The Daily Record - Jim Traynor

What's the bid idea?

2012-07-23T06:34:05Z

WITH only days to go before Rangers begin life all over again there should be a sense of anticipation sweeping through a club which has been disgraced, discredited and dumped in the game's basement.

At least they still have a pulse but 10 weeks after Charles Green agreed an exclusivity deal with Rangers' administrators, uncertainty and anxiety continue to stalk the corridors of Ibrox and Murray Park.

And I believe concern over the new club's finances has prompted Brian Kennedy to make a £5.6million bid for a controlling interest.

Rangers sources insist that bid, more than Green and his partners from Zeus paid for the entire package, was made on June 25 and although rejected, my information is it remains on the table.

It is also understood from within Ibrox that there is growing concern over Rangers' future because Green's business plan was based on his club starting in the First Division at worst.

One of the main planks of his model was a rush by fans to buy season tickets but so far no one has been trampled in the stampede to the box office. Yet, Green's own "Financial Offering", the document sent out to potential investors, made reference to raising as much as £15m through season tickets.

There is still a wide credibility gap between Green and Rangers supporters. They remain unconvinced by the Yorkshireman and his people and so it seems do investors, even though an English sports agency said last week they want to pay £1m for a 10 per cent share.

They didn't have to muscle their way to the front of a queue either, even though Green insisted from day one that attracting investors and money wouldn't be a problem.

It was also written in his document that as much as £30m of working capital would be brought in by the middle of July and Rangers fans might want to ask where that money is.

Green would say his plan was dependent on gaining control of the club through a CVA but even so, surely a handful, a few even, out of all the investors - I think, Charles, you may have mentioned 20 - he said were lined up might have gone ahead regardless.

But where are they? Where's the money Charles? And is there enough to keep Rangers going long enough to survive the season?

The truth is Rangers' financial woes are far from over but any cash-flow problems could be solved if Green accepted Kennedy's offer which remains live.

Kennedy, of course, tried to get Rangers on his own, and then by riding with the Blue Knights, but while they and others were left behind when Green made his blindside run, the English-based Scottish millionaire kept up to speed with developments.

He continued to monitor the situation very closely and our sources believe his offer to be substantial and fair.

The deal is Kennedy would gain 51 per cent of the club in return for his money which would be used as working capital rather than to fill anyone's pockets and, within two years, Green's investors would get back the amounts they put in, with 10 per cent interest on top.

It is understood Kennedy was reluctant to turn his back because he fears Rangers could slide back into administration, or worse. That's why he's willing to boost resources by injecting more than the purchase price paid by Green's group while still offering them the chance to get their money back, and then some.

The bid was dismissed when Green believed Rangers would start in the SPL or, at worst, the First Division but our information suggests attitudes within the controlling group might be softening now they are in the Third.

Understandably, there is acute concern that despite a series of charm offensives, season tickets have not been sold in great numbers. But there are one or two within Ibrox who are beginning to wonder if the fans would be tempted to pile in with Kennedy on board.

Anger has also been simmering among the Rangers support because their club doesn't have a powerful voice at the game's top tables. They are asking why Green and club chairman Malcolm Murray haven't been more vociferous in defending Rangers against sanctions but with Kennedy and his management team in place that could be another problem solved.

The SFA, who hit Rangers with a £160,000 fine and a 12-month registration ban, and SFL have said they won't be pushing to have any of their trophies won by Rangers during the EBT years erased from the records.

The SPL, however, have yet to tell their own agitators it might be time to focus on more important issues, like staying alive.

Kennedy might have delivered that message long ago and he'd probably be warning that if the SPL remain entrenched over the issue of titles they might push Rangers to the point where they are happy to stay in the SFL, rather than return to a league which has made it very clear they couldn't accept them.

The rift could become permanent if the SPL insist on further sanctions which would push Rangers even closer to their new neighbours.

In fact, the notion of the SFL and Rangers forming a stand-alone system, which would prevent promotion to the SPL has, I believe, been discussed informally and some think it has merit and possibilities.

There are only two massive clubs in Scotland, even if one of them, Rangers, are on their knees. But they will get back to their feet and if they remained in the SFL the game's poor relations could very quickly become the stronger and richer of the two leagues.

Naturally, the SPL would laugh at the very idea yet if, because of diminishing TV and sponsorship deals, they lose a few clubs they'd be reduced to Celtic, the game's main power, but perhaps only seven or eight impoverished others. Those clubs could be even less of an attraction to telly companies than now.

On the other hand, SFL clubs would benefit from deals of their own because they now have one of the big two in their pack.

And having already lost everything, Rangers have nothing left to risk. The SFL, and Rangers, might never have a better chance to grow, while the SPL, who left the others behind in 1998 to set up on their own, would become weaker.

The SFA would probably be unable to resist a wish by the SFL and Rangers to stand alone and demand European places because they couldn't rule in favour of, say, eight or nine SPL clubs against 30 in the SFL. After all, haven't the SPL been insisting the voice of the majority must be heard?

First, Rangers have to stay alive and if Green needs the fans to back him through season-ticket sales he just might sell a few more by doing a deal with Kennedy.

And Ally McCoist might be told for the first time how much he has to spend on his project: Rebuilding Rangers.

Neil Doncaster must tell panic-stricken clubs to forget SPL2

2012-07-16T07:49:47Z

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.

Sky decision to focus on John Terry proves our game is in turmoil

2012-07-14T06:30:51Z

IN the end they didn't believe. The warnings of dire consequences for some of Scotland's biggest clubs if Rangers newco were not voted into the First Division of the SFL fell on deaf ears.

The offspring of the club bought by Charles Green will start life in the SFL's Third Division. Maybe.

There are moves afoot to overrule the wishes of the majority. Yesterday's historic decision was, I believe, the wrong one but it must stand.

Any attempt now by the SPL, who, remember, didn't want Green's club, to railroad through SPL 2 because they don't like the way the vote went would be wrong.

And so, too, would any attempt by that body to run with 11 clubs next season instead of 12. Dundee haven't been told they can step up to the top flight yet and if they have to remain in the First Division, there wouldn't be a vacancy in the SFL for Rangers newco.

The SPL must not dare attempt to sit this out a little longer and then, at the last possible moment, declare it would be morally wrong to run the risk of losing perhaps a quarter of their members by not allowing the Ibrox newco back in. Even if Green's club were lumbered with a raft of sanctions it would still be wrong.

No one said the SPL were wrong to refuse the new outfit a space in their ranks, so the SFL's decision must also be respected.

But some of those chairmen who insisted they had to listen to their fans are considering ways of getting around yesterday's vote and it would be foolish to believe the SFA haven't thought about refusing Rangers a membership to play in the Third Division.

They have that power but exercising it would be an abuse of office and one of the most dastardly acts in this already shameful saga. That, too, would be wrong. Absolutely wrong.

They won't do that. They couldn't but they should be making it clear they've heard the SFL's call for a 42-club solution to the game's problems even if so far neither they nor the SPL have played a blinder.

They haven't exactly covered themselves in glory since Rangers suffered their insolvency trauma, plunging the game into crisis.

The big mistake made by the SPL clubs was to pander to allow supporters to dictate. When cold, calculating business minds were required we ended up with fans allowing hearts to rule their heads.

As a consequence of that madness the clubs of the First, Second and Third divisions were asked to find a solution by accommodating Rangers newco and yesterday they welcomed the new club in. But because they refused to put a price on fair play they felt the only door they could open was the one into the bottom division.

Not at all what the SPL and SFA wanted or expected. But the SPL, in their arrogance, assumed Rangers would be berthed in the First Division and had indications from their broadcast and corporate partners that current deals could remain virtually intact for a year but no longer.

The pulling power of Rangers, or rather the new Rangers, is required to maintain the arrangements at today's levels but there will have to be a series of renegotiations down the way.

The SFA and SPL tried hard to make chairmen aware of the consequences claiming that around £16m would be cut annually from the current deals. This, they stressed, would push three, possibly even five clubs towards administration and leave the SPL more or less down and out.

Scaremongering? We'll find out soon enough but the governing bodies remain adamant their talks with all their sponsors and partners left them in no doubt about the amounts that would be lost with Rangers newco in the third. Anyone who doesn't believe Sky, ESPN and the others won't now be renegotiating their packages is deluded.

But even so, the decision has been made and it must be respected, which means Regan, after he's gulped in oxygen and mustered the courage, shouldn't say he'll issue Rangers a membership to play in Scotland only if it's in the First Division.

Look, the SPL charted their own course and must now live with the consequences no matter how damaging.

They presented their case for Rangers newco in the First but it wasn't enough to convince the SFL to change their minds.

Yesterday's decision must be respected and the message sent out that all senior clubs need to act together for change rather than plan another comfort zone for a hand-picked few should be heard and acted upon.

But just in case the SPL are unwilling to accept the will of the majority vote, the SFL might want to consider their own plan.

If they get Rangers in their group, and no matter the division, they'd have a terrific opportunity to become the dominant body. They'd have one half of the Old Firm and one of the biggest clubs in Britain in terms of fan numbers on side.

