Rangers – League extension lies (Jun 08)

During the last month I've been alarmed, but not surprised, by the myths and lies peddled by Rangers and the Scottish Media. Indeed, not one hack has dared to speculate that the predicament Rangers are in is mostly of their own making, or has offered a non-jingoistic catalyst for a change to the schedule.

What I've tried to do here is have a look at the most common soundbytes often dished out as incontrovertible evidence.

Lie: Rangers have had no help from the SPL

The season has been extended by the best part of a week to accommodate Rangers' fixture congestion. As far as I can work out, this is unprecedented in the modern era… indeed, Celtic played three games in four days at the arse-end of their 1974 one-sub-each-no-such-thing-as-squad-rotation title challenge.

But that's not the only help that they have had from the SPL this season :

Armed with a piece of paper saying, “Lyon huv hud heir game postponed,” Rangers petitioned the SPL, aiming to have their match with the mighty Gretna put back until a later date. As we know, it succeeded.

However, it came to light that Lyon hadn't had their game postponed at all. In fact, they applied for the cancellation AFTER hearing the Huns had bought themselves a free week.

Further questions should have been asked about the subsequent scheduling of both this Gretna match, and the St. Mirren match postponed prior to Scotland's Euro Qualifier against Italy. Why weren't these matches played at the first available opportunity? Rangers had free midweeks pre-Christmas – Celtic managed to play their home match against Falkirk in between their Champions League and SPL fixtures. Indeed, Celtic were able to play FOUR matches in ten days at the start of December, dropping four points in the process (Hearts and St Mirren).

Myth: It's all someone else's fault
Nonsense.

Gretna, and dodgy fixture re-scheduling aside, Rangers have had ample opportunity to fix out their own congestion.

The failure of Scotland's Heroes (© Daily Record) to beat Hibs and lower-league Partick Thistle at the first time of asking have padded out their fixture fulfilment requirements.

The match against East Stirling was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch. On the face of it, that seems perfectly reasonable in the Scottish winter. However, when the next unchallenged soundbytes emit from President Murray about lowering the Ibrox pitch again to cram more seats in, shouldn't someone – anyone – point out that they are pissing distance from a major river?

Obviously the free weekend after the tragic death of Phil O'Donnell was thrust upon them. But it is worth noting that Dundee United, the team they tried not to play this Saturday, were forced to complete their next fixture at the time, despite watching a friend and opponent die in front of them a few days previous. Placed beside that, Rangers' recent request and subsequent petulant outburst looks embarrassingly trivial.

Lie: “This will make the SPL a laughing stock”
Seriously, the world doesn't care about the SPL's fixture list. Truly.

Take Middlesborough in 2006, they managed to get to the UEFA Cup final. Here was their fixture list.

Let's have a look at some highlights and see how many of Rangers, “Laughing Stock” boxes it ticks…

• Middle of April, four games in eight days.
• A run of three away games in a row at the end of the season.
• Not only managed a game on the Saturday preceding a midweek AWAY tie in Romania, but squeezed in a cheeky match at home to West Ham on the Monday before they flew out.
• Away to Fulham on the SUNDAY before the UEFA Cup final. Not the Saturday that Rangers are being asked to play on, but the FRICKING SUNDAY.

Now, according to Lord Murray's self-declared rules, that should mean we all consider the English Premiership the joke of world football. Don't we? Anyone?

Secondly, and non-Middlesbrough related this year, the FA Cup is scheduled four days before the Champions League final. Is Darth Murray seriously trying to tell us that this would have been moved should Chelsea or Man United have been gracing the Wembley Turf?

Myth: The SPL should follow the Russian FA's lead
Yes, the Russian FA have postponed Zenit's matches before the UEFA Cup final, and fair play to them. But this being cited as a precedent is completely insane.

St. Petersburg, literally Baltic, play in a summer league, meaning that they are only a few games into their season… they have the luxury of playing with a whole year's fixture list. If only Walter could turn back time and ask for some games to be frivolously postponed to help Rangers.

Ironically, the two postponements this year, “for the greater good,” were Rangers at home to Lyon, and Scotland at home to Italy. Both were humped.

Secondly, and covered above, have Zenit actually had their fixtures moved, or are Rangers trying to pull the same Lyon trick again?

Lie: “We're doing it for Scotland”
Just like Rangers had Scotland's best interests in mind when they tapped-up and poached Scotland's manager, in the middle of one of their most spectacular attempts at qualifying for a finals tournament in many years?

And where were the media when Kenny McDowell admitted that Smith had offered him a job at Ibrox BEFORE Beloved Walter had even handed in his notice at the SFA?

Were Rangers, “doing it for Scotland,” when they withdrew five players from the squad to face Croatia. Weir managed to evade even being called up, but four were out injured, including Christian Dailly with a BROKEN FOOT; luckily, a trip to Lourdes healed everyone enough to play in the league match the following weekend.

Lie: “It's to help win the UEFA Cup”
If Rangers want the UEFA Cup so badly that they want to inconvenience the other eleven teams, then why can't they now play a play a back-up team against Dundee United so that only they are inconvenienced? Or, failing that, move the Dundee United game to after the UEFA final, and play their last four games in a week, finishing on the Thursday?

Remember, Bolton deliberately got themselves knocked out of Europe to concentrate on league matters. Rangers made sure that they deflected extension talk as long as possible until there was no other alternative but to extend the league. I speculate that their current tantrum is a much to do with them shampooting it over the league slipping away a it is to do with the party line. And where are the journos putting these questions to Rangers?

Lie: “Celtic got help in the Seville Season”
Again, Rangers and the press are trying to cite Celtic's similar up run as another precedent.

In 2003, the season was NOT extended. In fact, Celtic were forced to play all pre-split games before the split, a decision that made Ian MacLeod consider taking the league to the Court of Session. Compare and contrast with Rangers, who get to play St Mirren (one of their pre-split games) after the split.

In that season, only one game was brought forward, Celtic v Dundee – and that was thanks to Jim Duffy at Dundee, not SPL politics and shenanigans. Only one team was inconvenienced by that shift, not eleven.

And while we're on postponements, this is how other teams get on at the SPL.

Aberdeen were not allowed to move their pre-Copenhagen match in 2007. This was despite Rangers having done so a few weeks earlier.

In October last year, Kilmarnock had to play a match in October with only 5 subs (3 of whom were too injured to play).

Mentioned earlier, Dundee United were told to get on with it a few days after Phil O'Donnell died yards away from some of their players.

And, my favourite, from September 2000:

Anyway, I'm a Celtic fan, so this is obviously biased and one-sided. I'll leave this poorly-penned nonsense with a few words from someone more qualified than I:
"I don't know what they're (Celtic) complaining about, they should just get on with it, I wish we were in their position," Alex McLeish, 2003.