Football is the beautiful game in no small part because it is simple. From the grandeur of Barcelona’s Nou Camp to a back garden in a humble Scottish housing scheme, all you need is a ball, a couple of goals and some grass.
However, the state football in this country finds itself in just now is anything but straight-forward. Indeed, it is rather worrying.
We find one of our giants on their knees as Rangers their financial skeletons well and truly out of the closet thanks to administration struggle for their very survival.
The SFA, our governing body, have been embarrassed by a Court of Session ruling that they had exceeded their powers by slapping a year-long transfer embargo upon the Light Blues for bringing the game into disrepute.
Now the SFA are faced with a nightmare scenario of either having to increase the severity of the sentence or reeling back completely, the latter non-action risking fire from the real big guns of UEFA and FIFA.
The Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) proposed by Rangers’ administrators Duff and Phelps could not even state a definitive pence in the pound offer to creditors, such are the imponderables with the ”big” tax case and status of the likes of Craig Whyte.
And that is just the news from this week.
Thus it was under such a shadow that those representing the 12 SPL clubs including Ibrox preferred bidder Charles Green gathered at Hampden on Wednesday to vote on financial fair play proposals, consider the status of newcos and mull over a change in voting rules.
The latter issue was put off until the SPL annual meeting on July 16, while the resolution to consider a transfer of Rangers’ SPL share to a newco was deemed to be obsolete because of the CVA proposal.
A decision was subsequently taken to decide any future newco applications for admittance to the league on a case-by-case basis.
No doubt those attending the meeting breathed a huge sigh of relief as a solution of sorts was found. Now, though, it could be argued that the biggest battles of the summer lie ahead for the SPL chairmen and chief executives.
Many fans are fed up with the whole thing and pondering whether or not to buy season tickets.
The anger and dismay among supporters across the land about the state of their game not just the Rangers issue is real.
They may be urged to keep attending games but they can’t be forcibly shoved through the turnstiles. They might simply find something else to do with their time and hard-earned wages.
It is the decent, ordinary fan tired of all the off-field mayhem who needs to be persuaded that football can be both beautiful and simple again.
A lot of work needs to be done to make that happen.
Photo by PA Wire