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Neil Doncaster?

I think at least part of this is to do with the optics. The Rangers are, often with very good reason, widely disliked and distrusted in Scottish football. Generally speaking, I tend to dislike them and certainly distrust them myself. However, even the worst and most corrupt of organisations can sometimes be in the right and, in this instance at least, the Rangers seem to have a very valid point. Something certainly smells but because, at least partly of who is asking for the enquiry many are resistant to it and we are in part at least, being vilified by association. It is a great pity that this enforced hiatus could not be used as an opportunity to dismantle completely our tainted, incompetent and distrusted administration structure and start afresh based purely on sound administration, good marketing, fresh thinking and sporting integrity. Sadly however, the corrupt, inept and self interested forces in control would never allow that to happen as a result of which our game will eventually emerge in as unfair and mismanaged a state as ever. A missed opportunity.

Interesting article by Tom English. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52646285 In it, he says "Scottish football missed an opportunity to examine itself three years ago and it has missed another opportunity now. Strip away the bile and all the inter-club warfare and ask a simple question - can we do better than this? If a neutral party put that to a vote and asked club leaders, players and supporters to respond yes or no, what would the result look like? Can we do better? The answer, surely, would be an emphatic yes. This is the problem, though. When you try to lift the bonnet to have a look at how things are done, the thing that some want to know first is who's doing the lifting and why? What's their agenda? Who are they acting on behalf of? What are they really trying to do? That mentality chokes progress. It protects the status quo. Clubs have it in their gift to introduce radical change to the game if they so wish, but they don't want it - or don't want it enough. People like to talk about change, but not many are brave enough to see it through." Seems to sum up the situation pretty well.

Aye well, I do my best !

Sure, it's been a shambles but the impression I get is that people from the outside are pointing the finger at Scot Gardiner as he has previous and apparently is a diehard currant bun. We're just seen as the mugs who took him on despite all the baggage, and (it has to be said), we were well warned. I am not judging him - just saying how it appears from things I've read.

This is exactly it, the only logical reason for such an illogical course of action. An extended job application. Let's just see where Cooper the dug is going for a pish in a year or two.

Unfortunately everything is viewed through the prism of celtic/rangers, nothing can be seen to be done without being for/against the benefit of the ugly sisters. Step forward Keith Jackson with his 'exclusive' , front page stuff ( with colour pictures for those that can't read well ) Just ups the ante a bit more, and the sensational bull5h1t takes precedence over the real story. He also has an online article on why the spfl should be 'razed to the ground' and rebuilt....but that just won't sell papers as well.🙄

After we on the title in 2003/04 we were initially denied promotion because we didn't have a 10,000 all seater stadium. We proposed to ground share with Aberdeen but this was rejected. However, following that we lobbied within the SPL (as it then was) and managed to persuade the clubs to rethink and we were eventually promoted and the rules on stadiums were relaxed, allowing us to properly redevelop our stadium for the top flight. Between 2002 and 2013 we had four managers leave our club to take over at other larger clubs (|Paterson to Aberdeen, Robbo to Hearts, Brewster to Dundee Utd, Butcher to Hibs). Each deal netted us a six figure sum, we very likely took in more than half a million pounds during that time just from these deals and every time we improved as a team afterwards. If we were in either of those situations again, does anyone think that we'd have the same level of influence or be able to strike deals as positive for the club? No chance. People won't negotiate with us in good faith, why would they? If we don't like their offer we'll just leak the WhatsApp messages. Regarding an inquiry, I think the whole affair has been a shambles and in theory an inquiry would be a good idea but in reality, what's the point? Say the inquiry came back and said that nothing improper was done, would our board, or the Rangers board or the Hearts board accept that? No they won't. If it comes back and says the whole thing was a big stitch up, then what happens then? We kick out the chairman of 30 clubs? The fact is that the accusations from our board and others are wooly and ill defined and any further inquiry would very likely be inconclusive. The whole affair has dragged the name of the club through the mud, allied us with the nutcase fringe of Scottish football and served to reduce our standing and influence. And for what purpose? Absolutely none. A complete failure on all levels by the club.

Without doubt this has been the most shambolic era in Scottish football history . There are many things which have upset me but by far the most is the reaction by certain members on this forum ( before anyone tells me , I know they are all entitled to their opinions .) Every Tom , Dick and Harry in Scottish football are lining up to have a pop at our club !!! And for what ? Because our chairman and ceo acted honestly and for what they thought was in the best interests of our club . It must stick in their gut when they see how some of their so called supporters perceive them .

TWENTY years ago an' were still here !

