Save Scottish Football - A Fan's Plea

The following 'rant' was written in frustration and constantly being told my team, Kilmarnock Football Club, needs Rangers. This despite a weight of evidence which shows a Scottish game in decline and a litancy of imbalance and inequality. A few people asked to see the 'rant' in this format, so here it is. Apologies if you're offended, that wasn't the intention, but I know I'm not alone in wishing for a brighter, fairer future for our game, based on the protection, development and support of all our clubs and leagues, and a game which puts fans of all clubs at the heart of all we do.

"As it stands, I just can't buy the idea that we 'need' Rangers or that they truly bring anything to the game other than inbalance, bigotry and a sneering nastiness and arrogance towards everyone else.

The facts against them are actually pretty damning when you consider it in the context of Kilmarnock's ongoing survival:

- The current SPL structure is hugely weighted towards Celtic and Rangers, in terms of voting power and influence, television money split, prizemoney split

- Since home teams now keep their gate receipts there is no inbuilt scheme of redistribution, competition development. What we have in its place is a cartel designed to make the Old Firm richer and to continually widen the gap on the rest of the clubs

- There is no competition whatsoever because of the Old Firm's dominance. For Rangers to be sitting second, to go into administration and be docked 10 points and to still be sitting second is probably the most embarrassing fact of this whole saga. Fans want competition more than anything else - for generations to live and die knowing their team is among the best 10 in Scotland but will never come close to competing for the league title is absurd.

- Do we even really need them in terms of attendances? Since we're only considering home attendances it's clear that Old Firm fans are drifting away unless they're about to win something, and it's obvious that a lot of home fans avoid these games too. Genuinely relevant competitive games would be far more attractive than regular humpings to a 'big' team living beyond its means in pursuit of long-dead dreams.

- As for 'We'd be like the Irish league' - what, in the sense that we develop our own players, sign players that no-one's ever heard of, play in front of small crowds, never win trophies in Europe, the best players move to England and we have a fair to middling national team which occassionally qualified for tournaments. Yes, I can imagine the huge upheaval that would entail right now!

I've never made much secret of the fact that I find Rangers Football Club to be one of the most loathsome organisations around. They could do with a wee bit of humbling. No-one gave a shoot when Third Lanark, Gretna, Livingston, Clydebank, Airdrie and Dundee all had problems, some of them terminal, and I'm never going to be able to buy into the idea that Rangers are special just because they attract 10s of thousands of people to worship at their altar of Catholic-hating, flag-waving, pseudo-Unionist, King Billy loving, July-holidaying-in-Northern-Ireland, wearrupeepul arrogance.

Long have they made it clear that they're 'special' and everyone else can go and take a f**k to themselves. Well, happy days, look how special you are now. Just don't expect anyone else to cry any tears for you after decades of pandering to lowest-common-denominator scumbags who couldn't climb their way out of the shallow end of the gene pool if they were wearing armbands.

If it was Kilmarnock Football Club that was on its knees right now, you know what we'd be getting from Rangers - sneers, laughter and contempt about not needing wee clubs because they're the mighty Glasgow Rangers. Well, guess what f**kers, your behaviour means the English don't want you, the Europeans don't want you, and many Scots don't want you either. Just every now and then you reap what you sow and there's nothing sadder than seeing other clubs and fans so beholden to them because they can get their hands on a few extra pennies.

It's past time football opened its pig-stupid eyes and realised that absurd expectations lead you in one direction and it's not pretty. Live within your means, stop living on imaginary money and promises of better days and start spending and generating your own cash and living within that structure.

If only the powers that be would wake up and grasp this opportunity to save the game once and for all. Do things which benefit the full league structure and all its member clubs rather than protecting the Old Firm's chances of getting past the qualifying rounds in Europe.

Make clubs operate within tight financial constraints, make them only spend a certain percentage of income on player wages, split sponsor and tv money fairly, give us a voting system which is fair, give us a league structure which isn't about maximising Old Firm income but which is about promoting competition, entertainment, player development and stabalising all Scotland's clubs.

And, once and for all, stop being so self absorbed, biased, corrupt, and obsessed with the fortunes of two football teams. Give us a product we can be proud of instead of cringing about and let's drag the sport into the 20th century, nevermind the 21st century, and do it soon - before we all head off to the pub, the bowling, the golfcourse, the ski slopes, the cinema and the shops."

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