emerges from their grave - are given full and proper punishments; effectively kicked out of Scottish football entirely and made to apply for membership to the Scottish Football League (SFL) - seeking entry to the Scottish Third Division - in exactly the same way as any other new club would have to do, or the game and the sport and the integrity of Scottish football dies.