The other half, Celtic, would of course be in the SPL but if that league's own Doomsday predictions are correct and they lose a clutch of clubs, they would be in a parlous state. They'd number, say eight while the SFL would be almost four times the size and quite possibly in a position to secure the best telly and sponsorship deals they've ever had.

The SPL would be cut adrift and it would be very difficult for the SFA to stand in their way. Could the governing body ignore 30 while favouring about eight who might not have deals as lucrative as those in the SFL?

But the best thing for all now would be to accept yesterday's decision and make the most of it. If the SPL clubs are smart they'll get together with the SFL and come up with a way to make changes which might minimise the damage which will be caused once the TV companies have changed their deals.

The only way out of this is to work as one with the good of the game priority, although there will be casualties in the season ahead.

I still believe the best solution would have been Rangers in the First Division but the overwhelming majority said no and that is that.

We move on but we all need to be in step no matter our differences. Further arguments and coercion now will not help but will create wider divisions.

Scottish football has to find a new way and it has to find it quickly because right now our game is in the gutter.

People are laughing and yesterday, when Sky cut away from live coverage of the SFL's media conference after the vote to cover John Terry's exit from a court in London, we were put in our place.

Clearly Sky believe one English player is much more important than anything that happened on one of the most historic days in Scottish football's history.

We are where we are and right now that's in turmoil.

Clubs must do the right thing - vote Newco into first division

2012-07-13T07:52:08Z

THE first person who says the problem of Rangers newco is nothing to do with the SFL should be marched back down Hampden's steps and told never to darken football's door again.

We are way beyond whingeing and finger pointing.

Of course the SFL didn't create this mess but on July 4, when the SPL said no to Rangers newco, the problem arrived at their door and now they have to deal with it.

And so today the SFL must strive to do the right thing.

Whatever they do they must not make an even bigger mess and to avoid that they will need to stay focused and remember today isn't about blame.

It's not even about the cause of the current crisis, the club formerly known as Rangers. In an ideal world their offspring would have been forced to apply for membership of the SFL, starting at the very bottom of course. But Scottish football has never been the perfect environment.

If anything, our game has always been a bit of a cesspit.

And isn't it hilarious the way clubs and fans have been screaming about sporting integrity as if morality and honesty are the twin pillars on which the game was built? You'd find more honest brokers at a convention of bankers than you'd ever stumble across in the football business.

However, today we have an opportunity to do the right thing, not just for the few but the many. This is the day the clubs who were left behind in 1998, when a group too big for their boots decided they would break away and form the SPL, can rise above the anger and bluster and vote for the greater good.

They have a chance to lay the foundations which might give us a fighting chance on all the important fronts: youth development, coaching, league sizes, governance, voting structures and standards. A different distribution of wealth should also be brought into play but will the right decision be made?

Trouble is you have to wonder if the correct decision can be made when even the SFL's clubs face different but powerful temptations. Those in the First Division might want Rangers in with them to get a little more gate money for a season or two while Third Division members would want the same thing.

But hopefully enough will be able to see the bigger picture as painted by the governing bodies.

They claim as much as £16million would be drained from the game if Rangers newco are not allowed to start in the First but are accused of fabrication and scaremongering.

They are accused by a handful of clubs who have never shown any ambition and by internet bullies, who presumably have consulted all the TV companies and corporate partners.

These "supporters" dismiss financial projections out of hand while offering no evidence to prove the figures could be wrong.

They also say they would be happy enough to see their clubs die just as long as this new club playing out of Ibrox are in the Third Division.

WARNINGS

And they continue to insist honesty and sporting integrity must always come first. They wouldn't be lying about that, would they?

It doesn't matter what they think because the men, and women, who will vote are the important ones and we can only hope they are absolutely committed to the game's future. This is no time for twisted agendas.

If they genuinely don't believe the warnings of dire financial consequences then today will be simple. They will send Rangers, or Sevco, down to the Third but if they think the sums are accurate they will have to vote the new club into the First if they want to minimise damage caused by any reductions in TV and corporate deals.

But if they do decide to put Rangers all the way down they must be willing to accept the consequences, not that the smallest outfits will suffer from the fallout. They are little more than unambitious social clubs within their communities and while nothing much will change for them it could be desperate at the other end.

If the SFA, SPL and SFL bosses are correct the telly deals will be revised and reduced and those clubs already under pressure from their banks might not cope.

Three chairmen, who all voted to deny Charles Green's club a place in the SPL, have admitted to me privately that their clubs would be unlikely to survive the cuts but wait, all those clamouring for Rangers or anything connected to them to be pummelled further know better. Of course they do.

The sad thing is some, who ought to be more aware, could be swayed by these jackasses today.

But if they can ignore them and park long-standing grievances against the SPL, the game could get a result today. And under the circumstances the best result would be voting Green's club into Division One - but only if the SPL and SFA agree to all the conditions, especially extending the SPL to 14 and then 16, reducing the number of governing bodies and changing the money flow.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for the game's poorer relations to take the game to a better place.

PROTECTION

They would be fools to squander this moment, especially when they should know there are powerful influences within the SPL and SFA willing to step in if Rangers newco are sent to the bottom.

There are many who will be forced to say no again even if their fans don't approve. What needs to be understood is that more than a few SPL chairmen rejected Green's approach because they believed his club would be accommodated only one flight below and they won't accept anything worse.

It would be naive to think there won't be a move to make SPL 2 a reality and create an even wider division. It has been said privately that the total collapse of TV deals will not be allowed and the SFA, who have made it clear through their chief executive that their priority is the greater good of the game, would have to support any move which offered greater protection of the bigger clubs.

So late into last night the lobbyists were doing their stuff, deals were being struck, promises made and the whispering will continue right up until the meeting begins. That's why all this talk of clubs like Spartans being ahead of Rangers newco for membership to the SFL is no more than romantic tosh.

It's a nice, warming notion but it's not going to happen. It is unfortunate but decency and integrity do have their price.

It is then a simple sell today. Compromise in return for a radical overhaul of the game which just might give us a chance of creating stronger clubs and better players capable of competing in Europe.

By allowing the new Rangers into the First Division in return for a binding agreement on change the SFL can be the game's saviours. They have to do the right thing.

Weight of nation's expectations too much for Andy Murray

2012-07-09T07:26:25Z

AFTER the rain came the flood.

The Great British hope came up short and at the end of a long, rain interrupted afternoon, the pressures of carrying an entire country's dreams transformed a proud Scottish man to tears. The tennis stoic, Andy Murray, was an emotional wreck.

Having matched the feat of Bunny Austin, the last Brit to reach the men's singles final, Murray was asked to emulate Fred Perry's 1936 achievement by winning.

Coming at the end of one of the most gruelling fortnights in sport, we knew it was a massive task but we clung to the dream.

We also suspected that in facing Roger Federer, who had already won six Wimbledon singles titles, our boy from Dunblane had a Toblerone to climb. But could he? Would he?

Gloriously and raucously the doubts began to dissolve as Murray glowered across the net and broke Federer's serve in the opening game. The crowd were on their feet. The Blue Bloods and VIPs were jumping, too.

First Minister Alex Ferguson - that's how Sue Barker described the Manchester United manager - and someone called Alex Salmond roared their approval and then, when Murray had claimed the opening set, they and the rest of us started to believe.

Maybe, just maybe we were all witnessing one of British sport's greatest moments.

A Scot, never mind a Briton about to win the most coveted prize in tennis. Come on Andy. You can do it. For us.

And even though Murray dominated the second set, Federer won it. It's tempting to say he stole it but sporting greats like this beautifully designed Swiss player don't steal triumphs. They win them with their skills, stamina and bravery.

But Murray, playing in his fourth Grand Slam final, still had his belief and so did we. Until the rain came early in the third set. That's when the roof caved in.

It didn't really but as the roof was dragged over Centre Court a darkness seemed to shroud our soaring hopes. It was as if a ceiling had been placed over Murray's capabilities.

The doubts and fears for our boy returned and this time they wouldn't go away. A nation was rising again on the shoulders of a 25-year-old who wanted to be our hero but that roof helped put the lid on everything.

Suddenly Federer, who was probably as shocked as anyone by his sluggish start to this final, was alive again. His full arsenal returned and as his belief increased Murray's confidence was dissolving.

The Scot used the rain break to listen to his coach Ivan Lendl, who had sat hunched forward and stony faced with his chin on his hands.

He'd been watching through dark glasses studying Murray to see if he had taken on extra determination, the kind Lendl himself had shown as a player to win eight Grand Slams.

So there Lendl, the 80s automaton, was yesterday. Back in that hallowed place trying to convince another that he could achieve true greatness by winning Wimbledon, something Lendl himself never did despite all his talent and power.

But perhaps Murray should also have had a word with the First Minister. No, not you Mr Salmond. Sir Fergie. He might have been able to say something that could have made a difference.

Then again probably not. Because while Murray sat nodding as Lendl spoke, Federer listened to the rain clattering the roof. It was music to the ears of the world's best indoor player.

That's effectively where he and Murray were as soon as the roof slid over the most famous lawn in sport. The changing elements had placed Federer bang in the middle of his own.

