I take a look ahead to July 2017 when we are just about to kick off another SPL (East) season in Scotland and reflect on the five years since ‘Newcogate 2012’. This is of course all fictional in the spirit of Scottish mainstream journalism and is particularly dedicated to Jim Traynor, a man who has made me believe that even a thick, old, ill-informed no-hoper like me might be able to write for the Daily Record and feature on the BBC.
In this spirit and as a tribute to the man it is obvious that all names, places and times stated are completely made up in the wee small hours in my own sorry head. After all, none of this could happen, could it?
Season 2017/18 Preview
As we enter another season of Scottish fitba it’s a good time to remember five years ago to the day when the SFA stepped in to restructure the Scottish leagues contrary to the votes that week by the SPL and SFL members. As you recall it was about Newco (and they still can’t get rid of that name) being accepted into SFL 3 and that only after Dunfermline led an audacious attempt to get enough SFL votes to refuse admission altogether.
The move by the SFA to nullify that vote and restructure with Newco in the First Div led to a bit of a revolt until the First Minister, now Lord Salmond of Trump, stepped in to set up that one year moratorium that was season 2012/13. Little did we know that the split SPL of basically nos and ayes (although this is still denied) would lead to record season ticket sales across the nos. A wee taster for the current East-West split which is starting to look quite successful for both. Most of the money still sits in the west, albeit almost exclusively with Celtic but the self-proclaimed ‘diddy East is thriving also.
The rest you know. Who will forget that embarrassing first season for TRFC (to use their preferred name) with the second administration in 2013 and subsequent relegation? The turmoil and lack of credibility of the whole SFA over this was probably just as instrumental as the long-running court cases in bringing the whole thing down.
St Mirren Supporters Trust suing the SFA when they went into administration didn’t help either. The real clincher though was Celtic’s legal challenge about the fixture logjam around Christmas 2012 based on the stated SPL precedence of commercial interests.
The eventual banning of Scottish teams in Europe for bringing the game into disrepute and the intervention of UEFA in getting the leagues to restructure and the SFA cleaned out appears to have resolved the turmoil. At this time poor old Platini probably thought he was shot of the whole thing, little did he know that he’d be dragged back in to the fray when the French national team manager was forced into commenting publicly on his EBT deal the day before Euro 2016 kick off in Paris. At last TRFC became a global brand!
Incredible to also remember that Sevco still owns Murray Park and rents it to TRFC, it’s doubtful whether this has offset the losses of the now-deserted Ibrox but Charles Green (remember him?) splitting the assets probably worked out well for the TRFC trust. Even they would admit that increasing the new ground to a 14,000 capacity is probably about right although a few commentators still query the use of government funding to build this “community” asset.
Still, shouldn’t be churlish, they have produced some good young players and secured their first Scottish cap last season, not bad for a club only five years old. The reformed version that came after the CVA of 2013 is doing all right, playing the “say no to bigotry” ticket was a gamble and although they are a smaller force now they can at least hold their heads up in civilised society.
What about the Dons though, how have they ridden out the storm? Well, Mr Milne got it right to start with and although the club suffered in the Sevcogate stitch-up initially we continue to build on that first season record ticket sales. The 25% loss in TV revenues hit everyone hard, putting a credible team in 2014/15 Champions League was difficult for manager Hartley with that revenue hit but the Dons somewhat lucky progress into the group stages made up for all that. There are still a few anti Cove voices around the town but including Wood Park in the development seems to have worked out but who would have thought that that an AFC/Cove Rangers/Gordonians RFC/Park and Ride/Waitrose/Windfarm combination would co exist so well. Good luck to Milne Construction with their Countesswells housing as well!
So, only one SPL play off win for AFC; can’t complain with three of the five coming to the East though and two finals for the Dons along with a two SFA cups in five years not to be sniffed at. With the new record-breaking SBBC/ESPN TV deal in place for SPL and SFL we can look forward with confidence.
Hearts vs Hibs battles it out with Dundee vs United to be the best of the derbies as expected. Who’d have thought that Raith vs Dunfermline and ICT vs Ross County would also thrive on the local competition even though the latter two still balk at being considered as ‘East’.
St Johnstone and Falkirk continue mid table and financially sound and newly promoted Livingston hope to make a better go of it this time having bounced up and down with East Fife this last few years. As for the West, Celtic every year with a decent challenge from Motherwell doesn’t augur well and crowds are falling. It’s interesting to see a reconstituted SPL of 16-18 teams now on the agenda again this season.
Where are all the characters now? The aforementioned court cases prevents me from naming too many names but it is ironic that Chick Young and Ally McCoist have made more money with their roadshow, with every joke ending in “we don’t do walking away”, than they ever did out of football.
Charles Green now too involved with Aston Villa (IA) for me to comment and will probably do just as well, financially, there. Duff and Phelps still involved in that one too. The EBT cases drag on with a fairly innocuous outcome from the SFA “dual contracts” merely stating all ex-RFC titles “null and void” over the period.
Not one previous Director of RFC now able to be involved with a football team, no loss there. Messrs White, Mudday, Smish, Soupness, Ogilbrie, Boin etc. still involved in live cases but I’m sure they’ll be fine. There appears to be a high level of apathy around the whole Newcogate affair and associated cases now. Can you remember the stramash at the time? It’s probably worth closing the book on it now and moving on to qualifying for Russia after our decent Euro2016?
Still waiting for HMRC ruling on the BTC tribunal of course.