We never had any influence. We are a small club by any standards with one of the lowest budgets in the championship. And lets all not forget the clubs are business's at the end of the day. The bottom line is the bottom line. And money talks. Not "good will" In regards to an inquiry. You think their should be zero accountability then? I think its very telling how all those clubs who accused us of lying on the same day voted down an inquiry (at no extra cost) to figure out the facts. And if the facts came to show that their was no impropriety of course we would have to accept it. We wouldn't have a leg to stand on then. You shouldn't be hoodwinked into believing what those with green tinted glasses say. From what i've seen our master plan was that we wanted to Null and void the season and deny our club £200K and then make baseless allegations against the SPFL Which we would then call for an independent investigation so it can all be revealed to be a massive fabrication on our part therefore doing immense damage to our club. Sounds about right.... The livingston statement today i feel had this spot on. Calling for an inquiry. But also lamenting the sham reconstruction talks. And then mentioning the afflicted clubs who lose out because of this. Namely the relegated clubs and those in play off positions. Who are all seemingly told to shut up and eat your cereal and get on with it. Because the real crime would be no promotion or relegation apparently?

We had no influence to start with. The club did what they believed was right for ourselves and other clubs who were are now facing extreme financial hardship. They revealed their evidence that the vote was corrupt and bow have been attacked by the spfl for sticking to their guns. The evidence they produced showed that the vote was corrupt and that it shouldn't have stood. They have maintained their position bot changed their view unlike several other clubs who have bowed to the premiership clubs. And don't get me started on brechin using our reputation to convince the league two clubs to change their votes.

The phrase 'club statement' now fills one with almost as much dread as 'root canal surgery', or 'Andy Halliday at left-back'. There have been exceptions - Stenhousemuir and Kelty Hearts leading the way - but most cases have involved people who think they're cleverer than they are and who have too much time on their hands using the word 'dignity' whilst throwing it away spectacularly in a multi-paragraphed ranting word salad. It would be nice to think that the result of today's vote on having an independent inquiry might bring a break from these lunatic pronouncements. The number of clubs in favour of such an inquiry - thirteen - was higher than I expected but not high enough even to hint at a general lack of confidence in the league, let alone actually triumph. Whether it does so or not now depends on whether those who still have an axe to grind find other avenues of attack. A previous suggestion by Rangers of going to CAS sounds more like desperation from a slightly unhinged supporter on an internet forum than a real possibility. However Hearts may well feel the cost of relegation is high enough to justify risking a legal challenge. I've long wondered whether this might throw a spanner in the works not necessarily because the Jambos would win but by holding up the start of the 2020/21 season long enough that the other side has to back down. One shudders at the thought of what animosity would develop should this scenario occur. Whichever side of the divide you come down on - and, depressingly, it has been treated by too many as a case of being either pro-Rangers or anti-Rangers when there is so, so much more at stake here - there is a compelling argument here that letting things get so out of control is evidence that there is a total failure of leadership at the SPFL. A competent organization would have largely ignored the Rangers dossier and kept quiet until, as was always inevitable, they won the vote on an independent inquiry. Instead MacLennan, Neil Doncaster and other members of the board have come out all guns blazing, throwing allegations back at their accusers and keeping the pot boiling over instead of turning the heat off. They may feel that they are entitled to do so given the personal nature of some of the attacks but they've been impugned before and still managed to take it on the chin, After all, Doncaster earns his £350,000 salary as Chief Executive not because of outstanding business acumen but because he has proven willing, for that money, to be the face of the organization and therefore the target and lightning rod for criticism. He has had plenty of that over the years without resorting to an almost permanent slot on BBC Radio Scotland to defend himself; why change that now? The thing is, there's so much childish mud-slinging going around that it is becoming increasingly easy to forget the trigger for this whole palava - the farce over Dundee's vote on bringing the lower leagues to an end. I'm quite prepared to believe that one man's 'bullying' could be another's 'robust conversations', given emotions will have been running high. I'm also prepared to accept that getting 42 different clubs who are almost all entirely fixated only on their own short-term self-interests - I think putting that in bold was justified - to agree on something may well require a bit of harassing and harrying with strong-worded reminders about potential ramifications and with artificial deadlines. But whilst Doncaster and co. would no doubt argue that they have done nothing illegal that is not the same as doing nothing wrong. There was publishing the result of the April vote before everyone had voted. There was allowing (and effectively encouraging) Dundee to change their vote. There was openly offering the reconstruction carrot and then putting so many cooks into the working group that there was no way in hell the broth would be edible, all the while being quite aware that Premiership clubs would torpedo any plan regardless. But Doncaster survives because he is still, to enough clubs, a useful idiot. At any given time the status quo suits a large enough number that reform and progress is impossible. This has been the case for several years and there is no reason to expect this will change, especially because of the arcane decision-making system - what the league calls 'democracy' - where potentially three clubs in one division can shoot down a motion supported by the other thirty-nine. Whether reconstruction would have actually been a positive move in the short-term or the long-term is still open to debate - not least because it feels like it hasn't properly been debated. If it is true that this has just been a distraction from the much, much bigger problem - the fact that clubs can't play football currently, don't know when they will be able to play or under what conditions, and might go bust before that day comes - then the SPFL now should have no excuses for being fully focussed. But there will be considerable battles ahead here. There will be questions of closed-doors matches, player safety, supporter access and safety and probably plenty more. There will be a myriad of opinions, and a myriad of different needs. And ultimately the league will need to get the vast majority of the clubs to agree on a plan to tackle this enormous crisis. Good luck with that, lads. Still, it could be worse. Imagine if John Nelms was on the board: he'd have probably given away the TV rights for magic beans. Lawrie Spence has whinged about Scottish football on Narey's Toepoker since September 2007. He has a life outside this blog. Honestly. View the full article

