I thought that with all that's gone on recently, I'd capture some musings on the current state of Scottish football and take a look at what the future could possibly hold...
So the Scottish Premier League (SPL) clubs have kicked Glasgow Rangers out of the first tier of Scottish football and the Scottish Football League (SFL) has voted them into Division Three - the very bottom. To me, there is no question that Rangers deserve this punishment (although my heart goes out to their fans) - after all the same type of thing has happened to English clubs, when their owners have messed up.
Realistically though, the whole fabric of Scottish football is built around just two clubs, Celtic & Rangers (known collectively as the Old Firm). Those living outside of Scotland might think that getting rid of Rangers will simply give another SPL club the chance to fill the hole that they leave, but I think that it's unlikely this will happen. Rangers & Celtic are the only two teams that attract any type of support outside of Scotland and are the Scottish equivalents of Man Utd et al internationally. There is also the Catholic / Protestant aspect, although both clubs have tried hard to rid themselves of the worst features of sectarianism. Then there is the Glasgow / Edinburgh rivalry. Any self-respecting Glasgow Rangers fan isn't going to start supporting Edinburgh's Hearts, just because they offer a Protestant alternative. It's like asking a Norwich City fan to support Ipswich Town!
So for all the reasons outlined above, Rangers are a bit different to the rest of the teams in the SPL and (with the exception of Celtic) they attract attention, and subsequently money. I think it's fair to say most people outside of Scotland are not much interested in Scottish football, with the exception of an Old Firm derby. The final Old Firm game of last season was Sky's first one million-plus in-home audience for a Scottish domestic fixture. The word on the street is that the Scottish football TV deal is worth £16 million a season for 60 live games, 30 on ESPN and the other 30 (including Old Firm matches) on Sky. I don't believe there will be equivalent TV deals available in future for matches such as Ross County versus Motherwell! So it's not Rangers being arrogant when they say that the SPL is set to lose its TV sponsorship.
Yesterday a lot of people around me were talking about an SPL2 and I thought to myself, why would the SPL clubs sign up to play in a league with Rangers when they have just kicked them out? The answer again is money. When the SPL split away from the SFL back in 1998, the SPL made a contractual agreement to pay an annual £1.9 million settlement to the SFL for the right to break away. If vital TV sponsorship is not available, then the SPL itself could become bankrupt. The Scottish top-flight clubs could find themselves without a top level league, hence SPL2. So I think the Rangers fans were correct when they said this whole debacle still hasn't ended.
So what if the SPL don't go bankrupt and Rangers do actually play in the Third Division? I suppose one question is what makes a club? Will the Rangers of last season be the same as the Rangers of this next one? I know that when Norwich City found themselves in the English League 1 they still attracted bumper crowds, albeit that they had to cut their coat to suit their cloth; however, theirs was a gradual slide not a rapid demotion. Will the Rangers fans stay loyal? Will they get over not being able to pay the wages of expensive foreign players and not playing in European fixtures? After all, it is the fans that make a club, not the players or the owner.
If the Rangers fans do rally round and are willing to travel to the likes of Annan Athletic and Alloa Athletic. It could feasibly inject much needed life into the SFL. Annan Athletic's current record match attendance at the Galabank stadium stands at 1,575 in their Challenge Cup game against Falkirk on the 9 October 2011. The ground holds 2,007 (with only 500 of those places actually seated). I would predict that tickets to any third division match featuring Rangers will be treated like getting tickets to a cup final and would give many of these clubs a much needed boost. It could be a good thing for Scottish football.
Interestingly Rangers Newco will have only the second biggest ground in Division Three, when they play their new Glasgow derby against Queen's Park at Hampden, they'll have 1,418 seats more to fill than at Ibrox! Rangers will also appropriately be able to play for the Ramsdens Cup - Ramsdens is the largest independently owned pawnbroking and financial services business in the UK - which could be handy if they need a quid or two!
Finally though, I echo the thoughts of the Rangers fans in my workplace. I don't think the fat lady has even started warming up. I think that there will still be many twists and turns before the start of the new Scottish football season.
