Leggat - REGAN AND RANGERS

[ian1964 10,626]

The relationship between Rangers and the Scottish Football Association, which underpinned the game during its great days, is now badly fractured.

 

To such an extent that there are many who believe that Scotlandâ??s biggest club will not be able to work in trust and harmony with the gameâ??s governing body if Stuart Regan remains at its head.

 

That is the conclusion many people of a blue hue have come to following Reganâ??s astonishing and inaccurate reaction to the news from the Rangers Fans Working Group that he walked out on their meeting.

 

It comes following claims by Regan that inflammatory language â?? more suited to the internet he insisted â?? was used DURING the meeting at Hampden on Thursday afternoon.

 

Within hours of the meeting breaking up, when Regan walked out on the Rangers Fans Working Group, I was made privy to the stormy end to the meeting.

 

And to the fact that it was Regan himself who first raised the issue of the SFAâ??s impartiality. That was the word he used. He asked the question, possibly as a tactic to stir the pot. Possibly not.

 

But when the answer was that Reganâ??s Scottish Football Association was impartial, Regan, rather than offering a sane, sensible and rational explanation, simply shook his head. Disdainfully? Arrogantly? Who knows what he was thinking at that point.

 

It was just after this exchange, all perfectly proper and polite, that Regan closed his notebook, put on his jacket and headed for the door, bringing the meeting to an abrupt halt.

 

As Regan was about to go through the door one member of the six-strong Working Group, frustrated by the sort of high handedness Regan often displays on Twitter, did make a disparaging remark.

 

But there was no shouting! No banging on the table! And most emphatically, NO SWEARING!

 

Regan then flounced out, firing a fussilade of faux French at the Rangers Fans Working Group.

 

However, the way Regan reacted to an answer to a question HE posed, followed by the way he reacted to news of his walking out on the meeting, which he must surely did, has got more than just those who are Rangers supporters thinking.

 

Should Paul Murray and his True Blue Knights win control of Rangers, the new Ibrox board â?? made up of decent honourable men, good corporate citizens all â?? will surely be left to wonder just what sort of relationship Scotlandâ??s biggest club has with Stuart Reganâ??s Scottish Football Association?

 

These astute, successful and completely above board businessmen, backed by top legal brains, will be left to look back on the way Regan has appeared to turn on Rangers in recent weeks.

 

The way Regan and his SFA have appeared to want to try and give Rangers a good kicking when they are down.

 

Starting with Reganâ??s headlong hurtle into announcing that his Scottish Football Association would launch an investigation into Rangers and EBTs. He seemed pretty keen to do that.

 

Despite the fact that the SFA could NOT do that, because the Scottish Premier League had launched their own investigation and that the SFA would be the court of appeal.

 

Despite the fact, THREE learned judges, all of them tax experts, have been trying to untangle this mess for years. Despite the fact those judges have legal rights which empower them to summon witnesses which the SPL and SFA to not possess.

 

Despite all of that, Regan seemed uncommonly keen to jump the gun. No wonder many feel he is just itching to put his boot into Rangersâ?? ribs.

 

Then there is Reganâ??s SFA and another headlong rush. The one which sees Rangers up on five charges for alleged offences committed when conman Craig Whyte was in complete dictatorial charge of Rangers.

 

Thatâ??s the same conman, huckster, Whyte who Regan eventually ruled was NOT a fit and proper person to be a director of a member club.

 

All of which poses the question as to why Regan was not in a similar headlong rush to prove that the Return form Whyte handed in to the SFA was a LIE?

 

And why has Reganâ??s SFA summoned Whyte to answer to SFA charges against him, personally?

 

After all, Reganâ??s SFA has ruled Whyte is not a fit and proper person to be a director of Rangers, so he is outwith Hampdenâ??s jurisdiction.

 

Hasnâ??t lawyer Lunny broken that news to Regan?

 

Had Regan behaved in a sane, civilised and reasonable fashion, say some, he would have put all the charges against Rangers on hold until a new regime was in place at Ibrox.

 

Then â?? and this would have been the case if the True Blue Knights are the owners â?? Regan would have been able to â??treatâ? with honourable men in an honourable fashion.

 

However, that opportunity may now be gone.

 

Which is why healing the fracture between Rangers and the Scottish Football Association may be impossible for as long as Stuart Regan rules the roost at Hampden.

 

.........

AND........

 

 

BIG Gordy Waddell of the Sunday Mail and I have never been best pals. Chalk and cheese.

 

But I admire the guts he has shown today with a wonderful column which has Peter Lawwell off to a tee.