When play resumed at one set all and one game all in the third set, Federer wasted no time. He demonstrated his relish for the enclosed space and had Murray galloping all over the court. Inevitably the Scot would run out of steam and long before the end his

shoulders were sagging and the country's hopes were sliding to the turf. He was blowing and slipping and tumbling. He was hurting from the falls and the growing realisation that Federer was still No1.

When he took the third set Britain's dream might not have been broken completely but like Murray at times it was walking with a limp.

Murray was broken in the fifth game of the fourth set. It was the only break but it was enough to earn Federer his seventh Wimbledon crown.

He collapsed to the lawn while Murray stood head bowed. He looked broken and bereft enduring the loneliness of Centre Court at these moments of defeat.

He didn't glance to his back-up team, family or friends. He tried to stem the flow but it was hopeless.The tears came and it was almost impossible for him to speak at the end.

His voice kept breaking because of the emotion but he got through the cruel formalities of praising the winner, thanking his team and family and addressing the fans, many of whom were also in tears.

It would be easy to mock Murray and say he should have been stronger but very few reach his heights of achievement and even fewer are asked to carry the burden of a country who haven't seen one of their own win at Wimbledon since 1936. Old Fred, forever cast in metal just inside the All England Club's grounds, won't have to shuffle over just yet.

The wait continues and although Murray said "I'm getting closer," you wonder. He had a great chance and you fear it might never come his way again.

They'll all say there's no shame in losing to a tennis genius like Federer but this was a great chance.

Although Murray had a difficult draw he got a break when Rafa Nadal lost to world No.100 Lukas Rosol in the second round. Murray could see the final and Federer, who had taken care of the other beast, Novak Djokovic.

Yes, it was a chance for us all to rise up again and triumph on the back of Murray. But he came up short and although many will criticise his performance during and after the match, his achievement in being one of only two men still standing should not be underestimated.

He had to overcome perhaps the best player ever. Let's not indulge in Scotland's favourite pastime of celebrating glorious defeat but neither should anyone be slaughtering Murray.

So what if he cried in public. Since he took his first steps Murray has been striving to win Wimbledon. Like all true athletes he has sacrificed and suffered.

He'd been carrying his own outrageous dreams then was lumbered with the crushing weight of our hopes. All that expectation and pressure. No wonder the dam finally burst.

A Scot in the men's Wimbledon final.

Will we ever see his likes again?

No to Rangers newco means SPL have thrown their problem at SFL

2012-07-05T06:40:26Z

NOW it's all so much clearer. The fate of the entire Scottish game lies with the SFL.

The SPL have made their decision which means the clubs they left behind must now save us.

At least and at last a degree of clarity. But hold on ... Oh My God.

Does this mean everything depends now on the view of Turnbull Hutton? And John Yorkston?

Whatever cash is left in the game we'll need for clean underwear.

Turnbull, the bold John and their mates will shape the game's future. Stand aside, women and children first.

By saying "no" to Rangers newco the SPL have thrown THEIR problem at the SFL hoping the smaller clubs will give Charles Green's venture a home.

They will find space for Rangers but it might not be in their own top division.

The SFL clubs, who still harbour a deep grudge because they were cut adrift by the top sides in 1998, are in no mood to be railroaded into helping.

They'll demand concessions and rightly so.

Their chief executive, David Longmuir, has already listed demands which will include an absolute commitment to streamline the administrations - three governing bodies is a nonsense - better governance, which would include a change to the voting structures, and a fairer distribution of whatever wealth remains in the game.

The SPL, because they neglected to craft legislation to deal with insolvency traumas, now desperately need the help and understanding of the clubs they left behind.

A number of those clubs have been waiting for this day and they'll make the most of their moment.

It would be difficult to argue they aren't entitled to be rubbing their hands gleefully but this isn't about getting even. This is about the survival of the game.

Leaders of the SPL and SFL have warned something like £16million could be lost to our football but a growing number among the SFL chairmen are sceptical about the figures.

And neither do they believe that as many as 10 clubs from the game's four levels could go to the wall.

But it is understood just more than £12m would be lost from altered TV deals and at least £4.5m could be drained from sponsorship contracts if Rangers go to the Third Division.

TV accounts for a third of the average SPL club's income and that's why it's too simplistic when fans and some misinformed - and frankly ignorant - commentators say they should wean themselves off this dependence on telly cash.

Now that we know the extent of the financial fallout, it isn't sense or pragmatism which is making hacks and chairmen stick to their sporting integrity and fair play themes.

It's a mixture of settling old scores, blind hatred and downright malice.

Of course Rangers should and would have been ordered to apply for admission via the bottom tier had the SPL regulars been more concerned with proper governance over the years rather than forming divisive cabals and little power bases.

But because Scottish football is a complete mess other factors must now be taken into
consideration.

So surely a sensible compromise rather than a spiteful one must be found. But justice is justice they all wail. We can't put a price on fair play they scream.

Get real and stop wearing out your knuckles on your keyboards. What real fan would want his club, innocents in all of this, to shut because of a desire to get at the real culprits?

Rangers did this and they are suffering. But this need to put them down further will endanger other innocent clubs.

When the greed of bankers dragged the world into this deep recession the right thing to do would have been to let them close and take the big salaries and bonuses.

But we didn't because that would have amounted to financial suicide and made life even tougher for the rest of us.

Common sense had to prevail but not here. Not in Scottish football where heads are used only to nod goals.

But if we refuse to engage our brains we will score the most damaging own goal in the history of our game. And all because when the fans railed our chairmen failed.

Instead of thinking ahead they thought only of the moment. Must sell season tickets, must listen to fans.

Just the other day one SPL chairman said: "It's hopeless. If I don't vote 'no' fans won't buy season tickets and I'll be shut.

"If I vote 'no' and Rangers are put down to the Third Division the money lost to the game will mean my club will have to be closed. It's madness."

And it is crazy. So-called fans who dominate their message boards appear to be running the show and are now pressing SFL clubs into doing the right thing, which is actually the wrong thing for the game in general.

But is it really the will of the people or the ignorant views of semi-literate gangs of keyboard clatterers?

There are still a few men at the heart of this who know a compromise has to be found and Longmuir is working away and calming members on the verge of panic.

Longmuir and one or two others realise the folly of shunting Rangers all the way down and are trying to make people step back from the brink.

Not because Rangers shouldn't be punished further but because the collateral damage would be unacceptable.

The SFL will meet next week to decide the fate of the game.

Entertaining though it is to listen to your rants Turnbull, just think. That's it, just think, and if enough of us do we just might not blow our brains out.

If SPL & SFL kick Gers out of football they will kill our game

2012-07-02T06:25:47Z

THE shape of things to come will be decided by close of play Wednesday. We should know by then if Scottish football has been big enough to edge back from the brink.

For months now there has been a savagery. The game has been ripping itself apart all in the name of fair play. Or was it sporting integrity?

Forgive me, the reasons for the crisis that threatens to destroy Scottish football have been lost somewhere in the lust to tear and shred one club. It's as though a century of hatred and probably jealousy have erupted.

And the handful of reasoned souls left in the game are fighting a losing battle to cap the flow.

The trouble is too many men with influence have been working not for the good of the game but to selfish agendas. They've done bad things in the name of morality.

They've abused their privileged positions and if there was any decency left in the sleazy, tacky football world they inhabit they would not be allowed inside Hampden this or any other week.

The dishonourable posing as protectors of the game's integrity by making up laws and punishments as they go along.

By arguing and pressing for more severe punishments and demanding that Rangers newco be stripped of titles and trophies won in the EBT years by another business entirely, they are inflaming and prolonging an agonisingly painful and damaging period. Anyone who believes that stripping the old Rangers of baubles will help solve this meltdown should be ignored, pushed aside because we are way beyond bragging rights.

We, Scottish football, are on the brink of total collapse.

Those who are consumed by petty matters and the settling of old, ancient scores have made it harder to find the solution, the compromise agreement that's badly needed.

One day the truth about the subterfuge, deception, and downright spitefulness used to prolong this saga might be told but right now those who are trying to save what is left of the game need to be given space.

And hopefully the right and sensible decisions will be made when the SFL and SPL meet tomorrow and Wednesday respectively. Everything, the game's fate and Rangers' chances of survival never mind revival, depends on these leagues of gentlemen, if of course they do meet tomorrow.

The situation is critical yet it seems we have two clubs threatening to block tomorrow's meeting. Stenhousemuir and Alloa have an objection. God help us.

Hopefully the meetings will go ahead and if honesty and common sense prevail we might just begin to emerge from the darkness and see clearly who is working for the game and who is working for themselves.

We might also notice that in our rabid rush to condemn and stone Rangers we have stumbled to the very precipice of catastrophe.

Another misguided step or irrational utterance and Scottish football will be in total free fall so tomorrow the SFL must do one of two things.

Either they decide to let Rangers newco - who already know they don't have the support of enough SPL clubs to get the share that would let them begin again at the top - kick off in the First Division or the way is cleared for them to start in the bottom tier.

