Gordon Waddell: Why we can't let Rangers win battle for the SFA blazers ...

[ian1964 10,416]

...it has to be Ann Budge.

 

GORDON reckons The Hearts chairwoman would be the perfect candidate to help look after Scottish football moving forward.

 

Football politics used to be a no-go zzzzzone. Fans went to the game, blazers ran it.

 

The former weren’t interested in the latter, and the idea that the latter owed anything to the former, that they were there to somehow represent their

supports and their interests rather than their own, would have been laughed out of town on a river of gin.

 

But times have changed.

 

The game needs everyone invested in it to have a voice. And it needs those at the top to hear it.

 

Who’s listening though? And who do you trust to hear you?

 

It’s a question worth bearing in mind over the summer.

 

Stephen Thompson’s resignation from the SPFL board last week in protest at Dundee United’s

punishment for fielding an ineligible player may have been an easy gesture, considering relegation made it a fait accompli anyway.

 

But it does create a vacuum, as does Celtic director Eric Riley’s retiral from his post.

 

And who fills the void may well determine if we go back to the bad old days of the Old Firm exerting an undue influence on the overall game to their own ends, or move forward with someone at the table who cares for the greater good.

 

Because that’s what they’re all supposed to be there for, right?

 

They have annual elections, voting three on to the board from the Premiership, two from the Championship, and one from Leagues One and Two, the diddy clubs from the lower three tiers there as a balance to the vested interests of the big clubs against the rest.

 

But this will be the first time since its inception we’ll have seen changes at the top of the tree.

 

Riley’s replacement, you suspect, will be straightforward.

 

Even if Peter Lawwell doesn’t push himself forward to take the spot, he’ll put in a placement who will, and they’ll get the same 12 votes their predecessor got.

 

Such is the way of it.

 

Aberdeen’s Duncan Fraser, who was backed by 10 of the 12 last year, will also be a shoo-in. The gloves will be off for the other spot though.

 

Ann Budge will run again – she took Thompson to a third round before falling last year. But so will Stewart Robertson from Rangers, and that’s where it gets intriguing.

 

Despite his popularity as an individual from his days with Motherwell, he and Rod Petrie both got heavy custard pies last July in their bid to get on via the Championship places because no

one believed either club wanted power to serve anyone except themselves.

 

It’s a different ball game this time around.

 

And this is where you all have to ask yourselves whether you trust your clubs to vote the right way.

 

And question whether Rangers walking straight back in the door of the top flight, and assuming what many seem to think is their rightful place among the big voices, is right.

 

Any board of directors or trustees has to have a purpose, a direction. So anyone sitting on the SPFL board, a members’ organisation, mind, should see things this way:

 

1. The overall good of the game

 

2. The wellbeing of the 42 clubs you’re there to represent

 

3. The interests of the 10 or 12

clubs in the division you’ve been elected to represent.

 

4. Your club.

 

Too often in the past, that list has been completely back to front.

 

So ask yourself this: Which representative do you trust to get it right? To put them in order?

 

And if the answer isn’t Ann Budge, you haven’t been paying attention. Since she took over the broken reins of a club whose stewardship had become a rival to Rangers in the disgrace stakes, her running of the show has been exemplary.

 

As a club, Hearts listen to fans, they communicate back, they criticise their own when they have to and look for solutions when there are problems.

 

She puts a social conscience at the top of her agenda, eschewing the shameful Wonga shirt deals of the past to put Save the Children front and centre.

 

She shows respect to the fans who dug deep to save the club along with her, issuing a strip which featured the name of every direct debit holder because each of them has played a part in their club still being there.

 

She listened to them when it came to the stadium, finding a way to stay at their spiritual home rather than taking the easy way out.

 

And she’s lobbing in another £300,000 of her own dough to help make it happen.

 

Even the honesty of asking for the season ticket money by cash or cheque rather than card, because their credit rating is still so poor it means they’ll be drip-fed money they need up front to load their investment into the stadium project.

 

Transparency is at the core of everything they do, every statement they make, to atone for the sins of the fathers.

 

That’s the kind of person I’d want representing me round a boardroom table, someone who’ll question decisions made with vested interests.

 

At least they have one non-exec on there now in Karyn McCluskey to help keep those in check.

 

But if she doesn’t have support, she may yet be a lone voice howling against a gale of ‘what about us?’ self-service. Again.

 

Read more at http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/gordon-waddell-cant-rangers-win-7968707#ihgmObHmqrALqJx7.99

[Tannochsidebear 2,314]

So Timmy & dolly have a devine right to a place on the board, but Rangers getting on would be self-serving evil?

 

Ok Waddell, jog on.

 

Do people still actually pay money to buy this rag? Do we as a club still allow this rag representation at media gatherings? Stupefying if the answer is yes to either.

[trublusince1982 243]

the well being of the game is dictated by its paying customers. Until idiots like waddell realise that nothing can improve unless you have the majority of customers on side we will never move forward. They need to start looking at it as groups of customers and not this clubs benefit against that clubs.

 

A club with 2000 season ticket holders and an average crowd of say 6000-10000 cannot hold sway and make decisions for what's the best in the game when they bring so few customers to the tills, especially when those decisions ignore the wants of the biggest pool of customers. That's like barrs cola telling coke how best to improve soft drink sales.

 

Its a complete idiocy if you don't look after the gers support they are the main stay the whole deck of cards is built upon.

[SiamBear 0]

...it has to be Ann Budge.

