Does Scottish Football Need Kevin Costner?

Does Scottish Football Need a Hero? Does anybody remember the bit at the end of the Bodyguard when Gary Kemp's character picks up and cherishes the award won by his client? You know, it's the bit after Kevin Costner's bodyguard character gets plugged but some how still miraculously shoots the baddy? Well imagine that meaningless award represents the current media rights deal signed by the liquidated Glasgow Rangers when they still were part of the SPL and Gary's character is the SFA and SPL mandarins desperately trying to make it real again. Over this weekend it has emerged that having overseen new Rangers beginning life in the Scottish Third Division, despite their best efforts, the SFA and SPL now want the media rights of the new Rangers club to remain with the SPL as if nothing ever happened. Meanwhile, new Rangers wants to start a fresh with a new broadcasting agreement with the SFL. Now I am no lawyer but surely the moral position of the SPL and SFA is an impossible one to hold given that the SPL clubs themselves voted against new Rangers entering their league and that the new Rangers club cannot really be bound to any commercial agreement the liquidated Glasgow Rangers club made when still in the SPL. Surely, in a just world, a new Rangers, excluded from playing football in Scotland's top league, is now free to make any arrangement it wants with the SFL. A clear moral victory for the new Rangers? Well no, not really. As always, there is more to the story which leads me to conclude that what this latest school playground spat has demonstrated is that neither the SFA, SPL nor new Rangers seem to have come to terms with what has happened to the club formerly known as Glasgow Rangers. That being, that the 140 year old Glasgow giant no longer exists. In it's place is a new club with the real potential to become a Glasgow giant but at the moment has no history, no cups, no league titles. It just has a massive amount of fans who will bring with them their support and traditions evolved from their time supporting the liquidated Glasgow giant and massive potential to return stronger to the SPL. The SFA and SPL definitely don't get it and neither it would appear does new Rangers Manager, Ally McCoist, who was quoted yesterday as saying that the likely stripping of titles won by old Glasgow Rangers by the SFA would not be acceptable and would cause a road block to his new club joining Scottish football. Should the SFA decide to erase parts of the history of the old club then I can well understand why a prominent employee and life long fan of the defunct club would be very upset, along with nearly half of Scotland. It would be the same insult to a Rangers fan as if Ibrox itself and been sold and re used as the new Celtic training ground. However, the painful truth is that Ally McCoist now manages a brand new Rangers team with no titles to be stripped of. He is, rather, furious with the thought that the old liquidated club's legacy is at threat. Nevertheless, Ally McCoist only makes matters worse by threatening to delay the entry of this new football giant in Scottish Football and for the benefit of Scottish football has to remain stoic. No, truth is that new Rangers is as impotent to prevent the titles being stripped as they were in attempting to secure SPL status. Rather, new Rangers would be better to pick the fights it can win i.e. retaining its media rights and winning the Third Division. Regarding the battles it cannot win they should focus their frustration on the football pitch to get results and by working with the other 41 professional clubs in Scotland to achieve radical reform of the way the game is governed. My opinion, for what its worth, is that with only two weeks till kick off of the SPL and only one week till new Rangers take the field in the Ramsden Cup, the SFA, SPL and SFL have now finally been demonstrated to be utterly incapable of addressing the problems facing Scottish Football and bringing this crisis to an end. Indeed the events over the weekend have only made matters worse. To solve its problems Scottish football should shy away from the Scottish Courts or direct intervention by the Scottish Government, because as we all know FIFA does not take kindly to football taking its dirty linen to be washed at the local laundrette. No, what we need now is Kevin Costner's Bodyguard. Someone within the game to seize the initiative, draw that pistol and into the glare of the stage lights zap this fiasco in the eye once and for all. Because if that does not happen soon, FIFA will do it.