ALL the talk in the last week has been about how Scottish football can be changed to modernise and bring it into the 21st century. Here’s an idea, whiich has already been proposed, but should be given top billing….why don’t we end the SPL once and for all.

The latest brainwave from minds within this now-struggling organisation is a set of play-offs. Not the play-offs that will decide promotion or relegation. No, some of these great minds now want to see play-offs to decide the league title. Big round of applause for them.

Sarcasm aside, it’s as barmy as the SPL, or the Self Preservation League, itself and it’s time to end this charade now and fire the bullet that will ultimately take it out of its misery once and for all.

Ask yourself this, since the idea to breakaway from the SFL in 1997 was announced, what actual good has come of the game since the so-called elite decided to up sticks and take their collective ball with them? Here’s the answer: Nothing. A big fat one.

Having seen the English Premier League flourish since it began in 1992, clubs up here fancied getting in on that piece of the action and while everything they’ve done to market and promote the game down south has worked an absolute treat, here, the standard and the “product” has diminished to the point where the actual SPL itself now exists to the detriment of Scottish football.

Think back to 1997 and it was promises to better the game, fill the stadiums and get the punters back. Now the prices are too high, stadiums are barely half full in some cases and the actual football is cringeworthy at best.

The actual aim of the SPL in its inception was to take the lion’s share of the revenue instead of sharing it out with their SFL counterparts, where it was shared equally among all the clubs. In the end, and as it is now, it’s all about the money and to hell with the rest.

They’ve even managed to make a mess of TV deals when Sky, who had the rights to the league when it first began, pulled out as the organisation thought they could get a better deal with another broadcaster, which never materialised. The rights were later sold to Setanta Sports, who agreed to paid over the odds, which contributed to their going bust in 2009, meaning a lesser deal was put in place with Sky and ESPN.

Everything about the whole thing has been wrong from the start, from crazy rules such as the 10,000 stadia, which had to be reduced to 6,000 because Inverness were starting to feel the financial strain of having their “home” games at Aberdeen to the pitches having undersoil heating. Not a bad thing, but when they forced Hamilton Accies to ditch a FIFA approved synthetic surface and go to the expense of relaying grass with undersoil heating, then it really is a case of making it up as they go along.

In the 12 years since the league began, we’ve seen the clubs happily swipe the money, but offer little or nothing back in return. We’ve also had four teams go into administration in that time as they spent far outwith their means. So when the opportunity for change comes, they speak of what a negative effect it will have on their finances yet keep a straight face in charging roughly £24 to watch a rip-snorting classic like Kilmarnock vs Inverness.

In an ideal world the self-interest will stop and all the teams will get together under one banner and get back to promoting the game the way it used to be. Our country is too small to sustain such a system in the long term so they’re better to cut their losses and end this farce as it is.

The SPL Strategic Committee for change, which bizarrely only has half the member clubs involved, proposed merging the SPL with the SFL, a point backed up in Henry McLeish’s review last week. The clubs not involved retort with this ridiculous play-off idea to fight out the title, spearheaded by Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson, a man who really must think before he speaks.

The play-off idea would work as the top four teams at the end of the season battle it out for title, never mind the top side actually winning it over the course of the season, with first playing fourth and second playing third in two-legged semi-finals before the two winners battle it out in a winner-takes-all Hampden final.

Thompson told the press, with a straight face: “We need to inject some excitement into the game. The Old Firm have won the league between them for 25 years. That cannot be good for football. Fans are fed up with the lack of competition.

“I am not in favour of a top league of 10, but I could accept it with play-offs at the top and at the bottom. It would be something really fresh and new. It has worked in rugby in England. There is no reason it could not work here.

“Could you imagine a top-four play-off with home and away games and a play-off final at Hampden? There would be full houses for all the games and it would create huge interest from the TV companies and the fans and would generate a lot of money, perhaps as much as £2m extra income for the teams in the SPL.”

And there is where Thompson’s real motivation lies in this proposal in that last sentence. Money. Nothing to do with bettering the competition as a whole, something he later admitted in terms of the Old Firm winning it.

It’s this kind of self-preservation that should have everybody looking at it now and finally realising that, with the SPL as a brand, they are flogging a dead horse and end this charade once and for all. It’s become the worst thing to happen to Scottish football and served nothing to the game as a whole other than to make a small group of clubs a little bit richer, but then has it, given that some chairman will tell anyone listening that they are poverty stricken?

The price of relegation is getting to be too high a price now when they talk of allowing a second-tier SPL league, which would allow former SPL clubs like Dunfermline, Partick Thistle and Dundee a slice of the money as they’ve struggled financially since losing their place. Isn’t that wrong in itself?

If clubs went down they went down. Financially there was a price due to lesser crowds, but teams seemed to prepare better for it and react to it accordingly. There was never a warning about clubs going under or people losing jobs.

It should be a matter of time before someone actually holds their hands up and admit it’s been a disaster since day one and set about trying to put it right. It’s not going to cure Scottish football’s ills in one swoop. Let’s not side ourselves here, but if all these people coming forward with big ideas and proposals really had the best interests at heart of the game in Scotland, they would have done it a long time ago.