 

Waddell's wee Green Brigade banner aside was both classy and spot on.

 

I assume Gordy has his phone switched off as he enjoys his day off. It's Lawwell's usual tactic to make what many reckon are threatening phone calls to any hack who hacks him off.

 

As I said, big Gordy and I have never been and never will be best pals. But I tip my bunnet to him today.

 

http://leggoland2.blogspot.co.uk/

[ian1964 10,626]

From Gordon Waddell,Sunday Mail:

 

A LECTURE in mutual respect from Peter Lawwell?

 

 

If you didn't laugh at the double standards of his briefings the other day, you'd give yourself a migraine trying to fathom his audacity.

 

If only they'd asked our opinion, he sighed. We were flexible, he shrugged. Like a patronising dad to an errant son. The "after everything we've done for you" speech.

 

So ask yourself this: Did Celtic and Rangers speak to the other 10 SPL clubs when they were whoring themselves to England at every opportunity over the past decade?

 

Did the Old Firm speak to the others when they decided bilaterally to shaft their brothers in arms by imposing a five per cent levy on them selling away tickets?

 

But that was fine, though, Peter, eh? That collaboration? That exclusion?

 

Not disrespectful in the slightest. Not divisive at all.

 

I tell you, what, though. You have to admire him. He's nothing if not a master of manipulation.

 

If I was a shareholder? I'd LOVE him as my chief exec.

 

Because not only does he want complete control of HIS domain, he wants to control every other domain that can affect his, no matter how remotely. He's brilliant at it.

 

Which is why on Wednesday he was on the phone to the SPL, delivering threats with menaces to clubs talking behind his back about their mutual interests.

 

Saying he had the power and influence to shaft the Sky deal.

 

Consequences? Celtic could suck up the £2m its loss would cost them standing on their heads. The others?

 

Without a broadcasting deal it could send three-quarters of them into administration.

 

Find the pressure point. Control it. And 24 hours later? It's all buns and bonhomie

as he throws open the boardroom door to all branches of the media.

 

"Fellas, come in, good to see you all - let me tell you what a reasonable bunch we are and why the diddy clubs are getting it all wrong ..."

 

Control.

 

I wasn't there, but I've been on the receiving end of one of his "why don't you pop in for a coffee and a chat" routines in the past.

 

He's charm personified. Good company. Persuasive. Nice line in custard creams.

 

But if you choose not to see it his way? You're no use to him. Don't expect him to take your phone calls. That's just the way he works.

 

Control.

 

Look at the pressure Celtic tried to pile on the SFA a couple of years ago. Their dossier on the supposed injustices served on Celtic by refs. The campaign to oust Hugh Dallas.

 

"We look forward to continuing discussions towards a positive outcome," said Lawwell. For that, read "getting our own way".

 

And that's exactly what last week has been all about. Celtic and Rangers have had a stranglehold for as long as anyone can remember.

 

And because of the 11-1 voting system, there's no prospect of that changing any time soon, as long as they stick together.

 

Which is kind of ironic, eh? Given that Lawwell was saying just a few weeks ago that Celtic didn't need Rangers to prosper. Now they just happen to need them alongside more than ever to avoid losing the control he treasures so dearly.

 

What they all need to do is mull on this, though. Our game is not just crying out for change. It's screaming its lungs black like a neglected child.

 

And while Lawwell might not like the idea, he must realise that just because a decision is taken that isn't in HIS best interests, it doesn't mean it's not in the best interests of Scottish football.

 

Which is why the other 10 are attempting to unlock the door, by changing a voting system from undemocratic to fair.

 

And why Lawwell is busy briefing that a year on from the stalemate over SPL change, suddenly they're amenable to a 14? A positive sign? Maybe. But again, only if it suits Celtic.

 

The other 10 know that unless Rangers go in to liquidation, they have no chance of forcing this through. But at least they're trying.

 

Sadly, the man who's not convinced wouldn't recognise the phrase "greater good" if the Green Brigade painted it on a banner and draped it over his front fence.

 

Celtic want their people at the helm of the Scottish game, running it for their benefit.

 

They believe Scottish football would be nothing without them - yet without Scottish football, they would have nothing.

 

And they don't see the sense in trying to strengthen it?

 

I fully understand that Lawwell feels betrayed by a couple of individuals who have come to him for help with one hand and are now slapping him around the head with the other.

 

Maybe rightly so. But again it goes back to control.

 

In the meantime, here they are today, on the cusp of their first title in four years. One hard-earned by Neil Lennon and his players, despite claims of it being tainted.

 

Relax, Peter. Enjoy it for what it is. Not what you can make of it.