But research has shown the game will lose £16million if Rangers are dumped in the Third Division and frankly that would be too great a loss to an already impoverished business.

Supporters, of course, are entitled to be heard but the question is this: Are fans - forget the ones who can't see beyond their own hatred - willing to see what they believe to be justice done no matter the cost or consequences?

What if their justice means Scottish football would be reduced to a truly moribund state that would make recovery impossible?

What if their idea of fair play meant our game would be forever locked out of the big boys' playground?

Morals and integrity are fine but we must all be sure we can cope with the fall out, which would be considerable.

Clubs will cut right back on numbers as we're already seeing with Hibernian who have just paid off Pat Fenlon's deputy Billy Brown.

Players and wages will be next, although the first real casualty is more likely to be youth development.

Mark my words, clubs are already being squeezed by their banks who have seen Lloyds get out with all of their money back from Rangers. The other lenders also want shot of their football clients and they'll be imposing tougher repayment plans on clubs, who will use these demands as excuses to make swingeing cuts on their budgets.

If they are asked to reduce spending by £300,000 a year they'll make it £600,000 and blame it all on Rangers.

But even by making savage cuts, a number of clubs will still go bust. This will be the true price of sporting integrity.

And when the doors are being padlocked let's have no wailing or tears because too many clubs saw Rangers' insolvency as an opportunity to promote their own agendas.

Yet what good has that done any of them, apart from allowing them to invade the moral high ground for a short while. Now, though, as they hobble down having broken their toes through kicking Rangers they are suddenly confronted with reality.

They have the power to deny this new club any chance of life but they'll be condemning themselves to a miserable, empty future. Without the millions a healthy Rangers and their fans help generate, Scottish football will decline rapidly. All credibility at home and abroad will be lost.

If this is what we wish then fine, deny Rangers an SPL share on Wednesday and SFA membership when the Appellate Tribunal sits again to decide a punishment acceptable in the eyes of the real law. If this is what upholding fair play means then let's go for it.

Let's take decisions tomorrow and the next day that will chime with whatever our notions of integrity are and kill the game.

After all, we can't put a price on justice, especially in football where justice is something to be kicked around without finesse or direction.

Of course justice should be about fairness and handing down punishments that reflect the nature of crimes committed. It should always be about observing the law according to the rules and principles written down. But that's the problem with applying justice in a morally bankrupt game.

Nothing seems to be written down. If it is there in black and white no one can understand it.

The SFL have called in lawyers to make sense of their own articles ahead of tomorrow's meetings and, of course, the SFA spent a couple of years revamping their own codes, leaning heavily on the finest legal minds. Yet, when a transfer ban on Rangers was imposed it was kicked out in Edinburgh's Court of Session.

It's a grotesque farce and one club chairman had to remove himself from the entire business yesterday. He had to plod along a west-coast beach in the wind and rain to try and clear his head.

The game is pulling itself apart because some want to settle old scores with Rangers while others strive only to make the most of the problems and strengthen their own positions.

Okay, but what's the point in being powerful within a game that will soon have no real significance beyond its own boundaries?

But here are a few questions those 'just' men should ask themselves as they file into their meeting rooms on Hampden's sixth floor over the next couple of days:

Is losing all credibility, standing in the game, SFA licence, SPL share and being treated with the utmost contempt not punishment enough?

No?

Then ask yourselves this:

Is going out of business, struggling to emerge as a newco without fan support and being banned from playing in Europe for three years and being branded pariahs not punishment enough?

If the answer is still no then there is no justice.

And there is no hope. The game, and not just Rangers, will be doomed.

Sending newco into Division One isn't justice and isn't sporting integrity

2012-06-26T06:59:00Z

THAT seriously unfunny bloke Chiles on one side and Lineker, Hansen, Shearer and Co on the other should be eternally grateful to Scottish football.

It's because of our demented little game that this lot aren't the biggest embarrassments of the summer so far. Scottish football's erratic crusade to find sporting integrity has made us sport's greatest laughing stock.

It would be some comfort if there was reason to believe we are about to have some kind of closure but we are far from the end. This story of a huge club's fall is a dark, twisting tale of corruption and cheating which could run for a while yet.

The next part comes a week tomorrow when the top flight meet to decide the immediate fate of Rangers newco and, of course, to honour the wishes of their supporters. (Stop, you mustn't laugh. These are all honourable men, they've told us so.)

The bosses of SPL clubs all say they had to listen to their customers, the fans, and will insist they've done exactly that. They'll say they listened and yes, they did. Sort of.

It's just that some of them would have removed the batteries from their hearing aids.

The messages have been coming in loud and clear from all across the land for weeks but only certain parts of the communiques have been decoded, as no doubt we'll hear on July 4. Independence Day in America but here in our own narrow-minded little world let's just mark it as Indefensible Day.

Or the day we find out once and for all that sporting integrity and natural justice have no place in the Scottish game. Ancient and sturdy ideals they may be but they are also as redundant as round-toed boots, flat caps, jaggy jerseys and dubbin.

If all the club bosses who claim to be motivated by nothing but a noble desire to uphold fair play had been even remotely interested in justice they wouldn't have taken so long to rule on a Rangers newco.

Charles Green, who leads this born-again but already forsaken club, if the number of players queuing up to leave is anything to go by, would have known all along that his first stop would be the Third Division.

There would have been no doubt. It would have been written. It would have been football law.

But it isn't and that has been the problem for those chairmen who wanted to come over all pious and just. If only they'd have thought a little they wouldn't have been at odds with their fans, who don't have the responsibility of balancing books to the satisfaction of unsympathetic bank managers.

Supporters are allowed to mouth off and then walk away. That's what they do every time they watch their teams play. They vilify and damn their opponents using language which would make Malcolm Tucker blush but they pay their money and expect to be heard by their clubs.

Especially at this time of the year when season tickets are on sale.

They know how much their money is needed and have been using the threat of spending it on other things to make clubs vote against Rangers newco.

But almost always the mob mentality lacks intelligence, as we are about to discover again at next week's gathering. The fans did hold the power but they appear to have mismanaged it because they've demanded the wrong thing of their club leaders.

The supporters were adamant that Rangers newco shouldn't be allowed an SPL share, or licence, but rather naively they assumed that would mean Rangers being shunted all the way down to the Third Division.

Wrong. Their mantra "no to a newco" didn't spell it out and their clubs will be able to say they've met the demands of their fans by sending Rangers to the First Division but not the Third. The supporters didn't make their wishes crystal clear. Not too smart lads.

The SPL will say no to Rangers newco - already six clubs have declared their intention to refuse Green's club a share - in the knowledge that the Ibrox side will be favourites to win promotion at the end of the new season.

Job done. The satellite telly deals will remain virtually intact - it should only be one season without Old Firm matches - and everybody got what they wanted. Well, nearly.

The fans of the other SPL clubs wanted Rangers out of their division and they will be demoted, while supporters of the new Rangers won't have to stay where they know they aren't wanted.

It took them a while to realise that so many supporters of SPL clubs seem to despise them and there is now a belief it would be best to go down to the Third.

Too late. They won't be allowed. Deals have been done. There have been endless meetings, both formal and informal, as chairmen and directors sweated and panicked about what to do with Rangers while pretending to be in pursuit of sporting integrity.

When they get together next week they should have their heads bowed not because of the severity of the judgment about to be handed down but because of shame. What they are about to do has absolutely nothing to do with integrity or justice.

They will vote, as they always do, for self preservation knowing that more than one season without Rangers and the money their presence will generate would risk their own survival.

They know Rangers should be sent to the Third but can't afford to lose them for too long and the irony is that even though Rangers probably want to go all the way to the bottom they won't be allowed.

Like Mario Balotelli in front of England's goal the fans themselves have missed a sitter, a gilt-edged chance to bring much-needed integrity to the game. But if they could just get rid of their bloodlust they could make amends.

It isn't too late to let their clubs know they want Rangers newco in the Third Division.

They still have a week to get the new message across and make their leaders do the right thing, at least morally if not financially.

It's simple really. The question isn't, "Do you want a Rangers newco in the SPL?", it should be, "Where do you want the new Ibrox club to play?". We don't want to get bogged down in the technicalities that are afflicting the Scottish independence vote. This is much more important.

There is still time to make the chairmen who run our game find sporting integrity in Hamdpen's basement along with old strips and burst balls. So tell them. Demand proper justice.

End the sham and the shame.

Posturing businessmen should shut up because they have failed Rangers

2012-06-20T08:03:37Z

IF Rangers were a horse someone would be reaching for a loaded rifle aiming to do the decent and humane thing. Rangers would be shot, put out of their misery.

But Rangers aren't some pathetic old flea-ridden nag deliberately left behind by the circus. Apparently they are much worse than that. No sympathy, just poke them with sticks to see if they're still alive.

Pity is not to be wasted on them. Pity is for beaten up, clapped out curs, cats, donkeys and monkeys. If they are lucky they'll be cared for by some rich, eccentric old lady or the RSPCA.

Rangers are at the mercy of the egocentric, penalty pushing SFA and SPL.

And of course the "roll up, roll right up" ringmaster himself, Charles Green.