Sadly change will come at a price no doubt, but people like Stephen Thompson have to start living in the real world and understand the problem started in this country in 1997 when the Self-Preservation League decided it was bigger than everyone else and stuck two fingers at anyone else.

The roles, this writer feels, will reverse very soon.

These new proposals were backed up by Henry McLeish in his Scottish football review, where he concurred with these changes before taking a swipe at the SFA for effectively holding the game back.

At first glance, it seems like everybody could win out of it, but the SPL brokering these changes, of course it’s going to suit them more than some of the others.

The talk is a two-tier SPL, including teams currently in the SFL-ran First Division, both containing ten teams, an earlier start to the season to give European representatives more game time before they tackle the cream of the continent in Euro qualifiers and the return of a winter break.

There is also talk of play-offs from the second tier to the top flight, an idea that’s been floating around for years. Even better news is the idea of merging the SPL and the SFL, reducing three governing bodies to two, with the SFA remaining on its own. All good ideas so far.

That last point perhaps brings into question just what good the SPL has actually been for Scottish football as a whole, because it certainly hasn’t done what it set out to do when it was incepted in the late 90′s.

Back then they fancied getting in on the sort of riches the English Premier League was starting to enjoy through Sky TV and felt the SFL was holding them back, promising better standard of football and full stadiums, as well as the pot of cash expected to come with it.

None of that happened, with fans more and more disgruntled at the poor quality of football on offer, games played out to half empty stadiums and the money never really materialising. This could be the admission of failure that the SPL has always been.

As for league reconstruction itself, reducing the top 12 to a top ten is a backwards step, as this was the format the SPL began with. What would be so wrong with a 16 or an 18 team league? Mere suggestion of such a thing is treated with horror. For one, the SPL would lose two Old Firm matches, something that helps broker deals with TV companies. But then as long as the stupid split after 33 games is banished into the realms of history, then this writer is all for it.

The second tier of the SPL would be a good thing for former SPL clubs struggling to cope with the financial deficit of not being in the top flight. Ideal for clubs like Dunfermline, Partick Thistle and Dundee, all of whom have made no secret of their losses since being relegated.

However this move could be at the detriment of the clubs lower down in the Second and Third Divisions, who will have to see more teams get richer than them. But don’t worry, the SPL have suggested regionalising these leagues to save on costs.

A little arrogant of the SPL to suggest how the SFL should be run, perhaps with a merger in mind in fairness, but regionalising the leagues would make so much sense. The obvious fixture of Elgin v Stranraer would be wiped out at last. They may only travel to each other twice a year, but how much money would that save?

The fans probably enjoy the journeys and make a day of it, but the cost involved would be a burden to clubs playing. Inevitable arguments about how it could possibly work will come, but you only need to look at the West Region of the juniors to see it can work.

It has two tiers with teams from the old Central and Ayrshire regions and three regionalised leagues below (two Central and one Ayrshire) and relegation from the West League Division One is four teams go down and two teams from either region go up. The four relegated teams return to their respective region, so there is, in some cases, an imbalance, for example three Ayrshire and one Central may go down.

It would maybe mean an odd number of teams in one of the league, but as long as everybody plays each other twice it’s never an issue. In senior terms, you can either establish a border first and all teams know, particularly those likely to be near the border, where they stand. Either that or an annual redraw of the border if you’re more interested in having the same number of teams. However you look at it, there is scope to make it work.

As for the argument about the winter break, the obvious one would be that you cannot ascertain when winter is as adverse weather can happen between November and March. Maybe not, but by taking four or five weeks off in January for example it cuts the amount of likely postponements as there wouldn’t be any fixtures to be scrapped.

Naturally a lot of these changes would favour the top flight teams, with the SPL mentioning possibilities for more glamour friendlies, but that would only really apply to the Old Firm. Would Real Madrid really fancy a clash with Inverness Caley Thistle in January? Or Bayern Munich taking a trip during their break for an engaging clash with St Mirren?

In terms of starting the season in July, it’s a sensible move particularly for our Euro representatives. All too often our teams are out before August now, caught cold because they’ve not had a chance to get to some level of match sharpness.

The bottom line is everybody stands to gain something out of it and while we can all talk about what we would do, it’s up to 42 clubs to sort Scottish football and give it a long overdue boost. We’re all agreed the game is dying on its feet, so maybe self-preservation should be put aside and think of Scottish football in the long term.

We’ve had so much talk of change for a long time. Only action can save football in Scotland now.

The Dons were stuffed 5-0 against Hearts and if new manager Craig Brown, who controversially walked out on the Fir Park club at the end of last week, didn’t know the size of job he now has at Aberdeen, then he does now on the back of Saturday’s showing.

It’s a decision has baffled many in Scotland as to why he would leave a young Motherwell squad with plenty of potential and scaling the upper echelons of the SPL for an Aberdeen side with too many underachieving players and staring at the cold abyss of Division One. Unless their form improves of course.

