15 December 2020

Rangers chief Stewart Robertson says last season curtailment left ‘sour taste’

15 December 2020

Rangers managing director Stewart Robertson has launched another stinging attack on Hampden bosses as he admitted the anger inside Ibrox has not faded in the seven months since last season was controversially curtailed.

The Gers board were left fuming when Celtic were declared champions on a points-per-game basis back in May as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.

Much of their frustration was vented towards Scottish Professional Football League chief executive Neil Doncaster over his handling of the Dundee-vote saga, even calling an emergency meeting of clubs in an unsuccessful bid to have the league supremo suspended and an independent investigation launched.

Now Robertson has hit out again as he claimed Scottish football deserves to be governed better.

Speaking at the club’s virtual AGM, he said: “I think we were all disappointed with the way the 2019/20 season was curtailed early.

“The fashion that happened left a really sour taste in the mouth to be honest.

“It’s been well publicised what our views on that were. We as a club were keen to get the games played. We’d have much rather got the games played to a conclusion as they did in England and most other European countries.

“However, that path was never really made available to us. I feel some clubs accepted that path a bit too quickly and if we’d tried a bit harder, maybe we’d have got there.

“We didn’t and eventually there came a point when it was obvious we weren’t going to get there.

“However, that doesn’t detract that I believe and the club believes that the governance of the game in Scotland has to be better than what we’re getting at the moment, has to be better than we got in the summer. I think it could be significantly better in the way that the game is run.

“We all want to be displaying the best product we possibly can and showing Scottish football in its best light and I don’t think we’re doing that right now. There’s a lot of improvements that could be made on that side of it.

“It needs to start with the way the authorities govern the game. We were very vocal about it in the summer. We feel exactly the same now as we did then and we’re still chipping away at it.”

Stranraer and Hearts stood with Gers to call an emergency general meeting to consider a 200-page dossier of claims against Doncaster’s handling of the crisis. But only 13 clubs in total backed their resolution.

Now Robertson has urged Rangers’ rivals to speak up if they want to see change.

He said: “We hear from many other clubs who express their dissatisfaction with the way things are being done but they need to believe in the courage of their convictions and actually come out and support and be a bit more vocal if they really want to see change.

“Otherwise it’s going to be inertia, it’s going to be mediocrity and we’re just going to get the same over and over. It’s key for us that we try to improve the governance.”

The PA news agency has contacted the SPFL for comment.

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