It's impossible to say if his newco have a bright future because it isn't certain they have a future at all even if Green insists the years ahead will be glorious. He's said a lot but much of it has turned out to be little more than bluster and bull.

Wait, though. Give Green his due. He said he'd buy the club and he bought it. He promised he'd pull investors out of his top hat and last week he yanked them into view.

But unfortunately for him, Rangers fans have still not bought the tickets to his show, even if it is the only one in town. Maybe they're just being polite and standing to one side so that the 16 other investors Green promised can pay in first.

They could be there for a while but it shouldn't matter too much because Green's show will go on, won't it? After all, he did point out there would be £30million, perhaps even £40m, in the club's account before the start of the new season.

When the fans see the millions rolling in they might warm to Green but the full and unwavering support of Rangers' followers isn't something he'll be taking to the bank in the near future, not unless someone in whom the masses trust leads the way. That person won't be Walter Smith.

I think he's had enough. He won't be fronting for anyone. Ever.

One time was probably once too often for the old club's former manager, who was tempted to take the lead in a group involving Jim McColl and Douglas Park.

People close to Smith told him to let them get on with it but, just as the Blue Knights and one or two of the other bidders had done, they asked for his help. This time he felt obliged.

Now he, like every other Rangers fan, might be feeling a little let down.

This ill-timed and poorly thought out venture didn't go anything like the plan given to Smith. So only a few days after the euphoria caused by the thought of their former manager rushing to the rescue, the fans came crashing back to earth yesterday.

Six days after breaking cover Smith's group decided not to contest, or test, the Green consortium's ownership further.

A couple of hours before Green bought Rangers and the assets out of liquidation for £5.5m was far too late because Duff and Phelps and Green had a binding agreement. It couldn't be broken and that's why McColl then had to spend the weekend negotiating with Green and his people, especially Zeus Capital, a London investment bank who appear to be the real powerbrokers.

Two of their men, Brian Stockbridge and Imran Ahmad, have been appointed finance director and non-executive director respectively but it's understood Zeus also brought the new chairman, Malcolm Murray, to the table.

Is it scribbled on an ancient scroll in some secret place that there must be a Murray connected with Rangers? Apparently this new one is also a Rangers fan. Green will be relieved knowing at least one supporter will be buying a season ticket.

But despite the weekend talks there was no sight of a breakthrough and when Green's group suggested joining forces with Smith and his men, that was it. Certainly for Smith. Game over.

Neither McColl not Park will team up with the other lot and yesterday's statement saying so was just another black day for all those Rangers fans whose emotions have been lifted and crushed almost daily.

They don't want Green but he's right. His is the only show in town.

While other bidders dithered or wasted time trying to undermine their opponents instead of getting their own offer in order, Green, or rather Zeus, saw an opportunity to get in and make some money. They insist they are in for the long haul and although it was a decent move to put Murray, a Rangers fan, in as chairman the fans need more persuading before they'll buy season tickets.

We might be about to see if Murray is a people person because the fans have heard enough from Green and also know he had it in mind to sack Ally McCoist despite his poor effort to rubbish that Record story.

They should know, too, that Green had to eat a large helping of humble pie to get McCoist to stay on for the time being but the harsh reality facing Rangers fans is that Zeus, Green and Murray are running the show.

However, the fans are not powerless because despite all the nonsense about tens of millions of pounds set to flow into the new club it's season-ticket revenue which will make or break this regime. The fans must choose but they should stop listening to all the people on the sidelines.

The Blue Knights' Paul Murray and Brian Kennedy, Douglas Park and now Jim McColl. And Dave King? What on earth is he trying to do or prove by showing up at Ibrox at this late stage?

They claim to be diehards and all insist they have only Rangers' best interests at heart. They didn't want the club to fall into the wrong hands or the hands of people they just didn't fancy.

Well, gentlemen, you failed your club. These men spoke and postured but didn't put up. Yet they had ample opportunity and time.

They also have the money, more than Green will ever possess yet he's in and they aren't. They can blame no one for that but themselves. They just didn't do enough and it must be so galling for Rangers fans that if even one of these Scottish bidders had stepped forward just more than a year ago Craig Whyte would have been denied.

And of course a year of purgatory could have been avoided. But more than 12 months down the line they were still full of not much more than hot air, so let's have no more from them.

They didn't put up and now should shut up and let the fans decide. But before that they should try to focus on what it is Zeus, with this character Green as a frontman, want with Rangers when Lloyds just wanted shot of them.

What does a London bank want with a club that Lloyds just wanted to be shot of?

A tournament lit up by stars' skills can silence Nazi thugs

2012-06-08T06:25:04Z

ONLY UEFA or their masters, FIFA, could have looked at Poland and Ukraine and thought: Perfect. Where better to stage Euro 2012?

The European game's governors, ever oblivious to this broken world's concerns and sensitivities, simply dismissed warnings that the hosts have serious racism problems and awarded them one of sports most prestigious and lucrative events.

Yet, at the same time, they have taken measures to make sure all incidents of a racist or discriminatory nature are dealt with. Of course the measures don't allow for players who are racially abused walking off the pitch. They'll be booked if they do. Only UEFA.

What is it they say? Ah yes, Fair Play. My bahookie.

Where were UEFA yesterday when a Dutch training session at Wisla Krakow's stadium was disrupted by so-called fans making monkey noises?

Nowhere and now the delights of Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Poznan, Kiev, Lviv, Donetsk and Kharkiv await.

Apologies if that comes across as cynical because some of these venues are spectacularly beautiful.

We know about the long-time tourist destinations of Warsaw, Gdansk and Kiev, once described as the "joy of the world", but Wroclow and Kharkiv might also surprise the senses.

That's assuming, of course, supporters are actually able to leave their billets and do more than follow the standard itinerary.

Drink, eat, drink, have a laugh, drink, fall down, get up and drink some more. It's hardly surprising most fans return home unable to remember much from the day they left but fans landing in Poland and Ukraine would be advised to keep their wits about them, especially if the advance publicity is to be believed.

Rarely have countries hosting UEFA's extravaganza been given more of a pre-match kicking than these Eastern European neighbours. They've been portrayed as racist havens and fans have been warned not to travel.

Sol Campbell actually urged black and Asian England supporters to stay at home and watch their team on TV because if they do go they "could end up coming back in a coffin".

It's all very emotive and while Poland and Ukraine are gearing up - as in their security forces are tooled up and ready to wade in among fans who make monkey noises or offer Nazi salutes - to tackle the problem, an ever greater responsibility falls upon the players in these finals.

If Mario Balotelli (yes, I know Balotelli and responsibility is a contradiction), Cristiano Ronaldo, Mario Gotze, Christian Eriksen, Robert Lewandowski, Mesut Ozil, Xavi, Robin van Persie and others can excel, we just might be captivated by the standard of play.

Even the Neanderthals who threaten to bring shame on the game and hosts could be mesmerised.

The governments, organisers and, of course, UEFA have been horrified by the seriously bad publicity but insist every step will be taken to make these finals special for the right reasons.

But accusations of anti-semitism and racism abound and although it is much more pronounced in the Ukraine, the Poles have been tarred with the same brush.

Doomsayers have both countries overrun with tattooed, shaven-headed Neo-Nazi nut jobs but although the countries are much more civilised than that, we are entitled to wonder at UEFA's wisdom in placing their finals in this part of Europe. Especially Ukraine.

Maybe that's an unfair observation but most of my generation are probably predisposed towards Poland. All based probably on those news clips from the 1980s when this country seemed to be rising up (not for the first time) against injustice.

Somehow Poland seems to represent the defiance of a constantly battered people. It's one of those countries which just refuses to be bludgeoned into submission no matter how many blows or bombs rain down on its cities and towns.

Perhaps it has something to do with geographical position, crammed in between Germany and Russia, which meant it has been constantly used and abused down throughout the centuries.

The Poles suffered appalling loses in the Second World War with around 16 per cent of the population killed.

The Jewish community, which was once the largest outside of the USSR, was almost wiped out.

But the Poles kept climbing back to their feet. They refused to be beaten and my generation saw that courage in Lech Walesa, who seemed to stand as tall and strong as the massive cranes in those grey Gdansk (then Lenin) shipyards where he worked.

When he led strikes in the yards and co-founded the Solidarity movement it was like signing his own suicide note. But Walesa was a man of the people and became Poland's
president in 1990, a year after the first multi-party elections took place in a Soviet bloc country.

He looked redoubtable and there was just something noble about him. Even his moustache seemed perfect.

He had his flaws but typified a people and a country. Now, though, as Poland prepare to kick Euro 2012 into life they have another image. They, along with Ukraine, are seen by many as racist but starting today they have just more than three weeks to prove their critics wrong by welcoming and embracing fans of the 14 other nations, no matter the colour of their skin.

That, however, will require a big effort and in many cases a massive change of mindset. Sadly, the hosts might not succeed.

Poland and Ukraine wanted these finals to help project an image of countries that are warm, vibrant and beautiful but their racists could ruin everything.

And with UEFA president Michel Platini confirming that referees have the power to abandon matches, we could, for the first time, see a European Championship match stopped because of racist abuse towards a player or players.