Motherwell fans are understandably upset as it’s the second manager they’ve lost to Aberdeen within 18 months following Mark McGhee and a manager that has proved to be extremely popular since rescuing them from the disastrous six-month tenure of Jim Gannon, who seemed more hell bent on falling out with everyone in Scottish football.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect about the whole situation is that Brown has always come across, firstly as the sort of uncle you’d like to see at Christmas, but as an honest guy with integrity and morals in a football sense, but it appears he’s let his head get turned easily by whatever Aberdeen have offered. The move cannot be borne out of financial gain, principally as the Dons don’t have any money, but whatever incentives they’ve have offered has somehow persuaded him.

He wasn’t under contract under Motherwell, so was technically able to walk away for nothing. The Fir Park side though are upset over the Dons’ conduct in recruiting their manager and intend to report them to the SPL over their perceived actions.

The statement issued by Motherwell after Craig Brown’s resignation said: “We wish to make clear that, as a Board, we believe that the conduct of Aberdeen in this matter has been wholly inappropriate and in breach of SPL rules as well as basic courtesy.

“At no point did they inform us or seek our permission to speak to critical employees of our club and to seek to entice them to leave our employment.” Strong words and Motherwell have since made a formal complaint to the SPL over Aberdeen’s approach.

But in many ways, Aberdeen are like Newcastle in so far as they are a one club city, with demanding fans, some of whom believe they should be better than where they, rightly, are. In this way Brown could feel a bit like the Toon Army’s new boss Alan Pardew.

From Aberdeen’s point of view, it’s a decent appointment and the fans may well be pleased with it. Here they’ve got a manager with a good track record, not only at Motherwell, but with Scotland as well and at the very least could bring some much stability. But then Mark McGhee had a decent record as a manager before he turned up at Pittodrie.

However you look at Brown’s exit from Fir Park, it could be down to whatever assurances Motherwell couldn’t give, perhaps about strengthening the squad in January and it seems a plausible reason why they’ve lost another decent manager.

This could be a last hurrah for Brown and assistant Archie Knox, who is back at Pittodrie where he enjoyed much success during the club’s golden period in the 80′s as the right hand man of Alex Ferguson. They also look set to keep the old guard going in the SPL.

Affectionately known as Jack and Victor, named after the two OAP characters from BBC Scotland sitcom “Still Game”, they are laughing in the faces of age jokes and proving there is life in the old dogs yet. Unlike Walter Smith however, who has decided he wants to shuffle off to the managerial retirement home at the end of the season when he leaves Rangers.

But there’s no doubt his reputation will have been dented from this whole episode. Not only from the way he has left Motherwell, but the way he has departed for Aberdeen so unexpectedly.

Stories were circulated on Friday afternoon that former Dundee pair Gordon Chisholm and Billy Dodds were in talks to become the new management team at Fir Park, which proved to be untrue, but ideally, if Motherwell can get a quick resolution to the situation, then that can only be a positive.

But the potential new men won’t be afforded the sort of trust Craig Brown and Archie Knox had in terms of contracts, particularly if they both continue or even improve on what their predecessors did.

SO it appears the referees in Scotland have finally had enough of all the flak that’s come their way – however I fail to see just what it will achieve in the long run.

Weeks and weeks of relentless criticism have come to a head and all Category One officials have declared their intention to go on strike ahead of this weekend’s schedule of games, which could decimate SPL, SFL and Scottish Cup fixtures as a consequence. Even Sunday’s Challenge Cup Final between Ross County and Queen of the South is in serious doubt.

On one hand, you have to look at it and say “fair enough”. When you get that level of criticism for doing what is effectively a paid hobby then you start to question if it’s worth it. It’s easy to forget referees love the game as well.

The public safety of officials has been cited as a reason and, as much as I don’t want to admit it, it can only be a matter of time before one of these refs meet the wrong kind of individual then it all gets very nasty. No job is worth that, nor is it worth risking your family’s safety either.

However – and this is what I’m struggling to get my head round – what will be it’s ultimate achievement? Managers and players will still criticise in post match comments, newspapers will still run critique’s of referee’s performances, something I confess I did myself recently for a national tabloid when Dougie McDonald returned to action at Falkirk vs Ross County.

If anyone can spell it out for me, then please do. Don’t get me wrong, I have great sympathy and respect for the officials and the job they do, but I can’t see how strike action is a good thing.

I would go as far as to say change is definitely required somewhere. Starting with the referee’s fraternity themselves, where I would start is Dougie McDonald, the man who indirectly caused all this kerfuffle, to resign. I mean nothing personal to him and he is, in the main, a decent referee.

But, for me, as soon as he confessed to lying over that decision at Tannadice in October, his position became completely untenable. As far as the football decision went it was 100% correct, but concocting a story with linesman Steven Craven over how it was reached wasn’t clever. In fact I still don’t know why a story was felt needed to be concocted.

