The sun is shining at Hampden and at that very moment, our game feels alive again.<\/em><\/p>\n Both of these Championship clubs are on their way back under Mark Warburton and Alan Stubbs.<\/em><\/p>\n There\u2019s even talk of Rangers attracting Joey Barton to Ibrox.<\/em><\/p>\n And in the Premiership, 24 hours earlier, Celtic had unveiled their new boss Brendan Rodgers at Parkhead.<\/em><\/p>\n What a coup that was.<\/em><\/p>\n For all intents and purposes, right there and then it felt like Scottish football was back on the map.<\/em><\/p>\n And sitting in the press box, I\u2019d written a 900 word piece saying just that.<\/em><\/p>\n Fast forward a quarter of an hour. We\u2019re now on the verge of a full-scale riot on the pitch.<\/em><\/p>\n Hibs<\/a> fans are goading Gers supporters. Others are trying to swing punches and kicks at players.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Again, opinion dressed up as fact…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The police horses are on. Drunken, foul-mouthed yobs are trampling over us in a desperate bid to play their part in the madness.<\/em><\/p>\n All the while, my finger is firmly pressed on the delete button. The mother of all rewrites.<\/em><\/p>\n In the blink of an eye, instead of showing everyone we were on the up again \u2013 ugly TV scenes were being beamed across the world.<\/em><\/p>\n You felt for the jubilant Hibs players. They deserved the trophy and the legendary status that followed – but couldn\u2019t even do a lap of honour after it.<\/em><\/p>\n It summed up our game as a whole.<\/em><\/p>\n Just when we think we might be getting somewhere, we\u2019ve got an incredible habit of self-destructing.<\/em><\/p>\n Put it this way, if shooting yourself in the foot was an Olympic sport \u2013 Scottish football would be gold medallists.<\/em><\/p>\n And it happened again last week with the whole SPFL voting farce.<\/em><\/p>\n It started to eat away at itself and, once more, we were crowned champion navel gazers.<\/em><\/p>\n At a time when our game should be feeling positive about itself, we quickly managed to make it the laughing stock of Europe.<\/em><\/p>\n The Old Firm were both terrific in the Europa League this season.<\/em><\/p>\n In Neil Lennon and\u00a0Steven Gerrard,<\/a>\u00a0we\u2019ve got two big names, big characters in charge of our top two clubs.<\/em><\/p>\n
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Which is not what the Record article claimed, as we saw yesterday. Their report was inaccurate and some may be tempted to think that they were desperately conforming to a narrative that served a portion of their readership in order to sell copies.<\/p>\n
Newspapers need to sell copies, of course, but surely a better way would be to actually tell the truth. After all, if they are wrong on this one, then the reader may be tempted to think they are wrong on everything else.<\/p>\n
Happily for the red top, I can confirm they did get the date right.<\/p>\n
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On a wider scale, the times today, discussing the remarkable inefficiency of the Westminster government made a shocking revelation today….<\/p>\n
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Regular diary readers will recall this…reproduced from the diary on March 19, which quoted the Guardian..<\/p>\n
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On 24 January, Chinese doctors and scientists reported the first description of a new disease caused by a novel coronavirus. They described how a strange series of cases of pneumonia had presented in December in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people and the capital of Hubei province. At that time, 800 cases of the new disease had been confirmed. The virus had already been exported to Thailand, Japan and South Korea.<\/em><\/p>\n Most of the 41 people described in this first report,\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0in the Lancet, presented with non-specific symptoms of fever and cough. More than half had difficulties in breathing. But most worryingly of all, a third of these patients had such a severe illness that they had to be admitted to an intensive care unit. Most developed a critical complication of their viral pneumonia \u2013 acute respiratory distress syndrome. Half died.<\/em><\/p>\n The Chinese scientists pulled no punches. \u201cThe number of deaths is rising quickly,\u201d they wrote. The provision of personal protective equipment for health workers was strongly recommended. Testing for the virus should be done immediately a diagnosis was suspected. They concluded that the mortality rate was high. And they urged careful surveillance of this new virus in view of its \u201cpandemic potential\u201d.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n and the dairy added…<\/p>\n Britian largely ignored the warnings, and when they did look at the problem, they made the wrong call about public safety.<\/em><\/p>\n Even now, some are blaming china for keeping it all a secret, but the warnings were made\u2026in a respected British medical journal.