Scottish Football League

Less than an hour before kickoff, a queue stretched the entire length of the imposing Ibrox Stadium as loyal fans desperately tried to get last minute tickets for Rangers' league clash with Third Division-title rivals Elgin City.

46,015 people crammed into the stadium to watch Rangers’ emphatic 5-1 win after a domineering performance from the Glaswegian giants. This was the second highest attendance in the United Kingdom (and the highest in Scotland)—hundreds more than their bitter enemies Celtic brought to Celtic Park for their 2-2 draw with Edinburgh side Hibernian in the Scottish Premier League.

This sounds like an absurd statistic to many: A team in the fourth tier of Scottish football competing with part timers luring a higher attendance than English champions Manchester City. But for Rangers, this is standard procedure.

Overshadowing the rest of Scottish football is second nature to both Rangers and Celtic. However, after Rangers’ relegation to the basement of Scottish football in the Third Division, this has become more apparent than ever. The club’s lowest home attendance this season was just under 30,000; a figure 90 percent of the SPL can only dream of.

Rangers even broke another world record at their game with East Stirling on August 18 as a remarkable crowd of 49,118 flocked to Govan. This particular attendance was truly spectacular as it was more than the total combined attendance of every other game in Scottish football that weekend.

For any other club in Scotland, this would be unthinkable. At Ibrox, this is to be expected.

In 1972 the Rangers were at the pinnacle of European football—winning the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup at the Camp Nou and competing in the first ever Super Cup game with then European Cup winners and total football pioneers, Ajax.

Forty years on, the club is now playing under vastly different circumstances. The Rangers were once competing with the biggest clubs in world football—this weekend sees Ally McCoist’s Gers take on third division title rivals Elgin City.

The world’s most decorated and successful football club (with their record 54 league titles) has gone from the UEFA Cup final to facing off against part-timers in only five years—quite some fall from taking on Ajax in the European Super Cup.

Despite this substantial slump, Rangers' admirable ambition shows no signs of disappearing.  While most Rangers fans expected to be watching a team of under-19s line up alongside loyal stars Lee McCulloch and Lee Wallace, McCoist’s eight summer signings would be enough to strike fear in to the hearts of most SPL clubs, let alone the Rangers’ third division rivals.

The addition of some of the SPL’s finest talents, Black, Shields and Templeton, as well as former Serie A defender Emilson Cribari and former AEK Athens star Anestis Agyriou, show the rest of Scottish football that the Rangers mean business.

With a formidable squad that would more than compete in the top flight of Scottish football, Rangers appear to have more than just the third division title in their sights this season.

The Govan faithful see the Ramsdens Cup as a must-win tournament, and McCoist’s men are likely to be aiming to add this season’s Scottish and League Cups to the club’s illustrious list of honours.

Throughout their proud 140 year history, Rangers Football Club has maintained the highest of expectations and an unrivalled sense of ambition. Rangers may no longer be at the top of European football, but one thing is for sure: the Rangers philosophy of "No Surrender" will never die.

Rangers were voted into the Scottish Third Division Friday by a 25-5 vote of Scottish Football League members. The vote ensures that Rangers will not play in the Scottish Premier League for the next three years as the club attempt to climb back through the ranks.

The effects are already starting to be felt among other Scottish clubs, especially in the Scottish Premier League. The Scottish Premier League members had previously voted the new Rangers consortium out of the SPL on July 4th.

Five clubs could be forced into administration within weeks, St. Mirren chairman Steven Gilmore said in an interview with The Telegraph. This is a result of a potential 16 million pound loss of television revenue per season due to the loss of four telecasts per year of the Old Firm rivalry with Celtic.

A new television contract with BSkyB and ESPN, which was agreed to in November 2011, was set to begin this season. However, the contract, which was worth 80 million pounds and would run through 2017, was never signed and required both Celtic and Rangers to be in the Scottish Premier League according to an article in The Guardian.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle chairman Kenny Cameron took an even dimmer view of the future of Scottish football in the same article from The Telegraph.

“None of us will escape the financial fallout from this,” Cameron said. “There was an opportunity on the table, in terms of the joint agreement tabled at [Friday’s] meeting for us all to come together and a genuine willingness to improve the game substantially over the coming years."

“But it now looks as though this will once again be kicked back in to the long grass. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring forward change may well have been lost," Cameron continued.

“The loss of either our fans or our sponsors was never going to leave any of the clubs in Scotland in a healthy financial position and for some this could spell the end of football as we know it.”

Scottish Premier League chief executive Neil Doncaster is trying to save the SPL and keep Rangers within striking distance of the SPL by forming SPL2, which would be made up of Rangers and several teams currently in the Scottish First Division.

Teams in the lower divisions will be affected as well. Yes, teams in the Scottish Third Division will surely get a bump at the gate when Rangers make their two visits to town each season. But teams in the lower three divisions may not receive their 1.9 million pound settlement payment from the SPL that was agreed upon when the Scottish Premier League broke away from the rest of the Scottish Football League.

It's no sure shot that Rangers will even gain promotion this season. Several players, including Steven Naismith, Steven Davis, Steven Whittaker, and Allen McGregor, refused to have their contracts transferred to the new Rangers and became free agents.