Complete honesty may not be written in the criteria, but as a referee, who is meant to be above all the divisions, it is a given. McDonald’s admission has greatly undermined him and for a lot of his colleagues. He’s not a bad referee, but a really clumsy lack of judgement has taken away his credibility as an official and the sooner he realises that the better.

For the record I’m not calling for him to be sacked. A committee of ex-referees, which was wrong in the first place, judged him and all he got was slapped wrists. He should be big enough to walk away himself. And whatever the press say, whether it was a “little white lie” or not is irrelevant to the argument. He lied. End of. Credibility and trust gone in an instant and must realise there no other avenue to go down.

Where next would be Head of Referee’s Development, Hugh Dallas, who has overseen this entire farce and in every passing week, has seen his jacket get that little bit more shaky on that dodgy peg. There’s no questioning his ability as a former referee, but his patriachal behaviour towards his referees is nothing more than sheer arrogance.

“The Whistleblower” section of the SFA website, where refs were given a platform to explain decisions, was taken down at his instruction, it’s been suggested. His failure to acknowledge any refereeing mistakes has upset many since he took up the role and with the news that 80% of refs failed a test relating to the Laws of the Game, something’s going wrong somewhere.

It’s been well documented that Dallas’ work in helping ref’s obtain optimum fitness has been superb, but has this come at the cost of what should be basic knowledge of the game? You can argue it and ask how many drivers would fail their driving test if they sat it again. However basic rules of the road aren’t amended every year that every driver requires a refresher.

With Dallas, there appears to be a siege mentality in place and this feeling of non-accountability for errors and poor decision making only adds to the bad feeling among the clubs and referees.

After all, if he allowed refs to explain decisions by any medium necessary, people may not agree, but at least there is some level of understanding about the decision making process.

The removal of Dallas would lead to more transparency I believe and looking to get him binned over a dodgy email sent from his work is like getting gangster and murderer Al Capone done over a tax fiddle. That certainly doesn’t make it right by any stretch, but there are bigger fish to fry within his own department.

Now I’ve done well to not mention Celtic’s part in all this so far, but the time has come to address it. Their behaviour since the Dougie McDonald affair has been deplorable to say the least and why the SFA have failed to charge them for bringing the game into disrepute is negligible.

By failing to act, they’ve declared open season and Celtic have taken full advantage, whether it’s been manager Neil Lennon or chairman Dr John Reid venting their spleen.

Many can understand why they were angry over what happened at Tannadice, especially since McDonald revealed he lied to Lennon over the penalty incident. Since then, Celtic lost to Rangers and Hearts and the Hoops boss has blamed the officials both times.

Against Rangers, Kirk Broadfoot was awarded a penalty when he clearly dived, but ref Willie Collum had his back to it and only gave it based on what he saw out the corner of his eye. Instead of slaughtering Broadfoot for diving in the first place, Lennon fumed at Collum’s decision.

Then the Hearts game, where they lost 2-0, Joe Ledley was rightfully sent off was a scissors-style challenge on Ian Black, which angered Lennon and they didn’t get a penalty for Ryan Stevenson’s handball, but it was his reaction to that got him sent to the stand. While he was right to be unhappy, his behaviour was ridiculous.

What made it even more ludicrous was Lennon blaming the officials at Tynecastle, but his captain Shaun Maloney coming out and saying it was Celtic’s poor performance that cost them, not the refs.

John Reid’s comments at the club’s AGM last week is believed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back in terms of why refs want to go on strike. At a time when they need support, they are being kicked in the teeth by club officials happy to peddle some misguided notion that the SFA have some conspiracy against them.

Dealing with angry managers is one thing, club chairmen are different gravy, especially ones that are former MP’s that have the audacity to lecture on “integrity”, but once tried to claim for a pouffe and a black glitter toilet seat in his expenses.

A precedent was set when they hammered Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov over comments he had made about officials, so why is Romanov (slightly) lighter in the pocket, but Reid is allowed to shoot his mouth off to anyone who will listen?

The question though still stands: if the refs carry out their threat of strike action, other than an impromptu weekend off, what will have changed? Is it purely to make a stand? If so then fair enough, but nothing will have changed as a whole. Sadly it may just come out as the refs collectively taking their ball home and refusing to play because they’re in a huff.

They asked for every club to sign a statement saying the integrity of referee’s is not in question, something the majority, I’m sure, will have signed. Celtic’s response, I’m guessing, would be “everyone else is fine, except the one that lied to us.” If that’s the case, then what’s the plan now?

Their endgame has to be something worthwhile and positive and if it comes out of such a turgid mess then I’ll welcome it with open arms. Until then, we can only hope common sense prevails and a last gasp agreement is worked out in the ever decreasing time before the weekend.

No matter the outcome though, this whole sorry episode will leave a foul stench around Scottish football’s atmosphere for a while to come.

This week we’ve had two examples of two such figures getting column inches in the newspapers over comments they’ve made about the game in Scotland.

Scottish Nationalist MP Pete Wishart came out in the press and declared his belief that all referees in Scotland should reveal just where their club allegiances lie. Not a bad idea, I must confess, but why an MP should command the attention to talk about this issue in football is somewhat perplexing.

