The Final Clumpany Blog?

Good Evening.

Regular readers will know that The Clumpany has occasionally criticised parts of the Scottish MSM for seemingly not investigating or even following-up some manifestly tasty stories of interest to hundreds of thousands of football fans.

The motivation for this apparent reluctance is open to debate. Some argue that there are limited resources on the sports desk to pursue such lines of enquiry. 

I have even heard it argued that big issues are “above their pay grade” or the responsibility of the news desk.

Alex Thomson famously called out members of the press pack over this kind of argument, and if you listen to his comments once again you can almost feel the discomfort in the studio!

No doubt resources are an issue for the media. Getting to the bottom of newsworthy, complex issues is doubtless more time-consuming and expensive than churning out more lightweight material.

But if the issues are newsworthy then surely they ought to be of some interest to journalists?

I am aware that a number of journalists have had information sent to them that would provide a basis for further investigation of a number of matters relating to the governance of out game, but they have either ignored it or indicated that they will not pursue it.

For me, it is pretty incredible that an all-too-familiar list of issues has remained almost untouched -day after day – for the past few years. For example:

• The content and implications of the secret 5-Way Agreement
• The demonstrably flawed Lord Nimmo Smith Commission
• Whether Rangers were properly awarded their 2011-12 European licence
• Whether the SFA has continued to pursue Craig Whyte over his £200,000 fine
• Whether Sevco has paid the £250,000 LNS fine
• The role of the SFA in overseeing all of the above, and having a ‘conflicted’ President in office for so long; and
• The less-than-lucrative TV and sponsorship deals secured by our adminstrators
• Etc

Could it be that such manifestly newsworthy issues – which go to the heart of the governance of our national sport -remain uninvestigated because [*gasp*] they mainly (but not exclusively) relate to the various clubs that have played out of Ibrox?

Could it be that much of the MSM doesn’t want to rock the boat and upset Sevconian readers, viewers and listeners, or indeed the chaps in the Blue Room?

I know, it’s a crazy notion, isn’t it?

But guess what?

Things could be changing!

It has transpired that at least one corner of the MSM has put on its deerstalker hat, grabbed a magnifying glass and started channelling Woodward and Bernstein.

And the initial results are amazing.

Truly astonishing, in fact.

But sadly they may result in your humble correspondent Clumping off into the sunset.

I have had a good run, but when the cream of the journalistic profession is on your tail, you have to seriously consider throwing in the towel.

The pressure and scrutiny is possibly too much for an ethereal entity to bear. 

I’ll maybe drink the last of the Buckie and Bleach, unplug the PC and lock up Clumpany Towers for the final time.

It’s been fun. Until now.

Cheers everybody and (in my absence)

#KeepOnClumping 

What’s that?

You want to know what’s happened?

Well, as you ask…

Martin Williams has broken the astonishing revelation that I am “Obsessed beyond belief”.

   
 I know. It’s a shocker isn’t it?

Who knew? Certainly not me.

I just thought that 70,000 tweets and 160 blogs on a fairly narrow range of subjects represented no more than a ‘passing interest’ in the way our fabulous game is run, and the way our media covers it.

But now it has been pointed out to me, I should perhaps try and go ‘cold turkey’ in order to cure myself.

The Clumpany must admit that it guffawed loudly at the term “beyond belief”  being used by the journalist who 

• created the ‘engine room subsidiary’; and who 
• unambiguously wrote about Rangers Football Club going into liquidation under a headline about its death, 

…before later doing a complete u-turn.
Playing the man not the ball is an old tactic, which is often used in lieu of a decent counter-argument. And when numerous tweeters subsequently put it to Martin that he had ‘form’ in talking about a ‘club’ being liquidated, no cogent response was forthcoming.

Although we were invited to crowd-fund court action to “prove ‘new club’ status”, and perhaps also to lobby the SFA about the use of the name ‘Rangers’.

   
 The latter point (for whatever reason) completely ignores the actual matter at hand. The name is utterly irrelevant (although the use of ‘Sevco’ is a great shorthand for the argument we wish to make).

It is in fact the hilarious fallacy propagated by the media and others that an incorporated football club can survive liquidation that we take exception to!

The notion of crowd-funding a legal action is of course, a squirrel.

What exactly is there to ‘prove’ in court? That under Scots Law a football club, once incorporated becomes inseparable from the company? Indeed it becomes a company…

And if you liquidate the company, you are – by definition – liquidating the club?

I think we already know this! Because they are simple unarguable facts!

The media could quite easily report the truth about liquidation, as they did at the time it happened. They could also ask – repeatedly – the SFA and UEFA to opine on the matter rather than allow their silence to continue.

It might help to settle the issue once and for all, and allow us all to ‘move on’.

It would certainly be a more worthwhile activity than seizing on the most flimsy of ‘evidence’ ‘from FIFA’ to write soothing nonsense for Sevconians!

Incidentally, The Clumpany is still waiting for the MSM to pick up on a FIFA-related piece that gives absolutely no comfort to Sevco fans.

I suspect I will be waiting for a very long time.

Highlighting the truth of liquidation and confronting difficult issues isn’t very conducive to a relatively easy life. 

Far better to have a cosy narrative that can be handed down without too much trouble…

It really is an extraordinary state of affairs when we can live through a series of events, and then have parts of the media repeatedly tell us that they didn’t happen.

It’s the kind of thing that might make you distrustful and inclined to challenge the media.

Repeatedly.

You might argue that the existence of such challenge is a sign of an informed and discerning public living in a liberal Western democracy.

You might also say that such challenge is a positively healthy thing for society as a whole.

And if anyone wants to call that “obsession”, then I plead guilty as charged.

From a quick read of my timeline, I think the prison cells are going to end up being very full indeed, as there are an awful lot of similarly-guilty people out there.

Guilty of wanting to see a simple truth reported, and a series of significant issues investigated. Without fear or favour.

It really isn’t too much to ask, is it?

Meanwhile, I must admit that writing this little defence of my right to “obsess” has got the Clumpany juices flowing. Or maybe it’s just the Buckie and Bleach taking effect.

But whatever the case, I may put my departure on hold for a while.

There are some myths to question, transparency to pursue, and answers to be obtained.

So thanks for the unwitting shot in the arm, Martin. And do feel free to join us as we

#KeepOnClumping