First Published 20.08.13 WeAreFreeAgents
Later published in the Glasgow Guardian.
Yesterday revelations emerged that Rangers midfielder Ian Black is facing charges of betting irregularities. Black, who also played for Hearts and Inverness Caledonian Thistle is accused of betting against his own team, and on hundreds of other Scottish football matches.
This in direct contravention of SFA rule 22 (updated as Rule 33 for 2013/14 season protocol) which states:
“No club, official, Team Official or other member of Team Staff, player, match official or other person under the jurisdiction of the Scottish FA shall bet in any way on a football match (except authorised and registered football pools)”.
Everyone, of course, is innocent until proven guilty and this column is not going to engage in speculation about Black’s guilt or otherwise – questioning the stupidity of betting against your own team with an account in your own name will come later. But when the news broke yesterday many around Scottish football will doubtless have let out a tiny but definitely audible sigh of resignation.
We really don’t need this right now.
Black should of course have a fair trial. He should be subject to the rules, punished appropriately for the ones that he broke, after a correct and thorough investigation. Anything less in what has the potential to explode as a story would be abhorrent. The nagging feeling though, in all those vested in Scottish football, is the hope that this will just go away, under the radar, and not explode in the manner in which it threatens. Dear God let that be the case.
Charges put to Black By The Scottish Football Association:
- Betting on three football matches on then-registered club not to win.
- Betting on a further 10 football matches that involved then-registered club.
- Betting on a further 147 football matches.
For years the game in Scotland has been riddled with much documented issues. Unrelenting financial woes; the Rangers’ debacle; a dire lack of competition; a confusing and incompetent set of governing bodies to name but a few. And yet despite the boardroom cacophony at Ibrox, despite Hearts’ beginning the season with a handful of children and -15 points, despite all the utter dross, the 13/14 season kicked off with something of an optimism surrounding it.
The newly branded league system with the American-ised names remains a dubious development for some but you can’t get away from the idea that the slate may – symbolically at least – have been wiped clean. And its the first step in some long awaited movement to wholesale restructuring. Which is good. Then some football broke out and it got better. St Johnstone’s heroics in Europe, against both Rosenberg and Minsk gave reason for hope.
The season kicked off for real and we were treated to some really rather good football. Terry Butcher rejected offers to leave Inverness, instead guiding them to three wins in their first three games, playing a brand of pass and move previously alien to many in Scotland. Last weekend’s calculated destruction of Motherwell, a definite highlight. Partick Thistle are another jumping onto the free flowing football bandwagon, emulating the success of last season’s promoted side Ross County.
Hearts have become united in their hour of need and are already getting furiously stuck into their points deficit. And for some – although whisper it – there is a whiff of Aberdeen being genuine contenders to Celtic this year. Meanwhile the Scottish national team is looking competitive again after beating Croatia and giving England a game that looks like it will become a regular event once again.
Should the Black case escalate, sucking in more and more people, producing ever more tedious column inches then Scottish football could once again find itself up a creek.
Despite everything that’s gone on the last ten years the one thing that could always be said for Scottish football is that it was only sheer and unrelenting incompetence that was the root of all problems. Scottish football was a complete joke. But crucially there was never anything more sinister. It always seemed better to be the bedraggled ginger kid at the back of the class and the butt of all the jokes than the slick Italian bad boy caught nicking sweets.
Rangers’ implosion at a time threatened to bring with it the more malicious side of incompetence. Thankfully it degenerated into very dull middle aged men in awkwardly fitting suits sniping at each other like teenage girls. Now though Black could seriously overshadow a season brimming with promise. Scottish football fans are used to being in the shadows. These shadows though, as they creep across columnists’ desks, seem a hell of a lot more ominous.
Callum Tyler 