And if that does happen not even Walesa in his prime would be able to repair the damage.

So although the Ukrainian and Polish authorities, as well as UEFA, are hoping Euro 2012 doesn't blow up in their faces, it won't be security or anti-racism measure that will help them. It will be the 16 teams and players like those already mentioned.

They are the ones with the real power. They can control the masses and, just as they can change the course of matches, they can also alter attitudes.

They have the ability to lift us no matter how dispirited we may become at times. Footballers, the great ones, can inspire and if enough of them rise to the occasion, this Poland-Ukraine venture could be a raging success.

Apart from Ozil and Gotze, the Germans also have the evergreen Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mario Gomez and keeper Manuel Neuer.

Coach Joachim Low has work to do to bolster his defence - he believes switching Lahm from right-back to left-back will help - but they have a unity and strength, perhaps even a chemistry, which makes them my favourites to win.

World and defending European champions Spain are also formidable but all-time leading scorer David Villa and veteran defender, Carles Puyol, are injured.

Such huge talents must be missed but Xavi still has Iker Casillas, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Ramos, Sergio Busquets and Xabi Alonso for company.

Spain's problem will be up front. Three men, Alvaro Negredo, Fernando Llorente and Fernando Torres, are vying for two places but it's likely the old man, Vicente Del Bosque, will opt for Llorente and Torres.

However, the main difficulty for Spain is that the genius of the players who took their nation to the pinnacle could be fading.

The French and the Dutch will also be a threat, as will Russia, but the Germans are the ones to beat.

Hopefully, however, they and all the others will make this competition one to be remembered for the beauty of the football rather than the darker side of some of the locals.

SFA need solution that punishes Rangers but doesn't kick them out of football

2012-06-05T07:14:42Z

WITH commonsense struggling to catch up the SFA and Rangers remain on collision course.

It would be wise to get under the table. And stay away from the windows.

The wreckage from this head-on will be strewn across our game's landscape.

More than one club and their fans will suffer. We'll all be damaged.

Having been found guilty on disrepute charges Rangers were fined £100,000 and banned from signing players over 18 for 12 months but the Ibrox club turned to Scots Law.

The Court of Session ruled in their favour with Lord Glennie declaring the SFA's disciplinary tribunals were "wrong to hold that they had power to impose the additional sanction in this case".

In other words, the independent inquiry and then the appeals panel had no legal right to come up with a punishment other than those open to them within the SFA's scale of sanctions.

It was a rare victory in desperately trying times for Rangers but also a hollow one because they now face a more serious sentence.

The SFA appeals body - Lord Carloway, former Partick Thistle chairman Allan Cowan and Spartans chairman Craig Graham - can now expel Rangers from the game, eject them from the Scottish Cup or terminate their membership.

With the SFA - who are being watched closely by their masters at FIFA - having to save face, Rangers have every right to fear a more savage punishment.

Ever since Lord Glennie slapped the SFA down they've been sounding bullish about the next step and making it clear Rangers have only themselves to blame.

How dare they resist the law of the game and refuse a sanction.

Actually they didn't. Rangers merely questioned whether the SFA's independent judicial inquiry - Gary Allan QC, Raith Rovers' Eric Drysdale and journalist Alistair Murning - had the right to go outwith their list of penalties.

The Court of Session said they didn't and despite the SFA's rage the mistake was made by the people who sat in judgment at the outset.

In truth there were more than a few within the SFA who were shocked when the independent panel revealed their punishment.

Indeed, one of the men at the very top of the administrative tree was so surprised by the verdict he almost fell from his lofty perch.

There was disbelief in the voices of some of the SFA people contacted minutes after the announcement.

There was also a degree of panic that the new disciplinary procedures had backfired and that's why it's a bit hypocritical to be coming across now as pious and fully supportive of the 12-month ban.

It would be more helpful if they were locked in their boardroom until they come up with a way to avoid the crash with Rangers. It's just not good enough to say, as they seem to be, that the responsibility of coming up with an alternative lies only with Rangers.

That's like saying a burglar should come up with his own sentence. "Eh, let me think yer honour. How aboot 300 hours community service workin in ma local ironmongers? I could dae wi some new wire cutters and jemmies."

Besides, who at Rangers could come up with an appropriate punishment? This is a club without a leader. They have administrators and Charles Green but no one regarded as a true figurehead.

Green is the closest to that but ever since the law told the SFA to take Rangers' transfer ban back to appeal, the Yorkshireman has been busy trying to calm spooked would-be investors.

The SFA and their chief executive, Stewart Regan, should also be aware the threat of terminating Rangers' membership could convince Green to disappear.

Come to think of it, that would be one way out of this mess. Rangers shut down. Problem solved. However, Green isn't for running, not yet anyway, so another solution needs to be found.

But by allowing everyone to think Rangers will be frozen out of the game if they don't accept their transfer ban the SFA are scaremongering - and you don't need a Law Lord to tell you that isn't one of their
sanctions either.

Instead of leaving Rangers to "volunteer" to accept their sanction Regan should be taking a lead on this issue.

He must keep a cool,
intelligent head and steer the game and Rangers away from destruction. It would help
enormously if he ignored those who want to whisper in his ear about Rangers being dreadful villains. You know the ones, they're easily spotted. They're hunched over by the burden of carrying around petty and stupid club agendas.

Regan is this game's leader and needs to stand apart, survey the mess and somehow identify a path which might lead to a better, more structured future. And preferably one with Rangers in it because despite what one or two club chairmen might believe there is no better future without Rangers.

However, the Ibrox club must also help find a solution, although that cannot be an acceptance of their 12-month signing embargo. It would be idiotic to accept a punishment deemed unlawful. The sooner the SFA accept the Court of Session is a greater legal authority than they are the quicker we might see them and Rangers reach common ground.

Actually, the SFA must already believe the law of the land to be the greater force. They are heading to the Court of Session to force Craig Whyte to pay the fine slapped on him for his mismanagement at Ibrox.

He has dismissed the fine as a "joke" but the SFA are determined to drag him into court even though they've
criticised Rangers for having taken them there.

Better if FIFA didn't find out about this but for the good of the game it has to be worked out. It's getting dangerous and it's nonsense to say nothing can be done to avert the collision.

sensible

If it were suggested Rangers should be banned from next season's Scottish Cup - which could cost them up to £750,000 - the SFA and the club would be foolish not to latch on to it.

The association can't suggest it because the matter is returning to the Appellate Tribunal and they mustn't be influenced, but if Rangers dropped their appeal the matter could be looked at differently.

If a cup ban was suggested at the same time surely that would seem like a sensible escape route for the SFA and Rangers, who understand their failure to hand over PAYE and National Insurance
contributions means their
punishment has to be harsh.

But the SFA should not be handing down sanctions which are effectively death sentences.

What fans who are driven by raw emotion, sometimes even blind hatred, think about Rangers is pretty irrelevant.

This has to be handled with a studied rationale which has been absent so far. For the good of the game, slow down, think and let commonsense - and someone who might suggest a cup ban - catch up.

Duff and Phelps must explain why they put trust in Charles Green

2012-05-31T07:21:49Z

THE timing of Lord Glennie's judgment was perfect for Duff and Phelps and their chosen one, Charles Green.

The old Law Lord couldn't have lobbed in his stun grenade at a more opportune moment even if he'd been a member of the consortium taking over Rangers.

All focus was on the SFA, FIFA and Rangers after the Court of Session ruling on Tuesday which deemed the game's governing body were wrong to impose a 12-month signing ban on the Ibrox club.

And just as the spotlight was being swung towards Edinburgh, the club's administrators sent out their Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) proposal for approval by creditors. Effortlessly, and without any turbulence, Green glided in under the radar and closer to his goal.

The Yorkshireman and Duff and Phelps must have been beside themselves. With just about everyone else concentrating totally on the potentially catastrophic consequences of Lord Glennie's decision, it was inevitable the CVA papers would hardly be scanned.

An absolutely vital step in the process of finding Rangers' new owner had just been taken, yet no one stepped forward to ask a single question. Incredible.

Rangers fans and the rest of us have waited so long for a CVA to be sent out but, when it was, our minds were elsewhere.

However, yesterday while Rangers and the SFA were consulting their lawyers trying to find a side road which might be taken to avoid a head-on collision with FIFA, there was time to reflect on a CVA that threw up more questions than answers.

And one of those questions is blindingly obvious: Why Green?

Someone inside the Duff and Phelps team really must provide an answer to that one and perhaps also explain exactly what it is Green has come up with that the others interested parties hadn't.

It's not too much to ask of the administrators. After all, they'll be getting more than £2.5million for their trouble. Not to mention the trouble they've caused.

We'd been led to believe that no other bidder, Bill Miller apart, slapped down more money on the table or offered as much to the creditors' pot yet now it seems Green's buy-out won't really be better value than some of the other proposals. Especially after the administrators have been paid.

One financial expert said yesterday that Green's bid is actually pretty poor and nothing like the deal it was dressed up to be. So what exactly is going on? And again, why this man? Why this bid?