Mr Wishart, a former musician with Runrig, is entitled to his opinion like any fan and as I said, his suggestion about referees declaring what team they support is not a bad one, but it appears this man clearly has too much time on his hands if this is a key issue bothering him.

The nation is crippled with debt, jobs are being lost left right and centre and these issues alone should be keeping him busy in his Perth and North Perthshire constituency.

But the point Mr Wishart has made is an interesting one. What he’s suggesting is a proposal similar to the system that has been run in England for some years, where referees declare their team, but only to the FA. That information is never released to the public.

Plus a lot of the refs down south may support a team, but be comfortable enough to officiate them. However it’s where they live that could be the problem. If they were to give a key decision against a team based in an area where that referee is from, then there is always the threat of repercussions.

Mr Wishart, a self-confessed St Johnstone fan, was quoted as saying: “When Rangers or Celtic come to McDiarmid Park I would like to know what teams these referees are supporting. And, if they are Rangers or Celtic supporters, I’d prefer they didn’t referee a match between St Johnstone and one of the Old Firm.”

This is where I had a problem with Mr Wishart’s comments. Was this point solely to get to Old Firm bias within the refereeing fraternity? What does it matter what team they support if they are there to referee a match and are qualified at the highest possible level to do so? Referees in Scotland have more than likely presided over their own teams for years, but there is absolutely no evidence to suggest they have leaned one way or another.

It’s a point being backed up another politician, the former Defence Secretary and now chairman of Celtic, Dr John Reid, a man no stranger to liking the sound of his own voice, who used the club’s AGM to vent his spleen over the SFA and referees rather than attend to the club business.

Reid, like Wishart, is a fan of the game and was lucky enough to become chairman of the club he supports so he feels he’s in a position to make these kinds of statements on behalf of the club.

But his issue with referees has been ongoing for a while to the point that it’s almost an obsession. It’s well documented that Dougie McDonald, a Grade One referee confessed to lying to Celtic manager Neil Lennon over a penalty decision he made in a match with Dundee United in October.

His position is completely untenable, something Dr Reid and I appear to agree on, but this issue has been written and discussed to death to the point that it’s become boring now. Yet Dr Reid has gained further column inches and features by dragging it all up again.

The SFA met with Celtic recently to try and put an end to the simmering bad feeling and while the club have openly supported the SFA’s new chief executive Stewart Regan’s proposal for a full review, Dr Reid still feels he can needle the issue further and continue to put pressure on the refs and the SFA.

However he went on state that “protecting the integrity of the game” was important. It would be taken more seriously if a former MP hadn’t made the point in all honesty, especially from a team that may not have said the word, but are happy to peddle the notion of a conspiracy from the corridors of the SFA.

In many ways, he has played to the crowd by making these statements, but the SFA must be a little annoyed at a club using their AGM to criticise how they run. After all, Celtic wouldn’t like it if the SFA held an AGM to discuss their business, would they?

But it shows if you give a politician; or an ex-politician in Dr Reid’s case, a soapbox and a microphone they will want their voice to be heard. Reid may have left politics to continue his role as Celtic’s figurehead, but Mr Wishart has more important fish to fry than what team a referee supports.

I’m sure his constituents would feel the same way.

Such has been the worrying decline of the Dons in the past nearly three decades that you have to wonder what their most successful manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, thought as they shipped nine without reply at Celtic in the SPL in their latest catastrophe. Bear in mind, this is a man who won three Premier League titles, four Scottish Cups, a League Cup and a European Super Cup on top of thr Cup Winners’ Cup success.

Current manager Mark McGhee, one of Fergie’s squad from that night in Gothenburg in 1983, has never been a favourite of the Aberdeen support since taking over from Jimmy Calderwood in the summer of 2009, especially after admitting in a press conference he would have preferred the vacant Celtic post at the time as he left Motherwell.

Calderwood’s departure, despite qualifying for Europe and keeping the Dons in Europe past Christmas in the 2007-08 season where they were eventually knocked out by Bayern Munich, was down to poor displays in the domestic cup competitions. Humiliating defeats to more notably, Queen’s Park and Queen of the South were the reasons Calderwood was dismissed.

Now they have bigger fish to fry with McGhee incurring the wrath of his understandably furious support after their 9-0 collapse to Celtic. To use a Scottish colloquialism that his jacket is on a “shoogly” peg is quite an understatement. Reports suggest anything less than a home win against Inverness Caley Thistle, a team that haven’t lost away for year, would see McGhee and assistant Scott Leitch sacked.

While Aberdeen were torn a new one, for want of a better expression, Man Utd squeeked a last minute goal to beat plucky Wolves 2-1 in the English Premier League. God only knows what Sir Alex’s reaction was on hearing his former team were given such a pasting afterwards.

As fate would have it, 24 years ago this week Sir Alex, or just plain Alex as he was back then, left Pittodrie to replace Ron Atkinson at the Old Trafford helm. The team he left behind were still very much a force in Scotland with Jim Leighton, Willie Miller, Alex McLeish, McGhee etc getting among the Old Firm, reaching cup finals and Europe on a regular basis.