Not unexpected but still very disappointing. The Stenhousemuir Chairman's statement explained very well why having an inquiry was so important. If the various allegations are founded in fact then it is clearly important they are brought out into the open and dealt with. If an independent inquiry found that the allegations were largely baseless then those making the allegations would need to start toeing the line. Either way, the outcome clears the air and allows the organisation to move on. So surely an inquiry should have been welcomed both by those who think the SPFL are doing a good job and those who do not. It seems those who have supported an inquiry are largely clubs who have been publicly critical of the SPFL. These are the clubs who are willing to put their side of things to an independent arbiter. Those who have been supportive of the SPFL position seem unwilling to have the allegations put to independent scrutiny. There really is only one conclusion that you can draw from that! It is all very well saying that we now need to draw a line under this and work together, but the best opportunity for that was for all to accept the conclusions of an independent inquiry. Working together in an organisation where the leadership clearly adopts a bullying culture of divide and rule and where nobody can trust anybody else will not be easy. Directors and staff from other clubs will have moaned about the SPFL in private and will have pledged their support, but then been too gutless to act. How on earth are you supposed to work constructively in that kind of environment? No doubt the club will put out another statement, but it does now need to accept the decision of the majority of member clubs and focus on the season ahead.

Still with the club on this one .... the statements issued up to yesterday were clear and well worded in my opinion. The record was the one who already printed the smear piece on the CEO around the time of the first vote and here again they print another alleging we had a plan that would cost us £175,000. I find that really hard to believe when for the last six months both Gardiner and Morrison have been scouring the country and beyond to try and raise £500,000. I would believe our chairman's comment this morning a lot more easily than the red top rag. (any red top rag).

This is a PR nightmare and embarrassment for our club and everyone associated with it. All these contradictory statements being released are only damaging the club and its future. Someone please go and cut our phone lines.

I'm fully behind the board on this. They dared to speak out against the cabal of self serving clubs and the papers and of course we are now being hounded as the latest statement says. Any club being relegated (Falkirk Partick etc) is being hounded in the same way when they release statements about their enforced demotion. Seemingly the only acceptable statement people would like would go along the lines of "we have full confidence in Doncaster. We dont want any reconstruction and everybody should stay quiet now for the good of the game. (The game being the premiership without regard to the other leagues) Also in regards to the Null and void nonsense. For teams like ourselves in playoff spots. The season is effectively Null and Void for us. No play off money or associated TV money from that. I wish the 6 self serving clubs in the Premiership would have at least got the same amount of vitriol that ourselves and other afflicted clubs are getting.

Blimey ..this was the game when Caley first came to my attention and which would eventually lead to me following the team and planning trips up to Scotland to watch either at home or away. I was driving back from somewhere and was listening to the Sports on Radio 5 Live and getting the updates...it came across as a big deal down south What I hadn't realised was that Ian Wright, a former hero at my other club Palace (but now at Celtic, at the end of his career) played the 2nd half against Caley! A comment on the programme noted that Wright had probably never been involved in such a shock..which had me thinking about when Palace beat Liverpool 4-3 in the FA Cup Semi Final the year we lost to them 0-9 at Anfield in the league. Interestingly John Barnes was involved in that match as well playing for Liverpool, a match as set in folklore as the Celtic-Caley match, I was getting congratulations from all and sundry for days after. Palace lost the final against Man United that year (and again against the same team in 2016, bugger!), whereas I was privileged to watch Caley beat Celtic in the Semi and then Falkirk in the Final in 2015, which stands as the pinnacle of my personal football supporting life thus far. And yes tonight's programme was a bit about how that game changed Celtic, but I felt we got a fair share of the coverage, and allowed me to get a bit closer to a key date in Caley's history

A stalwart

He already has been, noticed a couple of comments on P & B saying that he's a failed journalist and doesnt bother to do any research

Every single Championshp club other than us voted against an inquiry. I've got to be honest, I think this whole thing has been really poorly handled by our board. They are completely out of their depth but there's no-one who is going to step in and take over so we are stuck with them. Releasing embarrassing statements and publicising private conversations with other chairman isn't the way to enhance your clubs reputation. When it comes down to it, what has the point of all this been? Why have we pushed so hard on this, when it was obvious early in the whole process that we were very unlikely to come out of this with what we wanted, which was either a season completion or an expanded league? You have to pick your battles in life and we have picked the wrong battle. Who knows what impact this will have on us next season, it's certainly not made our club a more attractive location for other players or managers, which we might need to think about if Robbo is given an opporutnity at a higher level.