DEMOCRACY has broken out in Scottish football, thanks partly to ‘a few courageous journalists’, according to a columnist on The Scotsman.
Writing in Saturday’s edition of the paper, Gerry Hassan talks of a ‘Scottish spring’ that saw fan power rise up in response to the financial demise of Rangers but attempts to keep them playing in Scottish football’s top tier.
He writes: “The events of this year have been seismic and need to be understood in a wider context. In the last couple of years, three of the biggest institutions in Scotland that have defined much of our public lives – Royal Bank of Scotland, the Labour Party and now Rangers FC – have hit crisis, lost their way and suffered ignominy and humiliation.”
And he continues: “[Fans] have been aided by a few courageous journalists who decided to spend time investigating the affairs of Rangers and questioning the football authorities. However, these people were the exceptions. What was the norm was collusion with the way football and Rangers were being run.”
And he ends, by saying: “Democracy has finally broken out in a part of Scotland; it is messy, uncontrollable and uncontainable. It will prove to be intoxicating, and we need to celebrate this opening, and spread and encourage this force far and wide across our society. It has been a long time coming, but finally the dam of institutional control and contempt has broken; it shouldn’t be too surprising that it happened on the football field.”
Rangers now play in the fourth tier, the Scottish Football League’s Third Division.