Meanwhile, Rangers have allowed international players Carlos Bocanegra, Maurice Edu and Doran Goian to leave the club after being voted into Division Three, according to the BBC. Rangers are still under a transfer embargo, so the club cannot add any players until the embargo is lifted. The current Rangers squad would be a mix of holdovers and youth players.

If the Scottish football pyramid further deteriorates, the long-standing rumor that Celtic and Rangers would abandon Scottish football and join the English Football Association may gain weight.

The Sun reported in June that Rangers were looking into buying Bury FC, who currently play in the npower League One, the third tier of English football, and take their spot. Without Celtic and Rangers, the Scottish football league structure would surely crumble. While that plan looks very unlikely at the moment, it shows how close to the brink Scottish football is because of a few bad decisions.

I was reminded of a scene in the old Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Commando today. The one where Arnie holds a bad guy over a cliff, and says, “Remember Sully, when I promised I’d kill you last?”

“That’s right, Matrix, you did!” responds the baddie.

“I lied,” says Arnie as he drops him to his death.

Why am I reminded of that scene?

Well earlier this week, six SPL clubs bravely told us that sporting integrity trumped financial considerations, and they were rejecting the application of Sevco 5088 to take over the now defunct Rangers FC’s place in the league.

Aberdeen, Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, Dundee United, Saint Johnstone and Inverness Caledonian Thistle have all said they will be voting against Sevco being allowed into the SPL, all citing sporting integrity as their reason for saying no.

Well, remember when the SPL clubs promised us sporting integrity was very important to them?

They lied.

STV today reports that, following a meeting between the game’s governing bodies, the SPL has presented the SFL with a stark ultimatum – allow Sevco 5088 to join not in Division III, but in Division I, or else…

The document presented to the SFL clubs today is, frankly, an appalling perversion of every principle of sporting competition.

In a shameless attempt at divide and rule, it threatens to cut off promotion to half of the clubs if they do not agree to Sevco 5088 being allowed into Division I next season.

Let’s look more closely at why the SFL clubs are being told they must accept Sevco 5088 in Division I:

•Immediate cash benefit for all 30 clubs!

Money, money, money.

•Gate receipt uplift in Division I

Money, money, money. Is there any reason why the Division 3 clubs should not benefit from gate receipt uplifts from Sevco 5088 in their league?

•Potential hospitality & advertising values increase

And this wouldn’t happen with Sevco 5088 in Division III?

•Sponsors receive added value through additional exposure

And this would not happen with Sevco 5088 in Division III?

•Scottish Government remains committed to our community strategy

And this would not happen with Sevco 5088 in Division III? If not, it certainly implies political interference in football, a big no no for FIFA.

•SFL has more influence at the top table

And this wouldn’t be the case with Sevco 5088 in Division III? Ah, the influence won’t come from having Sevco 5088 in the SFL. The SPL clubs will allow them more influence if they agree to parachute Sevco 5088 into Division I.

•Play-Offs restore the sporting meritocracy and deliver additional value

How exactly does allowing a brand new club to jump ahead of twenty others without playing a match promote sporting meritocracy?

AND BENEFITS TO SCOTTISH FOOTBALL

•A unified plan presented to the Scottish footballing public, which offers real possibilities for the game

It may be unified, but that does not make it justified.

•Keeps all 42 clubs together avoiding a divisive SPL2 split

Er, the clubs are split now – twelve SPL clubs are not, “together,” with the 30 SFL clubs as it stands.

•Deals with the need for sporting integrity with regard to Newco

Oh no it does not! The “Newco,” must start at the bottom of the pile to ensure sporting integrity. Giving them a free hand-up destroys sporting integrity.

•Delivers innovation in the form of a single league, play-offs and a pyramid plan

Innovation is not necessarily a good thing. And this proposal is not a good thing.

•Delivers new value for the game

How exactly? If the opinion of Scottish soccer fans on Sevco 5088's application to join the SPL is any guide, the fans will walk away in droves if they are parachuted into Division I. Where will the value be in the game then?

•Potentially narrows the financial gap between the Scottish Premier League & Scottish League

Will Sevco 5088 in Division I for a single season narrow the financial gap more than Sevco 5088 in the SFL for at least three seasons if they start in Division III?

•Shows leadership for the game in Scotland

Laughable. It shows a lack of backbone.

•Allows fans to engage in the bigger picture

The fans are far more aware of the bigger picture on this one than the clubs are. It’s time they started to listen to their paying customers.

•A positive media outcome

I very much doubt it.

The mainstream media in Scotland will try to polish this turd of a plan, but the demise of Rangers FC has demonstrated that the power of the new media, and anything the old media say to justify it, will be ignored by the only people who matter – the fans.

Let’s be clear on this.

Whoever is responsible for this proposal has destroyed the credibility of Scottish soccer forever.

It does not even matter now whether the plan goes through or not; the fact remains that someone has attempted to gerrymander the game for the benefit of a single club. They are a brand new club, who at this moment in time, are not even a member of the SFA and have never played in a league before.