Rangers are in this mess mainly because the owner, Craig Whyte, got his financial projections all wrong - or did he?

We have yet to discover if all along his game has been a long one - and because he borrowed way too much on future season ticket sales. That's the money he used to pay off Lloyds, take control of Rangers and march them to the brink of closure.

Whyte bought Rangers, not with his money but borrowings. Green is buying the club from him, not with his money but borrowings.

It might be naive to ask but don't Duff and Phelps have some kind of duty of care to Rangers? If so, they should be explaining fully why they believe Green to be the man to return the club to good health but their CVA document offers nothing to ease the concerns of Rangers fans.

Neither does Green, who has shown little sign of being able to back up the big talk.

Let's just reflect on what he's said so far. He broke cover a few weeks ago, just after Miller ditched his bid, claiming to have 20 "individuals and families" pledging support.

"There are some investors from the UK, the Middle East, Asia and the Far East," he said.

"The cash is in a bank account."

It must still be there because even though Duff and Phelps confirmed they'd seen proof of £20m in funding Green didn't come up with the £2.7m required last Friday as the first down payment.

He may not have paid the full amount on Monday either and it's thought he offered £1m instead.

Maybe he misplaced his cashline card but presumably he and the administrators met somewhere in the middle to get the CVA out.

But that raises another obvious question: If he has as much as £20m in an account, why the delay which prevented the CVA from going out last week or even the first day of this week? Is there a reason it can't be used? Is it his to spend right now?

And Rangers fans might also ask what became of the 14 investors who seem to have disappeared. Green has admitted he has only about six now and he's also been trying to attract local investors, presumably wealthy sympathisers like bus and car dealer Douglas Park.

But according to the CVA the money Green puts in will be a loan to be paid back within eight years plus interest.

That means of course that Rangers will not be debt-free when he buys it even though it's believed he said it would be when he spoke recently to a supporters group.

The current owner said something similar, not that I'm saying Green is Whyte. However, I am saying Green has done nothing yet to prove he is the man to right the many wrongs within Ibrox.

If his group were all that he described at the outset the £8.5m purchase would have been no more than loose change to them and a loan certainly wouldn't have been necessary.

But that it is suggests there isn't a lot of money sloshing around within his dwindling group and that must be disappointing for Rangers supporters, who should also be asking why Duff and Phelps appear to be bending over backwards for Green.

They've put forward a CVA proposal even though creditors have no idea how much they might get. But of course the administrators themselves don't have that problem because they'll be paid in full.

They can't lose out of this but Rangers and their fans can. They can lose it all.

Their club with all its assets is being handed over to someone who hasn't done enough or answered nearly enough questions to make the fans believe in him.

What they do know is Green will get 10 per cent of any money raised but they have no idea who has made the loan or how the club will be funded through June because there will be no drawdown from his money until July.

Player sales perhaps but answers are needed to other questions, such as why is Green the only person who can buy the assets out of liquidation if the CVA is rejected? And what does Whyte stand to gain from this buy-out?

As things stand Green is getting Rangers lock, stock and barrel for £2 and will be able to do what he wants with the club, Ibrox and Murray Park.

If his "individuals and investors" don't buy in and he needs to raise money he could sell one of the jewels but without their properties Rangers would be finished.

With Duff and Phelps likely to be getting demob happy the fans might have to take matters into their own hands and make it clear to Green he shouldn't rely on season ticket money until they've been shown some kind of legal guarantee that their club, the team and the properties will never be separated.

Their custom, which Green is already banking on, is the only weapon they have. But it's a powerful one to be used as a last resort. It's up to the Rangers support to decide if that time is now.

If Green is all he says, there should be no reason why he wouldn't want to give the guarantees.

Then Rangers, their new owner and their fans could enjoy a wonderful life together. Just as soon as they get the SFA, SPL and FIFA off their backs.

Even a blind man can see Scottish football is total shambles

2012-05-30T08:32:18Z

THE SFA's new-look disciplinary system was ushered in last year as a progressive step.

It was supposed to herald the SFA's arrival in a new, bold and streamlined world of proper corporate governance.

It was also supposed to make judgments and the reasons behind them more transparent.

Worked an absolute treat.

Everything is transparent. Obvious. Scottish football is a shambles. A blind man standing 10 miles away can see that.

But the men who rammed new systems and processes through the SFA last year still can't. They have their eyes tight shut, stubbornly refusing to look as their system lies broken in the gutter outside Edinburgh's Court of Session.

Nevertheless, today it is crystal clear, totally transparent, that their judicial process is not as slick as they thought.

Actually, let's be honest about ourselves. And our game while we're at it. We're not the best are we? We accept abject failure too often and too quietly but until we admit the game is bereft of talent, thinkers and visionaries, on and off the pitches, nothing will change.

We'll continue to stumble around in the dark despite the SFA's belief there is a new and greater transparency about their world. The truth is it's not that bright.

A light was shone on Scottish football yesterday when it was exposed as a chaotic, disjointed and dysfunctional community. It was shown to be backward.

We've all seen them swagger up the Hampden stairs and we've listened to them talk. Yet we've done little to demand a better calibre of leader.

Our apathy has allowed nonentities to ruin Scottish football. You need only scan the game, study its many and mounting problems, to realise how hopeless everything has become. And that is a crying shame.

It even took an error, actually, ignorance of football governance, by Rangers' administrators Duff and Phelps to put the game in the dock.

They took the legal route unaware that in doing so they risked the wrath of the Gods of FIFA being visited upon all of Scottish football.

Last night, however, the SFA's chief executive Stewart Regan was experiencing the full fury of Rangers fans demanding his resignation. They have a case.

After all, the association allowed themselves to be rushed into making changes and although Regan acted in good faith he, as head of the body, must take responsibility for the failings of a system which he trumpeted.

Only the other day he joked he was "up to volume three, chapter four of the chronicle of crisis". He's just moved on to chapter five.

He also said: "We have done everything we have set out to do and we are trying to drive the game forward in line with good corporate governance."

And therein may lie the root of the problems. It feels like Scottish football suddenly became more concerned, maybe even consumed, by the need to iron out flaws in the disciplinary system and address business matters rather than concentrate on improving the game.

We've had Henry McLeish's reports but can we honestly say we have given those our full attention? Of course we can't.

The Scottish game isn't a multi-national. Their board isn't really one in the same sense as the body which runs M&S.

It's a sport and it's about chasing a bag of air and doing wondrous things with it.

Corporate governance should never have been the priority but the SFA were forced by one or two, whose motives will always be doubted, to decide it was. Now look at us. Real players run circles round us and people in wigs and gowns do the same in court.

All it took to deliver this latest blow was an administrator to say: "Hold on, let's move this game into court and see what someone else thinks of your idea of fair play."

Oblivious to the rules of FIFA, who will now force the SFA to get Rangers to back down or else, the Ibrox administrators did what everyone should do when they feel wronged.

They turned to the law of the land and yesterday the SFA were slapped down big time.

The administrators found a supporter in Lord Glennie, who ruled against the SFA's appeals body. In showing how to be really transparent the court stated clearly the SFA were wrong to uphold the independent judicial panel's punishment on Rangers.

The new system's first real true test and it fell apart. You could not make this up.

Yet having transgressed just about every financial and personnel rule in the book Rangers were correctly dragged into the Hampden dock to answer for their mismanagement and the SFA probably sat back to watch their new disciplinary procedures click into gear.

A three-man panel sat in judgment and as well as battering Craig Whyte, who was almost solely responsible for the parlous and pathetic state of a once great and powerful club, with a number of sanctions, the three wise men, whose identities were to be kept secret, handed down their considered verdict. Rangers were fined £160,000 and banned from signing any players aged over 18 for a year.

All hell broke loose and instructions were issued that no one reveal the names of the men on the panel. As if they would remain anonymous for long.

Even if Regan had done a Captain Mainwaring and blurted out: "Don't tell them your names Gary Allan QC, Eric Drysdale, of Raith Rovers, and journalist Alastair Murning," the process couldn't have been more farcical.

Or controversial and after yesterday neither can it become any more embarrassing?

Some of us argued at the time the panel's punishment was too harsh and scatty because Rangers will almost certainly lose their best players at knockdown prices when they exercise clauses inserted into their contracts after accepting 75 per cent wage cuts three months ago.

They agreed the reductions to save jobs as the administrators struggled to keep the club trading but the independent panel didn't take this into consideration.

Instead of ruling Rangers should not be allowed to sign anyone until after they'd repaid all transfer fees due to other clubs the panel reckoned they knew better.

Even though a transfer ban wasn't one of their options that's what they imposed. Rangers' administrators appealed and yesterday the folly of the SFA's system became, well, transparent.

If ever a club deserved to be punished it's Rangers yet today they are the wronged party. Only in the narrow-minded, crazy, pathetic world of Scottish football could this happen.

Just about the only other thing truly transparent is that the SFA are caught between a rock and a hard place. They have to back down and hope FIFA ignore that transgression or they must terminate Rangers' membership.

And when you look at it that way nothing is very clear at all.

