Scottish football finds itself in turmoil, with an increasingly vile atmosphere threatening to embitter the game into the future.
The threat of legal action from Hearts and Partick Thistle, who are seeking compensation for their relegation, has now been countered by Dundee United, Raith Rovers and Cove Rangers.
The trio last night issued a joint statement defending their positions as promoted clubs, which are now under threat due to the actions of the Edinburgh and Glasgow outfits.
It’s been suggested previously that a commissioner running things, as they have in American sports, would be better for the Scottish game, taking self-interest out of the equation.
Even there, though, U.S. commissioners have had problems with freedom of speech issues in the NBA over the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement and in other areas with stoppages, when the NHL lost an entire season.
There’s no easy solution in football, which is dominated by folk who have as many opinions as managers have tactical formations.
The current travails are trying the patience of everyone and simple fixes are proving impossible to agree on.
Last Friday, a top Scottish chairman phoned me for a blether and also to get a few frustrations off his chest.
Sixty seven minutes later we’d covered the state of the world, prospects for business after Covid -19 and, of course, football.
The relationship between columnist-journalists and football folk can be an unusual one.
On occasions, we’re dishing out high-minded opinions of what they should do or should have done, all the while thankful that we’re not having to make the sort of tough decisions they’re currently faced with.
Sometimes, like last week’s conversation, we’re keen to pick up a scrap of information, on how a vote has gone or might go, but often we’re just chewing the fat with someone we’ve known a long time, who has degree of respect for us, and simply wants a moan.
I know it might come as a surprise that folk in the game should trust a scribe, but when you’ve kicked around football as long as I’ve done, it becomes a two-way street.
You know the folk you can believe and those who you regard as suitable stunt doubles for Pinocchio.
Relationships between our clubs – and between those running them – are now under serious strain and may be irreparably damaged.
Most folk in football have the occasional snipe at others in the game, but mainly they’re relatively sympathetic to each other’s plight. It’s often a case of ‘there but for the grace of God go I’.
However this current situation is definitely no mere bunfight.
Clubs feel as though they’re fighting for their very survival, and with United and the other two hitting back, there is now a huge tension between boardrooms which threatens to poison the well.
Neil Doncaster and the SPFL board represent the clubs, but getting 42 disparate outfits to agree a unanimous vision, when the view facing some looks to them like Dante’s seventh circle of hell, is tougher than herding cats.
The bitterness of this episode is spreading like a wildfire, and could reverberate for years to come.