The decline has been a slow painful one, with McGhee the 11th manager since Ferguson headed south and the second of that team of ’83 to try and restore their fortunes in a managerial sense. If anything, the result at Celtic Park will have brought back harsh and horrible memories of the Ebbe Skovdahl era when Celtic would rack up scorelines of 5-0, 6-0 and even 7-0 with unerring ease.

But this is a new low altogether. You’re talking about a team that last won the Scottish Cup 20 years ago and haven’t seen a final in 10, while their League Cup record shows the last success 15 years ago and a decade since they appeared in the final. Expectation may not be what it once was, but it just isn’t good enough. Maybe McGhee would agree with that.

It’s certainly a record that would have been unthinkable in Ferguson’s era and perhaps if he was still there wouldn’t be acceptable now. That’s not to say that he would still have been successful in Scottish football today, which has changed to a completely unrecognisable level since Sir Alex left.

McGhee has bleated about a lack of finances in rebuilding the squad over the last year or so, but he’s no different to any other manager in the SPL. The squad he has simply is not good enough and even the youngsters coming through may not be the answer in the long term. That may be doing them a disservice at this early stage of their career, but the Celtic Park massacre should, if anything, force them to grow up.

In the meantime, Sir Alex may offer, or may have offered some words of support and encouragement to his former player. After all McGhee could do with it, but the net is closing in on the Dons boss and even the words of his former mentor may not be enough.

But there’s no doubt his tarnished reputation among the fans need badly rebuilt and quickly. It may already be broken beyond repair, but only a run of games to get them back into contention for third place would help achieve that, starting with Inverness.

JUNIORS is an often misunderstood term in the world of Scottish football. Elsewhere it usually refers to boys or juvenile football. In Scotland though, it’s quite different.

The term “junior” relates to the semi-professional level, of players that are winding down their career, those perhaps not good enough for senior level or even the up and coming starlets. It has its own association within the Scottish Football Association and has its own competitions, mostly regional or the big one, the Scottish Junior Cup.

It carries a reputation of being full of hatchet men and thugs, an accusation unwarranted most of time in fairness. Admittedly there have been a few unsavoury battles in matches along the way.

But the “junior” sides in Scotland are carving a niche as tricky opponents for some of the “senior” sides in the Scottish Cup, with all four representatives out of the five taking part this season in the hat for the third round draw this week.

Two of them knocked out Third Division opponents to get there, with Albion Rovers and Queen’s Park losing to Sunnybank and Bo’ness United respectively. Beith, champions in the West, thrashed Glasgow University 8-1. However Girvan FC face a replay at home to Golspie Sutherland following a 2-2 draw.

The entrants are made up of the champions of the three regional top flight leagues (North, East and West Regions) as well as the Scottish Junior Cup, along with Girvan, who have the unique distinction of holding memberships to both the SJFA and the SFA, guaranteeing them a place every year.

I was lucky enough to witness my first ever “giant-killing” as Bo’ness United (above) came from behind to beat Queen’s Park and having frequented the juniors as a rookie writer, I was familiar with the atmosphere and the set-up for most clubs like Bo’ness United, but there were more differences, given it was something of an event, rather than a bog standard East Region League match they usually host.

Signs everywhere for press and dignitaries, hospitality for the media and guest and an impressive 1,271 crowd, portable loos found on every corner of the ground, a police presence (albeit only two officers) and perhaps even a lick of paint in one or two areas of Newtown Park.

This truly was an occasion for a club like Bo’ness, rather than a normal match, made all the more special by the fact they came from behind to beat their senior luminaries 2-1.

And there has been a improvement in the fortunes of the junior sides in the “big cup” since they were first entered in 2007.

Both Linlithgow Rose and Irvine Meadow have been lucky enough to reach the utopian Fourth Round stage, where the SPL clubs arrive and those Meadow fans will have great memories of their trip to Easter Road and Hibernian last season.

Up against teams in the North, South and East of Scotland Leagues, other semi-professional non-leagues, arguably of an equal standard, the juniors have fared well with victories over what you would call established Scottish Cup competitors.

Now they’re taking scalps from the senior teams, showing that they’ve arrived on the senior stage. Their inclusion is not one welcomed by all though, with one newspaper columinst last season claiming Irvine Meadow were taking money “out of the game” when they were facing Hibs. They haven’t always been popular for one reason or another, but they are here to stay.

There’s no doubt the juniors somewhat staggered entrance into the senior game has been a success in the last three years and whether it would lead to a “pyramid” system, which would allow through promotions and relegation for teams like these to play in the senior ranks, is for another argument.

WHEN someone raises their head above the paraphet in wanting to buy a football club, the first question usually raised is “what are they in it for?” It’s a question currently being asked of Giovanni di Stefano and his interest in crisis-hit Dundee.

