This article raises interesting issues, but also leaves important questions hanging.
The article looks at the unprecedented criticism from clubs of the disciplinary system in Scottish football at the moment. Ultimately, it lays blame on the clubs themselves ("Disciplinary system ultimately down to clubs") and on the international board ("IFAB the real culprit")
Both points are fair:
- the clubs do, in the end, have a great deal of power over the league and national football authorities; and
- the IFAB definitions are far from making disciplinary decisions straightforward or clear cut.
- the clubs do, in the end, have a great deal of power over the league and national football authorities; and
- the IFAB definitions are far from making disciplinary decisions straightforward or clear cut.
But the questions that are left hanging seem to us to be the bigger ones...
First, if IFAB's failings are the key problem, why is that this issue has really only come to a head in Scotland? Did every other countries' clubs or authorities see the problem coming, and then nail a solution that Scotland's authorities couldn't find or didn't like?
(We don't think so, although interested to hear if others see that differently.)
So, second, if IFAB's failings only gave rise to such widespread and open discontent in Scotland, what are the key factors that are different here?
Consider two possibilities. One is that the Scottish authorities uniquely incompetent in their introduction of the IFAB rules, and/or in their running of the disciplinary system.
Another possibility is that the atmosphere in the Scottish game is one of such distrust, such concern of the integrity of the game's authorities, that the response to bad disciplinary decisions (which might happen everywhere) has been completely different in Scotland.
On the incompetence side, we've written about how this is the most generous interpretation possible of the events around the liquidation of Rangers. taxjustice.net/topics/theoffs…
And so there's certainly evidence to weigh on this point.
And so there's certainly evidence to weigh on this point.
On the integrity and distrust point, however, the evidence seems completely overwhelming. And it goes far beyond this season's disciplinary decisions. Everything from drawing of cup ties to the purchase of the national stadium seems to raise fan and club suspicions on all sides.
Every season, in every league in the world, managers blame referees after bad results, and fans wonder if their club is treated fairly. But that doesn't spill over into widespread derision of the authorities unless there's an underlying problem.
In Scottish football, the underlying problem - which has caused growing distrust of the integrity of the authorities and now the game itself - is the abject failure to deal with the corruption scandals around the liquidation of Rangers.
The poison is deeply embedded now, because the fixes that should have been pursued after 2012 were eschewed. It's hard now to see how trust can be restored without the @ScottishFA submitting to the fully independent, public inquiry that we called for two years ago.
But - and hear we return to agreement with @BBCTomEnglish's main point - the only actors who can force such an inquiry are the clubs.
"These clubs get the system that they vote for. They don't just have the right to moan about it, they have have the power to change it."
"These clubs get the system that they vote for. They don't just have the right to moan about it, they have have the power to change it."
We @TaxJusticeNet have asked Ian Maxwell @ScottishFA to support an inquiry, or even to discuss it. We've not even had the courtesy of an acknowledgement. Sadly, that may be true for most fan groups acting independently. And so it's likely that only the clubs can force the issue.
If you're a fan, reading this, what can you do? Sign the national petitions, sure, but act at the club level too. They're yours. They should be there for you. They're only there because of you. So let them know what you want them to do, to fix the game.
And make sure they do it *publicly*. If there was ever a time the game could be fixed by quiet deals in private, that's long gone. You can guarantee integrity won't be restored by any private deal.
Here's an indicator for the campaign: the number of clubs that have called publicly for an independent inquiry into the running of Scottish football, including the range of potential corruption issues around the liquidation of Rangers.
How many clubs, including your own, do you think would need to be on that list before there was action?
@threadreaderapp maestro, please unroll