By even proposing this shambles, SPL Chief Executive Neil Doncaster and his SFA counterpart Stewart Regan prove themselves unfit to govern Scottish soccer. And let's not forget the ultimate authority figure in the game, SFA President Campbell Ogilvie. A former Director of Rangers FC, and a beneficiary of the now infamous EBT scheme which precipitated its downfall.

Amazingly, he remains in post. Well, it's only amazingly if you are unfamiliar with how things work in Scottish soccer.

This club, Sevco 5088, have been presented as absolutely vital to Scottish soccer. We have been told that Scottish soccer cannot survive in its present form without them.

Soccer has a habit of throwing up contentious refereeing decisions. Should this plan go through, how could anyone, ever, have confidence in the impartiality of referees who give favorable decisions to Sevco 5088?

The game must not only be a fair sporting competition, it must be seen to be a fair sporting competition.

The SPL plan will create not a sporting competition, but a soap opera. A cheap, tawdry sham where every effort has been, and is, made to ensure the success of Sevco 5088.

Sevco 5088 fans can have the stadia to themselves, as they watch the action unfold on the pitch, wandering what bizarre plot twist the SPL scriptwriters have come up with this week to ensure Triple H... sorry Sevco 5088 wins again.

Sevco 5088 fans could have a new chant, familiar to older viewers who remember ITV's Saturday afternoon wrestling in the 1970's.

As the legion of young kids and old ladies who eagerly watched Big Daddy in action would have put it, "Eas-y! Eas-y! Eas-y!"

If this plan goes through, we can say goodbye to Scottish soccer and hello to Soccertainment!

Follow Daniel O'Connell on twitter @DanielOConnel18

In the beginning, there was applause.

At the end, there were boos.

In the middle, there were just groans of despair!

Ayr's recent run of poor form has seen them drop into such a precarious position at the bottom end of the Scottish First Division that even the most fervent of their supporters fail to see how the club can climb out and away to safety.

Things weren't helped by the visitation of newly-crowned title winners Ross County to Somerset Park as the Ayrshire side fight for their lives at the wrong end of what has proved to be an extremely tough and tightly-packed league season.

Respect where respect was due though, as prior to kickoff, the Ayr players lined the edge of the tunnel to clap their opponents onto the field, with County taking the plaudits they have earned in their run to the title with five matches remaining.

The match started with an upside-down feeling to it though, as the home side were dominating their Highland counterparts for the early stages of the game. But for all their pressure and goalmouth action, they failed to break the deadlock—and perhaps that shows why they are at the wrong end of the table fighting for survival instead of at the top fighting for promotion.

Ayr's Michael McGowan was in tremendous form, sweeping in countless crosses from the left that constantly went unmet in the middle—which Ayr were to rue as the game carried on.

Ross County thought they had opened the scoring at 24 minutes when a shot from Paul Lawson nestled nicely in the corner of the goal, but the linesman on the right noticed that the ball had been deflected goalward via an offside County attacker, so it was ruled out. From our viewpoint, had the ball gone untouched it was heading towards the goal anyway, so it might have counted without the touch.

The offside non-goal seemed to spark the visitors into action and they started to push into the match with more vigour as the teams headed towards the halftime break. However, the half ended goalless—not that the large travelling support minded much, as they celebrated their promotion by dancing the conga and pogo with scant regard for the action on the field.

The second half took merely moments to spark into life, as Ross County found themselves on the end of a fortuitous gift from Ayr's defence. After Chris Smith appeared to deflect the ball from the grasp of keeper Kevin Cuthbert's normally safe hands and into the path of an unmarked Michael Gardyne, the County midfielder fired low into an open net to give his side an early second half lead.

It was a calamitous start to the half for Ayr, who know that every point counts as they try to stave off relegation.

16 minutes into the half, both sides decided it was time to bring the woodwork into play. Ayr's Malone first drifted a cross into the area only to see his effort bounce back from striking the face of the crossbar.

Secondly, County's Iain Vigurs fired through a tremendous bullet-like strike that was only kept from bursting through the net by the right hand post that must still be shaking in fear of another thunderbolt from the striker.

Next, woodwork was required for Alan Trouten of Ayr in the 64th minute, though he guided his low shot home to equalize the scoring at 1-1.

This scoreline wasn't to remain this way long, as Ross County added another only four minutes later. Paul Lawson swung in a superbly weighted cross for Colin McMenamin, who accurately headed it home for a 2-1 lead.

Five minutes prior to the end, Sammy Morrow added a third for the visiting team after receiving a square ball from Steven Craig to end Ayr's diminishing hopes, and subsequently gave the new Championship winners another three points.

With only three points separating the bottom three with four games remaining, it looks like it's going to the wire for Ayr United.

Ross County have other problems on their mind, like how quickly their celebratory party can begin.

Marc Roseblade is a Contributor for Bleacher Report & NotJustScottishFootball, he works as PR for Ayr United Football Academy & Galveston Pirate Soccer Club who play in the NPSL in Texas, USA. All quotes are obtained first-hand unless otherwise stated. You can follow Marc @myscottishfitba