Waddell - only 1 club responsible for the hatred and anger in Scottish football

[ian1964 10,448]

SEEMS the Mayan prophecy was wrong, then. But they shouldn’t feel too bad about it.

 

At least they were predicting 4000 years into the future. That’s a decent margin for error – even when the end of the world is at stake.

 

We were sitting here 12 months ago and were so blind to the fact that upheaval was just around the corner we couldn’t have found our own bum cheeks in the dark.

 

Did anyone foresee this time last year Rangers would be playing to 50,000 crowds in Division Three?

 

Predict an ownership handover saga that made the X-Factor look credible? Saw administrators take over a club then try to ADD to the wage bill? Saw liquidation?

 

Saw them win the Big Tax Case? Forsee their supporters embrace the Daily Record Head of Sport as one of their own?

 

And did anyone predict that SPL clubs would actually listen to their fans? That the SPL hierarchy would look up the word ‘integrity’ in a dictionary and wonder if they said it often enough, maybe people would buy it?

 

Predictions so ludicrously outlandish even the Mayans would have told you it was time to put the gear down and head for rehab.

 

Yet here we stand. At the end of 2012 with all that having happened – and a hundred things more. When you look back in the cold light of day, it takes your breath away.

 

In a year that was all about the positivity of sport in general, the negativity surrounding Scottish football was overwhelming.

 

It was a cloying, choking cloud of discontent that settled over every stakeholder for months.

So much anger and backstabbing, all caused by one club but which none of the other 41 could escape.

 

They were all sucked into it by some hate-fuelled vacuum. But armageddon never arrived – in the same way as the world didn’t suffer a Mayan death on Friday.

 

And as a glass-half-full kinda guy, this is a heartfelt plea to everyone to turn 2013 into the antidote of 2012 for the game.

 

To turn all the minuses into pluses, the darkness into light.

 

Why not? What an opportunity we have in front of us for genuine, significant change.

 

For serious fan ownership and involvement in clubs. For a proper reconstruction of the league set-up. For more involvement by clubs in community sport.

 

For a chance to restore people’s faith in the people’s game.

 

Look at Rangers and Hearts. Look at the response of their fans.

 

There may have been criticism of both their share issues but listen, £1m for the Jambos and £5m for Rangers in these austere times is an incredible commitment.

 

Almost as incredible as 42,135 inside Ibrox for a match with Annan on a wet Tuesday in December. Both clubs still have problems but their punters are grasping the nettle and trying to do good.

 

As for the leagues? It’s all there for the game’s chiefs now. Motive and opportunity. They just need to find the will and the time.

 

Because when we’ve come this close to everyone realising the game needs changed for the better, there’s no point in messing about.

 

Listen to the people you have to listen to and get it done for next season. Anything else is a cop-out.

 

It’s not about finding a solution to the ‘Rangers’ problem, it’s about finding a solution to football’s problem.

 

We’ve got Celtic in the last 16 of the Champions League restoring the credibility of our game at that level.

 

What’s not to love and admire about two games with Juventus in the middle of February?

 

All these things are there to look forward to.

 

We’ve made it to the end of 2012. Just. Let’s not cut it so close next year.

 

Go and support your team over the holidays, enjoy the fact they’re there for you and have a fantastic Christmas and New Year

 

But most of all, stay positive.

[aweebluesoandso 290]

What a tube that Waddell is, it's like blaming a victim of a gang attack for getting beat up, because the gang took exception to the victim being in their turf.

[26th of foot 5,858]

"hate-filled vaccum"

 

Jim Traynor leaves the Record, his designation remains vacant. Both Waddell and Guidi(the Slug) are on a quest to both establish and continually flash their Rangers-hating credentials. As surely as nature hates a vaccum, both Gordon and Mark know sticking the boot into all things Rangers secures the status as Traynor's successor.

 

Interestingly, it would appear the usual suspects are all singing from the same hymmn sheet again, the RTC Blog has been replaced? Cosgrove, Spence, English, .............. Davie Provo are all making the same points this weekend. The attack does NOT stop, it's just that the angle has changed.

[der Berliner 3,286]

You just hope Traynor rips into these people in 11 days time.

[kuznetsov 0]

i think he is talking about celtic. they are the ones that caused all this. them and their complete and utter hatred and jealousy of another football club.

[jaymac 0]

Waddell, I think, is the guy who said it was not only acceptable to attack us but reasonable to kick us when we were down. Obviously another fair minded journalist.