 

GORDON reckons The Hearts chairwoman would be the perfect candidate to help look after Scottish football moving forward.

 

Football politics used to be a no-go zzzzzone. Fans went to the game, blazers ran it.

 

The former weren’t interested in the latter, and the idea that the latter owed anything to the former, that they were there to somehow represent their

supports and their interests rather than their own, would have been laughed out of town on a river of gin.

 

But times have changed.

 

The game needs everyone invested in it to have a voice. And it needs those at the top to hear it.

 

Who’s listening though? And who do you trust to hear you?

 

It’s a question worth bearing in mind over the summer.

 

Stephen Thompson’s resignation from the SPFL board last week in protest at Dundee United’s

punishment for fielding an ineligible player may have been an easy gesture, considering relegation made it a fait accompli anyway.

 

But it does create a vacuum, as does Celtic director Eric Riley’s retiral from his post.

 

And who fills the void may well determine if we go back to the bad old days of the Old Firm exerting an undue influence on the overall game to their own ends, or move forward with someone at the table who cares for the greater good.

 

Because that’s what they’re all supposed to be there for, right?

 

They have annual elections, voting three on to the board from the Premiership, two from the Championship, and one from Leagues One and Two, the diddy clubs from the lower three tiers there as a balance to the vested interests of the big clubs against the rest.

 

But this will be the first time since its inception we’ll have seen changes at the top of the tree.

 

Riley’s replacement, you suspect, will be straightforward.

 

Even if Peter Lawwell doesn’t push himself forward to take the spot, he’ll put in a placement who will, and they’ll get the same 12 votes their predecessor got.

 

Such is the way of it.

 

Aberdeen’s Duncan Fraser, who was backed by 10 of the 12 last year, will also be a shoo-in. The gloves will be off for the other spot though.

 

Ann Budge will run again – she took Thompson to a third round before falling last year. But so will Stewart Robertson from Rangers, and that’s where it gets intriguing.

 

Despite his popularity as an individual from his days with Motherwell, he and Rod Petrie both got heavy custard pies last July in their bid to get on via the Championship places because no

one believed either club wanted power to serve anyone except themselves.

 

It’s a different ball game this time around.

 

And this is where you all have to ask yourselves whether you trust your clubs to vote the right way.

 

And question whether Rangers walking straight back in the door of the top flight, and assuming what many seem to think is their rightful place among the big voices, is right.

 

Any board of directors or trustees has to have a purpose, a direction. So anyone sitting on the SPFL board, a members’ organisation, mind, should see things this way:

 

1. The overall good of the game

 

2. The wellbeing of the 42 clubs you’re there to represent

 

3. The interests of the 10 or 12

clubs in the division you’ve been elected to represent.

 

4. Your club.

 

Too often in the past, that list has been completely back to front.

 

So ask yourself this: Which representative do you trust to get it right? To put them in order?

 

And if the answer isn’t Ann Budge, you haven’t been paying attention. Since she took over the broken reins of a club whose stewardship had become a rival to Rangers in the disgrace stakes, her running of the show has been exemplary.

 

As a club, Hearts listen to fans, they communicate back, they criticise their own when they have to and look for solutions when there are problems.

 

She puts a social conscience at the top of her agenda, eschewing the shameful Wonga shirt deals of the past to put Save the Children front and centre.

 

She shows respect to the fans who dug deep to save the club along with her, issuing a strip which featured the name of every direct debit holder because each of them has played a part in their club still being there.

 

She listened to them when it came to the stadium, finding a way to stay at their spiritual home rather than taking the easy way out.

 

And she’s lobbing in another £300,000 of her own dough to help make it happen.

 

Even the honesty of asking for the season ticket money by cash or cheque rather than card, because their credit rating is still so poor it means they’ll be drip-fed money they need up front to load their investment into the stadium project.

 

Transparency is at the core of everything they do, every statement they make, to atone for the sins of the fathers.

 

That’s the kind of person I’d want representing me round a boardroom table, someone who’ll question decisions made with vested interests.

 

At least they have one non-exec on there now in Karyn McCluskey to help keep those in check.

 

But if she doesn’t have support, she may yet be a lone voice howling against a gale of ‘what about us?’ self-service. Again.

 

Read more at http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/gordon-waddell-cant-rangers-win-7968707#ihgmObHmqrALqJx7.99

 

Waddell and his ilk, the reason why Scottish Sports journalism is in the gutter

[RANGERRAB 3,258]

What nonsense from Waddell. Aberdeen & Celt@c have an automatic right to a place on the SPFL board.

[aweebluesoandso 290]

Smacks of desperation to keep us from getting any sort of influence, probably ghost written by Liewell and Waddell told to put his name to it.

[cooponthewing 1,139]

The septic empire is crumbling! Their fans are now being seen for what they are around the world and their finances are being hidden the likes of a Nigerian politician! They will be asking any journalist sympathiser who will listen to coerce and use any means necessary to obstruct our impending escalation back to where we belong at the top of the game!. Waddell is a 2nd rate hack for a 3rd rate rag.

Edited May 15, 2016 by cooponthewing

[gisabeer 409]

cant get a story out of ibrox so he makes one up. dont take any notice of any other crap he writes and this article will be no different.

[colinstein 294]

Petrie and now Thompson downstairs,

only Lawell and Stewart Fisher of Aberdeen left in the cabal

we need to get in there obviously........but I think Anne Budge would be good too

[compo 6,140]

Nothing against the Hearts woman I admire her immensely for the way she has turned Hearts arround but this article's anti Rangers and disgusting .