The Italian-born businessman and lawyer reportedly contacted the Dens Park club’s administrator to find out the true nature of the financially stricken side’s debt and problems with a view to taking over control and bring them back from the brink. That was until their 25-point penalty and player registration embargo, which was handed down by the Scottish Football League last week.

Whether his interest in acquiring the club has cooled in light of these sanctions is unknown, but at the very least, he has offered to defend them as they appeal the penalty for free.

All that’s missing is the cavalry charge and the white horse, but one has to wonder about the motives of di Stefano, a question the Scottish media have asked, not to mention Dundee fans themselves, who have seen enough rogue owners and imposters in their time.

Bear in mind this is a man, who, in his legal profession, can count Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein, pop star turned paedophile Gary Glitter, serial killer Dr Harold Shipman and Serbian warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as Arkan, among clients he’s defended in the courtroom.

This sort of client list has led to him being dubbed “The Devil’s Advocate”, so what sort of attraction does a struggling second tier, perhaps soon to be third tier, Scottish football team have for the 55-year-old?

It’s a fair question to ask. After all, what affiliation with the club or the city is there for him? It’s like me willing to pour my earnings into a Welsh amateur team from a town I’ve never visited. In fact I’ve never even been to Wales.

Firstly it’s been reported in the past that his son, Michele, started following the Dark Blues when he was schooled at top private school Gordonstoun.

Another reason is perhaps a more obvious one. The fact di Stefano sees it as a chance to complete some “unfinished business” with the Scottish First Division side, after bearing the brunt of the fan’s anger following their administration in 2003, when he joined the board and was soon plunged into helping the ailing club.

Fast forward seven years and it appears nothing has been learned from that experience and after attempts to put money into Norwich City and Irish side Shelbourne, it appears he’s happy to return to Tayside and help them in their hour of need.

When he was first involved, they were an SPL side who had spent big to qualify for Europe and reached the top six. When they went into administration, there were debts of £23 million. Now, they are stuck in Division One £2 million in the red, reportedly, with warnings of being liquidated by Christmas if an unpaid tax bill is not settled.

On entering administration, they shed nine players as well as the management team of Gordon Chisholm and Billy Dodds in an attempt to slash costs in the face of the crippling debt and di Stefano was initially keen to fund them until at least the end of the season first of all, but he seems to desperately want to put right the supposed wrongs he was accused of being involved in.

He said in an interview recently: “I took a lot of stick unnecessarily in 2003. The situation was not my fault. I was only there for a few weeks. I was misled.”

Whatever his motives are, his announcement will be greeted by many Dundee fans with mistrust and suspicion, given his perceived part in the administration of 2003, but there may come a point that if he’s the only one willing to help out, they may need to turn to him.

Di Stefano claims the fans don’t have the business expertise to be able to run the club, which may be doing those willing to put themselves forward a disservice, but he’ll need the help of the supporters to get the club back on board.

Given their recent experiences of owners and benefactors who promise so much yet deliver so, di Stefano should understand the suspicions they’ll have. After all the last thing they need is another jaunt up another garden path.

Nowadays clubs know that to go down this route will incur some kind of handicap. That is unless you happen to being in Divisions One, Two or Three in Scotland where once again, the SFL appear to be making it up as they go along.

In the last ten years, Livingston – twice – Motherwell, Dundee, Airdrieonians and Gretna all went into administration before the latter two went out of business, while the others lived to tell the tale. Of those, Gretna and Livingston, the second time around, were hit with punishments.

Gretna, while in the SPL in 2008, were docked ten points initially and on returning to the SFL were dumped from Division One to Division Three, while Livi last year were also given the two-league demotion by the League. This is not a rule set in stone, but it has set a precedent.

Having examined the rules of the English Premier League, English Football League and the SPL, all governing bodies punish their respective member clubs with a points penalty, nine in England’s top flight and 10 in the English lower leagues.

The SPL in such an instance convene an appeals tribunal if one has been called by the club in question and this committee can set a deduction of 10 points, but can be changed depending on the case. The bottom line is there is a punishment for insolvency.

However the SFL ambiguously announce that “the board shall have full power to deal with it (insolvency or administration) as it thinks fit, including power to deduct Championship points before or during a season and/or impose a player registration embargo”. No direct mention of 10 point deductions or demotion. Not a thing.

Let’s make it clear here that there is no ill-feeling toward Dundee here as 13 people have lost their jobs, including manager Gordon Chisholm and assistant Billy Dodds and the fans are facing another fraught battle for existence, but if a club is in administration, there should be a clearer punishment in place.

Livingston were a mess in 2009 following the disastrous reign of Angelo Massone and while the two-league demotion was felt to be harsh by the club, they finally accepted it and moved on.

What was worrying was a quote by SFL Operations Director David Thomson, who said: “There is no specific punishment. The SFL board judges each case on its own merits.” Basically, what Mr Thomson has said is the board make it up as they go along.

As for the line about “judging each case on its own merits”, it suggests that any punishment may come depending on how bad the situation is. How can it be any clearer? The club are either in administration or it isn’t. There’s no grey area here.

