ian1964 10,761 Posted July 19, 2015 Author Share Posted July 19, 2015 Gordon Waddell: The SPFL agm may sound dull but tomorrow's gathering at Hampden promises to be a bun fight. GORDON expects there to be fall-out from tomorrow's SPFL showdown as Hearts, Hibs and Rangers attempt to install their choice of candidates on the board of directors. THE SPFL agm. Nownormally you’d rather remove your own eyeball with a rusty ice-cream scoop than endure its tedium. Tomorrow, though? Take a seat and break out the popcorn. It’s about to get messy. Maybe not during it. Definitely after. Because whatever happens at their election of board members this year, whoever wins and more importantly whoever loses, there’ll be recriminations. Six are elected annually – not exactly a recipe for stability, but hey, it’s the SPFL, what else do you expect? Three from the top flight, two from the Championship, one from Leagues One and Two. A make-up supposedly there for balance, a check for the vested interests of the big clubs against the rest. Since its inception, we’ve seen different faces from the lower league clubs but the top three have stayed the same - Celtic’s Eric Riley, Aberdeen director Duncan Fraser and Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson, all resisting a half-hearted challenge last year. This time? The gloves are off – and there are two bouts on the card. Only the excellent Ken Ferguson from Brechin stands unopposed for his place. In the Premiership, Hearts’ Ann Budge and Jim Mann from Killie are taking on the incumbents. And in the Championship, Rangers and Hibs have both decided it’s time they flexed against the diddy clubs, Stewart Robertson and Rod Petrie stepping in to take out Alloa’s Mike Mulraney and Eric Drysdale form Raith Rovers. Except the chances are NONE of them will shift the current lot. Which is good news and bad news. If you’re on any board of directors or trustees, you ask yourself why you’re there. So if you’re sitting on the SPFL board, there should be priorities to any decision you take, right? Those being: 1. The overall good of the game 2. The wellbeing of the 42 clubs you’re there to represent 3. The interests of the 10 or 12 clubs in the division you’ve been elected to represent. 4. Your club. But let’s face it, some of them – and we all know who we’re talking about – have that list arse over elbow. Which is why Ann Budge would be a popular choice for 99 per cent of football fans. Because most of us believe that she has a fresh eye, a bit of perspective on the league’s shortcomings. That she’s a big picture type, not a ‘How does this affect ME?’ voter. Yet it’s also why she won’t get in. Like it or not, this is about politics. To us she’s a yes, but who’s she going to displace? Everyone needs eight votes from 12 to get on, and she’s done little, if any, lobbying. I actually get the feeling she knows it. And that she stands to make more capital out of NOT winning. If she doesn’t shift any of the old boy network, questions will be asked. Why the fear of a woman’s voice? Why the fear of what most of us know is a voice of reason? Which is ironic, considering how much time I understand they’ve put – unsuccessfully – into trying to find a female non-exec director in the past two years, when they have a perfectly good exec one right under their noses. But defeat will give her the opportunity to garner even more popularity from the people who believe her voice should be heard. And it should – but there should be other mechanisms. There are other eminently sensible voices in the game, like Roy MacGregor, who aren’t on the board and therefore aren’t heard enough. It’s not as if the game is being run so well that it doesn’t need fresh ideas, fresh input. As for the other fight? Robertson and Petrie will both lose, for any number of reasons. One is that there’s no way the rest of the Championship clubs, your Falkirks and Livis and Queen of the Souths will believe for a minute that either of them will be there to represent anyone’s interests but their own. Another is that amnesia won’t have kicked in enough for them to think Rangers have done enough to earn a place at the top table, irrespective of Robertson’s popularity as an individual. And Petrie? The guy who said he would be taking a back seat when he appointed Leeann Dempster? Aye, right. Not content with his vice presidency of the SFA, he can’t resist sticking his neb in. Why? Considering each of them need seven of 10 votes, I’d be staggered if either won the day. Which, unlike my colleague Mick Gannon, I actually think’s a good thing. In his midweek column in the Record, he reckoned the ‘Big 5’ should have a permanent seat and a permanent say in how the game’s run. Brilliant. A set of clubs who’ve presided over the single worst downturn in the history of Scottish football because of their arrogance and self-interest in the 17 years since the inception of the SPL, all back in charge of the new train set? What could possibly go wrong? http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/gordon-waddell-spfl-agm-sound-6095858 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trublusince1982 243 Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 (edited) lost with this comment....... Another is that amnesia won’t have kicked in enough for them to think Rangers have done enough to earn a place at the top table, irrespective of Robertson’s popularity as an individual. dont we do enough by carrying the tv deal pretty much on our shoulders? maybe we should send out the viewing figures as Mr Robertsons running agenda Edited July 19, 2015 by trublusince1982 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,820 Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 (edited) IMHO, the current SPFL (and SFA) board setup is a mixture of a Scottish clan feast of the bad old days and FIFA. And has been for years. In that respect, Waddell is correct. Still, no matter what others may think (primarily of themselves), it is fact that essentially only two teams carry Scottish football along, be it crowd numbers or TV audiences (and thus deals). Anyone trying to challenge this opinion is simply ignoring reality. One just has to look at the amount of TV games we have been burdened with in the first three months of next season alone. So anyone expecting us to sit back and let it all happen without having a say is challenging our intelligence. Edited July 19, 2015 by der Berliner 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 You can't argue about the subject of TV viewing figures, but the bottom line is that we'd probably have had a better chance of getting a seat on the SPFL board if we'd managed to get promoted last season. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trublusince1982 243 Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 someone with time on their hands should count the percentage of tickets within scottish football that are bought by Rangers fans(home and away) and how much of tv audience by percentage watched games that Rangers contested. Then they can send it to whatever moron wrote that piece and ask who is doing more for scottish football? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
aweebluesoandso 290 Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Budge and Robertson fail to get elected on to the SPFL BOARD. Quelle surprise, corrupt to the core. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
compo 7,231 Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Would be nice to have someone on the inside 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RANGERRAB 3,772 Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Budge and Robertson fail to get elected on to the SPFL BOARD. Quelle surprise, corrupt to the core. Ever since SDM abandoned ship a few years ago and we had no representation at the SFA & the then SPL we've seen Liewell & his chums take over. It will take many years yet before anything changes unfortunately. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete 2,499 Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 How sweet our 55 premier league title is going to be. I think I may even come home for the celebrations. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,761 Posted July 20, 2015 Author Share Posted July 20, 2015 John DC Gow @johndcgow 2h2 hours ago Why would the SPFL want fresh ideas from Budge (Hearts) or Robertson with most tv viewers (Rangers)? They don't want change. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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