BBC documentary reopens Rangers' barely healed wounds

2012-05-25T05:53:31Z

RANGERS' administrators say they will take legal action against the BBC over their documentary into the sale of the Ibrox club a year ago.

The men from Duff and Phelps have been to their New York HQ to firm up a response to the programme with sources saying they've taken enough of a kicking.

Apparently they have had enough of being "used as a football". Now they know how Rangers' fans feel as their club lies on the floor broken and discredited.

There's little supporters can do but refuse to buy season tickets until they are told enough to convince them Charles Green, the latest would-be owner, has the club's best interests ahead of his own.

That is about all the masses can do but the administrators believe they can kick back, at the BBC at least. It's understood Paul Clark and David Whitehouse, as well as Duff and Phelps partner, David Grier, who was accused of being less than truthful in the documentary but denies any wrong-doing, were in New York taking instruction - another indication the clamour surrounding this saga resonates far beyond our own little country.

And so Duff and Phelps are heading back to court. First it was Ticketus, then Collyer Bristow and now the Beeb.

Their programme made a decent attempt to prove Grier knew discredited owner Craig Whyte secured £24million from Ticketus to buy Rangers from Lloyds Bank.

The administrators claim they've been defamed but the BBC are standing by their programme insisting they have enough evidence to prove Grier - who while he was with another company, MCR and advised Whyte on his £18m takeover - was central to the Ticketus deal.

The BBC have other emails which they say make it clear Grier must have known how Whyte was funding his buyout. The notes do refer to Ticketus and invoices but not for specific amounts or deals.

Duff and Phelps will argue the emails don't prove conclusively that Grier knew of Ticketus money being used to buy Rangers but the administrators have been given the go-ahead from their American masters to sue. The BBC have been here before, of course, because Whyte himself threatened court action last year.

That was when he was the subject of a first documentary into this saga which continues to throw up more questions than answers. For instance, if Duff and Phelps, who swallowed up MCR after the Ibrox takeover, or Grier knew of Whyte's Ticketus deal why would they have gone to the High Court in London to have that agreement ripped up? Wouldn't Ticketus' lawyers have stated they had evidence proving Grier knew of the deal his new firm were now trying to have shredded?

Ticketus haven't done that and neither have Collyer Bristow, the London legal firm used by Whyte during his takeover. Nor Gary Withey, who was with Collyer Bristow at the time and who also became Rangers' company secretary after Whyte had gained control.

Withey and his former company are being sued by Duff and Phelps for £25m but the question remains: Why would the administrators put themselves in a vulnerable position and invite the people they're taking to court to slap down documents proving Grier, therefore Duff and Phelps, must have known what Whyte was up to with Ticketus?

That doesn't make sense and neither does HMRC's approval of Duff and Phelps as administrators. The tax man could have objected to this appointment but didn't.

Surely if HMRC believed Duff and Phelps were compromised they'd have prevented them from becoming involved? But they didn't.

Mark Daly, the BBC reporter, did his best to move the story on and will stand firm even if Duff and Phelps do drag this into court but the onus is on them to clear the suspicions which have been swirling around since they were appointed.

In fact the Daily Record were the first to raise concerns about Grier having been with MCR, who earned about £350,000 having been brought in by Whyte's company Liberty Capital before reappearing with Duff and Phelps.

The BBC's man went to England to try to clear up the issue about a £250,000 payment from Rangers to "Regenesis Ltd - deposit for Banstead Athletic" but again the Record had been there first.

It was also the Record who revealed the Ticketus deal which was the beginning of the end for Whyte but with their on- screen graphics the Beeb made it all seem fresh. It was, however, a decent effort to drag this sorry story down a different path.

Although we might have expected greater revelations from Daly, who had worked on his telly doc for months, it was interesting viewing. It might even have been more than that if less screen time had been taken up by the Rangers supporter who looked like a caricature fan out of Only and Excuse.

Or do the BBC believe all Rangers fans are like Sammy Paterson?

And incidentally, surely they could have dredged up a proper newspaperman to appear on the programme rather than one who has no more than a vague idea of what this story is all about. Even Sammy was more plausible.

Hibs stars lost the chance to be legends

2012-05-21T06:25:12Z

IT WAS crisp and clear and it was fresh. The atmosphere above and around Hampden sparked and crackled like a downed electricity line.

There was something in the air as west met east but it wasn't malice.

There wasn't an Old Firm supporter in sight and it was such a pleasant experience.

No one waving flags of other countries in your face and no one spitting "Ya Fenian b******" or "Hun b******."

This was Scotland and Scottish football the way it should always be. This was a Scottish Cup Final to enjoy and to savour. An Edinburgh derby being played out in Glasgow and on the final Saturday of the season, too.

But like all good things it didn't last long. Not for Hibs anyway.

Their contribution ended as soon as the game started but the Easter Road side didn't just lose the Scottish Cup Final on Saturday.

They lost everything. Their pride, their credibility and their chance to become special.

Their players left Hampden with nothing other than shame and embarrassment. What on this earth were they thinking? Were they even thinking?

This was their time, their moment to put all the wrongs and failures of more than a century to rest.

When Saturday came Hibs' players had the opportunity to ease the pain and suffering of tens of thousands. They had the chance to become much more than mere heroes. Everlasting greatness awaited.

The stage was set perfectly with half of the national stadium coloured green. It was an inspiring spectacle and when your eyes took in the other half, the maroon side, it was breathtaking.

As the players went through their final warm-up routines, Hearts hero John Robertson walked around the track with Hibs great Pat Stanton, taking turns to carry one of the oldest trophies in world sport.

It was all building up to be something truly special - and then the ball started rolling.

Immediately it was obvious Hibs manager Pat Fenlon had got it badly wrong in the midfield, which Hearts dominated completely.

Why is it managers, who having been players and then students at coaching schools and who are supposed to know better than the rest of us, can't see the blindingly obvious?

Jorge Claros is not very good. Same can be said of Isaiah Osbourne and Pa Kujabi. And Lewis Stevenson wide on the left? Just stop that nonsense and let the boy play inside.

Rudi Skacel, operating just off the front line, should have had Claros (aka the pitbull) biting at his ankles from the very beginning but the little Honduran was never close enough and Skacel had acres of space. Having survived a car-jacking incident during which he took a bullet to the head, Claros is a remarkable specimen but he's not a player.

Fenlon made the change just before half-time - Ivan Sproule came on for Claros - but the manager should have known from the beginning his set up (4-4-2) wouldn't function properly against Hearts, who had much greater width in that area.

It was a surprise that Ian Black, playing his last game for Hearts, didn't run across to the Hibs technical area before kick off and thank Fenlon for setting his team up perfectly for the Jambos. Black probably couldn't believe his luck and within seconds he was dominating and bullying.

Within 10 minutes he'd clattered arm first into Leigh Griffiths and was lucky to escape any kind of punishment other than the foul given by referee Craig Thomson.

The challenge was borderline red but Black was in his element, although Hibs handed control of the midfield to this tetchy, fiery, in-your-face performer and Darren Barr.

He had a huge match, too, and he's only in the midfield because he can't get a game in his real position as a central defender.

Ryan McGowan and Skacel also excelled but really, they were given the freedom of Hamdpen by opponents who should be too embarrassed to go anywhere near Leith ever again.

Saturday was such a crucial and historic day for this club and even if you'd taken Hibs' woeful attempts to play this season into consideration you would still have been entitled to believe they could rouse themselves for this final.

But just about every one of their players - Stevenson apart - and their manager fell miles short of coming close to the passion and belief, albeit misguided, of the fans.

As a consequence of their team's capitulation their final was over a minute into the second half. Hibs lost a player, Kujabi, who was sent off, and another goal.

Although Kujabi tugged Suso Santana's jersey the foul was outside the box but the Spaniard then appeared to clip his own heel inside the area. The referee was correct to send Kujabi off but wrong to award the penalty which Danny Grainger belted into the net. Hibs were 3-1 down and the heartache began again.

Some supporters started to slink off Hampden's slopes and although fans should stay to the end, especially in finals, it's difficult to fault those early leavers. They'd played their part and were badly let down. Their suffering was just too much.

They haven't seen their team beat Hearts in any of the last 11 derbies and fear now they will never see Hibs win the Scottish Cup. Twice they've played Hearts in the final and twice they have lost.

Only 45 minutes before kick off Stanton, who must have been humiliated by this lot, said it wouldn't matter what the managers and coaches might have been saying because it would all come down to what the players believed. The old man was correct. Hearts believed absolutely, Hibs didn't.

At the very least, though, they could have tried to be good losers. Instead, Garry O'Connor, a wasted talent, tossed his medal to the floor just after he'd received it and Fenlon is in trouble for making the sort of gesture which had him raging at Griffiths when he did it.

Hearts fans were singing "There's only one Pat Fenlon" but if he expects Griffiths and other players to ignore rival supporters he should have set an example. He'll get much worse, maybe even from Hibs supporters, if he doesn't get a better team on the pitch for next season.

But that's for later because this final isn't over yet for Fenlon. He'll have to explain himself to the SFA who'll be getting in touch shortly. Just watch out for the postman Pat.