Their great hope was that Sevco, the phoenix which would arise from the ashes of the most arrogant football club in these islands, would somehow be accepted as one and the same, and that every other club would be persuaded that their future existence was entirely reliant on ignoring all precedents and of accepting this zombie club as their saviours.
That the gentlemen of the mainstream media, with several notable exceptions, advanced the notion that ‘armageddon’ would be the consequence of dealing with the ‘Rangers ‘ problem in any way other than compliance, made it even more difficult for other clubs with their own financial worries to consider.
For a time it looked as if the newco would be admitted to the top flight – with or without penalties depending on which media outlet was reporting – until it became obvious that the fans of these clubs – the vox populi – had their own ideas of what constituted ‘sporting integrity’ and forced their boards of directors to deny them entry to the SPL.
As we now know every effort was made to parachute them into Div.1 of the SFL even though they did not meet the criterion whereby an applicant club should have 3 years of properly audited accounts, a rule which was conveniently ignored to facilitate their entry to Div. 3 – with certain conditions.
That the governing body of any sport would actively negotiate with a delinquent member whereby a punishment, which was already deemed less than harsh because the appropriate penalty would have led to expulsion from the sport, would be set aside or at least amended, is unthinkable in any theatre other than Scottish Football, and even there with any other member than the former Rangers F.C.
Despite the truth as we know it, every effort has been made by the denizens of that dark place and their henchmen in the media to portray them as victims and to suggest that they have been dealt with more severely than is just. Even this weekend we find that Chas Greene is trying to outdo Bomber Brown and Sandy Jardine in his expressions of rage and fury at the nasty hand they have been dealt by those running the game. He would echo the nonsense uttered by Chris Graham, one of the lights behind the ‘Rangers Standard’ who lays all of the ills visited upon his club at the feet of one Peter Lawwell. The notion of self destruction and professional and financial suicide – the real causes behind the fate of the former club have no place in their sense of themselves.
Mrs Lachie Mor has patiently put up with my obsession with the former Glasgow giants in recent months – or to put it more correctly – my obsession with hoping and praying that they received their just desserts. To be honest – for me this would have involved total oblivion – or at least complete removal from the senior game in Scotland.
I realise that this was a pipe dream, but to my simple mind it was the correct consequence of all their misbehaviours and years of arrogant and wilful cheating, not to mention the complete abdication of their moral duty to pay their share of the national tax burden, which supports our schools, hospitals, care homes and the forces which they cynically support in word but not in deed.
As I write this, there is still a slow burn of anger at how they have escaped justice, but I have decided to adopt the philosophy advocated by Michael Collins when he suggested that the Irish people’s greatest weapon against their oppressors was ‘refusal’.
They are out of our orbit for the time being and I hope that Celtic are not so foolish as to offer them succour by playing Glasgow Cup Ties at a senior level to permit a revival of the Glasgow derby for T.V. Let them stew in the juice of the lower leagues and let us simply ignore them.
Sevco they are and Sevco they will forever be. This will be my last word on the subject.
Had someone a year ago offered me the present sitation I would have bitten his hand off. That it is less than ideal is something we will have to live with, but I am sure we will manage.
Come on you bhoys in green!