<\/em><\/p>\n We\u2019re about to find out just how wrong the government , and its advisors, actually were.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Guardian and now the Times are pointing out the obvious, and yet it’s taken the Times more or less a month to catch up.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They may well blame the government, but the papers themselves need to look at their own part in this fiasco.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mind you, according to the Metro, there may be something else to worry about….<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The point is, or rather the question we should be asking, is why do we bother with newspapers at all ?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Information is readily available elsewhere, and less distorted by opinion based comment.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Regarding the current issues around Scottish football, the main one being the drive to make the SPFL look foolish somehow after over 80% of clubs voted to call a halt to the 2019-20 season is interesting.<\/p>\n The facts are, the clubs overwhelmingly voted for it, and so therefore it is going to happen.<\/p>\n However, one particular club was against it, coincidentally the one that the article about Bet365 was aimed at, and so we now have a continuous narrative that questions the legitimacy of the vote…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Record in particular seems rather keen on this angle, and yet there’s no mention of the events of 2012, Resolution 12 or the five way agreement, all of which prove that those at the\u00a0 SPFL are not fit for purpose.<\/p>\n The decision to end the lower leagues early made headlines around the globe.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Gabriel Mackay claims…<\/p>\n Scottish football dealing with an international crisis was never likely to be straightforward.<\/em><\/p>\n Even by the standards of our national game the\u00a0SPFL<\/a>\u00a0resolution to end the lower leagues early was a shambles.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Company line neatly toed, and establishing the “fact ” that the decision was a “shambles “..<\/p>\n First Dundee failed to cast a ballot and were left with a deciding vote, then\u00a0Rangers<\/a>\u00a0accused the governing body of wrongdoing.<\/em><\/p>\n Hearts and Aberdeen have since added their voices to that, while\u00a0Dundee<\/a>\u00a0eventually cast their vote and brought the lower leagues to a close.<\/em><\/p>\n It remains to be seen what will happen in the top flight, as the SPFL await\u00a0UEFA<\/a>\u00a0guidance, but it appears likely the season could be declared over, crowing Celtic as champions.<\/em><\/p>\n Marca\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0: “Imagine for a second that all of the work of 42 teams, as well as the dreams and hopes of thousands of fans in the last nine months, depend on the vote of one club… and that this vote changes from being favourable to resuming the season to ending it outright in just five days. That’s what has just happened in Scotland.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Depend on one club ? The other thirty four that voted for it might well have counted as well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Gazzetta dello Sport were withering in their analysis of the SPFL resolution, in an article titled ‘\u00a0In Scotland chaos reigns<\/a>\u00a0‘.<\/em><\/p>\n They wrote: “Among the many ways to get out of the impasse on the conclusion – or not conclusion – of the football leagues, Scotland stands out for having chosen the most chaotic: a complicated system of interconnected voting by the lower leagues, to later allow the governing body to extend the outcome to the Scottish Premiership.”<\/em><\/p>\n It’s acknowledged that “the haste to declare the season over comes from the need to provide aid to clubs that have been brought to their knees economically by the consequences of the coronavirus” but the newspaper concludes “the management of the whole operation left a lot to be desired”.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thats not so bad a review, which shows that Mackay was getting desperate, as it praises the result if not the method. A pragmatist would say thats what matters.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sports Illustrated\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0: “Scottish football\u2019s true self, it turns out to nobody\u2019s great surprise, is farcically chaotic and riven with self-interest.”<\/em><\/p>\n They surmise: “This farce will drag on, and it\u2019s entirely possible it will eventually be decided in the courts.”<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Image\"](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/EV6OATnX0AAV-oe?format=jpg&name=small\")
‘In Scotland chaos reigns’ How the world saw the SPFL vote<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
Spain<\/em><\/h3>\n
Italy<\/em><\/h3>\n
United States<\/em><\/h3>\n
Netherlands<\/em><\/h3>\n
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