lets move on

A blizzard of reaction followed over the next few days with opinion, as was to be expected, ranging across the scale; triumphalism from the Ibrox side of the great divide, derision and disgust from elsewhere.

Some of it was mind-blowing.

Those with Rangers connections lined-up to have a pop at everything that moved.

Andy Goram called for the head of Neil Doncaster, Ally McCoist branded the investigation an ‘insult’, Sir David Murray thought it had been ‘a witch hunt’ and Charles Green felt ‘vindicated’.

In the midst of the furore over possible title-stripping, one thing seemed to have been ignored; Rangers were found guilty. If not of seeking to gain a competitive advantage – and that was the finding that sparked most outrage – then of deliberately withholding documentation relating to significant payments made to players through the EBT scheme and side-letters or contracts.

Rangers have long contended those sums were there for all to see in annual accounts, but although they weren’t fully detailed that does raise questions about the audit process which should have been carried out by the football authorities.

The fine of £250,000 – although meaningless as it was levied against ‘oldco’ – was a sizeable one and reflected the seriousness with which the panel viewed the misdemeanour.

But all that was lost in the celebrations over titles not being put at risk.

I was inundated with comments through twitter – jubilant Rangers fans celebrating their ‘victory’ and demanding apologies, supporters of other teams expressing their disgust at what they saw as a slap on the wrist having been meted out. A number claimed they were finished with Scottish football, believing that Rangers had been allowed to get away with cheating.

I understand entirely why feelings were running so high, but I do think we have reached the point where we have to say enough is enough.

If this issue continues to rumble on it has the potential to destroy our game from within.

I personally was never comfortable with the idea of title-stripping, and from what I had been told over the months it was never thought by the authorities to be a likely outcome. It was there, right at the bottom of the list of possible sanctions and was I understand only mentioned when Charles Green was trying to resist the setting-up of the Commission. He was told there had to be an independent investigation; if not, the maximum punishment would have to be enforced.

In some ways I guess the SPL got what it might see as the perfect outcome; Rangers found guilty, but the punishment one the club could accept.

I just hope everyone else can now do so, move on, and allow our national game to develop free from the rancour which has spread through it like a cancer ever since this whole saga first erupted.

I just hope everyone else can now do so, move on, and allow our national game to develop free from the rancour which has spread through it like a cancer ever since this whole saga first erupted.

I just hope everyone else can now do so, move on, and allow our national game to develop free from the rancour which has spread through it like a cancer ever since this whole saga first erupted.