A mushroom of corruption

“In all institutions from which the cold wind of open criticism is excluded, an innocent corruption begins to grow like a mushroom - for example, in senates and learned societies”
(Friedrich Nietzsche)

One could be forgiven for believing the above quote by, German Philosopher Nietzsche, was written with the current Rangers situation in mind, excluding the fact that he died in 1900 of course.

For a matter of months now Rangers internet bloggers have been suggesting that there is a powerful stench of corruption emanating from the football governing offices of Scottish football, with both the SFA and SPL the recipients of such accusations.

In fact setting aside their corrupt practices for a moment, their glaring incompetence and negligence, their failure to engage in a diplomatic manner with other organisations, but most of all their lies, threatening and intimidating behaviour towards the SFL chairmen, should have had our press in Scotland asking some probing and uncomfortable questions for Messrs Regan and Doncaster at the very least.

Instead, despite SFL chairmen providing documentary evidence which proved that Stewart Regan was lying, our Scottish press, rather than pursue him over his absence of integrity, gave him column space to attack Rangers as “unjustified”.

However Roger Hannah's expose` in the Sun newspaper, which corroborates an earlier Daily Record claim, that he has seen documentary evidence that the SPL wished to strip Rangers of a number of domestic honours as far back as the summer, at least, changes everything. Perhaps now some of those journalists who have been quick to criticise Rangers bloggers as “deranged” , “deluded” or “paranoid” will chose their words more carefully in the future.

It beggars belief that there has been such an exclusion of the cold wind of open criticism towards these governing bodies given their dreadful handling of the Rangers crisis, should the silence of our media continue then a number of editors should be re-considering some journalists contracts. Should such an exclusion continue I would be forced to apologise to my fellow Rangers supporters who claim there is a widespread media conspiracy against our club.

This is no mere “smoking gun”. This is a full bloodied atomic bomb seeking a detonator.

What Regan and Doncaster have done, assisted by their SPL cohorts is breached a fundamental rule of Scottish Law, and of European Human Rights - they have declared a defendant guilty before the case against them is proven. If “Sporting Integrity” was a sham then the investigation by Harper & MacLeod and the subsequent hearing scheduled for November 13th is quite simply off the planet.

I was reminded of a story told me by an old Policeman many years ago about the practices of a rural Sheriff Court “in the sticks” for want of a better term. When the accused was to appear for trial the Sheriff Clerk would summon him/her with the shout “March the guilty bastard in”.

But that's where the humour ends.

The conduct of Regan, Doncaster and the SPL is so serious, that it now requires external examination. Does it not say it all that when the SFL got a whiff of what was happening they quickly excused themselves from any further participation.

The politicians in Scotland who have backed off from this crisis for so long can no longer be permitted to. There is absolutely no confidence in the Scottish footballing authorities, other than the SFL, and this latest revelation must serve as the last nail in the coffin for Messrs Regan and Co.

Their conduct has usurped and invalidated a bona fide investigation. Yes for us as Rangers supporters it's the mother of all “own goals” but it should serve notice to everyone interested in Scottish football that the the governing authorities are not only unfit for purpose, but their professional conduct makes their positions totally untenable.

The mushroom of corruption at the SFA & SPL has now been exposed, it has to be stopped before it does further damage not only to our game, but our credibility as a sporting nation, one which in only a couple years time will host the Commonwealth Games.

Once we have rooted out the mushroom of corruption our next logical step should be to expose those who cultivated it.