And what of Livingston? They were rightly punished for going into administration a second time. I’m not suggesting they shouldn’t have incurred a penalty. Of course they should have, but the SFL set a precedent by making an example of them due to their financial carelessness. Dundee by that reckoning should be bound by this same course of action.

The League, as a governing body, has again failed to act on a problem that is becoming commonplace in Scotland. This was beautifully summed up by a statement on the website which simply said: “The Scottish Football League are fully aware of the developments and circumstances involving Dundee F.C. entering into administration.

“We will be in contact with the administrator throughout the process and will be following our tried and tested governance procedures.”

That was it. Nothing about possible penalties or what may follow. Just that they know about it.

It’s an uncertain time for Dundee and anyone connected with them and the fans especially will want clarity over what league they’ll play in or if points come off. At the end of the day, the SFL have failed to be pro-active in a time of crisis.

For all Callum Melville, Dundee’s benefactor, meant well with his financial backing, the club grew reliant on him and when his own business problems surfaced, they had nothing to fall back on.

Fudging the issue helps no-one and while those in charge at the SFL have done incredibly well in raising the profile of the lower leagues with some lucrative sponsorship deals, keeping their own house in order seems to be a problem.

That’s why it’s vital they put cast iron punishments in place and actually discourage their member clubs from overspending, rather than just dealing with it “as they see fit.”

ONCE upon a time, playing a Scottish team in Europe used to be something that was far from relished in the faraway corners of the continent. A subconscious fear of the partisan crowd and the physicality of the Scots game was not something to relish by foreign opponents.

Now, our once finest are struggling to achieve any kind of European run alongside perennial minnows from Ireland and Wales and it shows when, not even out of July, Celtic, Motherwell and Hibernian are facing humiliating Euro exits.

At the time of writing, two of those three could be out by the first week of August, leaving three teams left to fly the flag for Scotland in cup winners Dundee United, Rangers, a team symptomatic of the decline of money and standard north of the border and Celtic, perhaps parachuted into the Europa League consolation prize. By the end of the month, we could have only one left.

Line that up against how Scottish clubs fared in Europe last season and it’s pretty bleak reading. Of 28 European ties involving Scots, there were only six victories and 17 defeats in all. Three sides went out in their first knockout round while Rangers and Celtic struggled in their respective Champions League and Europa League groups.

This is the decline that’s been coming for a while and when you consider we had teams regularly battling in the business end of the old European Cup, the Cup Winners Cup and the UEFA Cup, it makes it all the more sadder.

In the last ten years, Rangers and Celtic both reached the final of the UEFA Cup while Dundee United and Aberdeen were formidable European sides back in the 80’s, beating such glamorous opponents such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Hamburg between them.

Both the Old Firm reached finals of European tournaments in 1967 and the thought of that ever happening again is about as likely as making the Champions League solely for champions.

Many factors have contributed to this descent into the minnows’ realm, which is where Scotland now finds itself. The most obvious one is perhaps UEFA changing competition formats, arguably, to suit the bigger European countries. Not to mention a seeding system loaded to favour clubs from these nations.

This perhaps comes from the financial rewards, also loaded towards these bigger teams and it’s why the teams that play in the Champions League year upon year are usually the same, barring one or two surprise packages that have maybe upset the way of things domestically.

To look at England for example, Tottenham will be the first new English side to have a crack at the big tournament for five years. Since Everton found themselves in the top four in 2005, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool have always been their representatives.

Those four regularly appear in the latter stages, adding to their already hefty earnings, giving them the financial clout to buy superstars at staggering amounts of cash.

As far as Scotland’s concerned, we’d be happy just to see more than Rangers and Celtic doing something productive on the European stage and not see a team play in a qualifier. As a nation, all we ever seem to do is play qualifiers, without ever actually achieving anything.

The mentality has to change to how we approach European football and starting the leagues in mid-August is not productive for our Euro hopefuls. Three out of our five clubs have all started campaigns before a domestic ball has even been kicked.

Dundee United will have one league match under their belt before they play in Europe so maybe the SPL should entertain the notion of starting the season much earlier, which would perhaps give our clubs more fitness before they step into a continental arena. It can only help surely.

Rangers are directly into the Champions League, but that privilege will be taken from us next season due to the declining co-efficient ratings which rates countries on performance in these tournaments and while UEFA continue to put more obstacles in our way, we won’t see the group stages for a while yet.

It’s easy to demand a level playing field, particularly when you’re on the losing side a lot, but we need to look closer to home to solve our own issues. Our poor European record recently cannot solely be put down to UEFA’s insistence on loading finances and draws in the favour of the big guns.

But the lack of any progression in this country in terms of players and facilities is an issue no-one seems willing to tackle here. Talking about it is one thing, but the powers-that-be, with a new chief executive in Stewart Regan at the SFA, have to act to prevent a further slide.

It’s certainly a cause for our soft underbelly in Europe and with the crowd growing more and more disillusioned due to high prices and poor quality, foreign teams coming here seem to be getting an easier time of it. Sadly it looks as though it’s going to be the way of it for a little while yet.