Rangers' Murray: 'The football world is laughing at us'

RANGERS chairman David Murray yesterday branded the Scottish Premier League a laughing stock after another attempt to ease the Ibrox club's fixture congestion failed to find an answer.

Murray said people throughout the world will be laughing at yesterday's re-assertion from the SPL that the league season will not be further extended.

The SPL had promised to explore further the options after receiving a request from Rangers to have this Saturday's league fixture with Dundee United postponed ahead of next Wednesday's Uefa Cup final against FC Zenit St Petersburg. Though this was rejected on Monday, a further attempt to help the Ibrox side came to nothing yesterday, when officials from both the SPL and Scottish Football Association met at Hampden Park.

One possibility considered was the postponement of the Scottish Cup final on 24 May but this was firmly ruled out yesterday. SFA chief executive Gordon Smith appeared prepared to see the showpiece occasion, contested by Rangers and First Division Queen of the South, moved from its original date. He lamented the failure to reach agreement and admitted that "a certain amount of damage" had been done to the game in Scotland. Like Murray he feared ridicule from elsewhere. "People are saying there's no support for a team in the Uefa Cup final, and that is going around the world at this moment," he said at Hampden Park yesterday.

"Sadly there is nowhere for us to go," said SPL chairman Lex Gold. The SPL's central objective was to preserve what they have continually referred to as the "integrity of the competition". League officials sought to walk the fine line between being seen to aid Rangers in their quest to lift the Uefa Cup while also acknowledging Celtic's concerns with reference to the presently on-going title race with their rivals. The Parkhead club are alert to anything which might be seen to give Rangers an advantage and were dismayed with the SPL's decision last month to extend the season by four days.

"Given the stage we have now reached in our competition, both in terms of the title chase and in relation to the European places, it is not possible to modify the closing date of the season without placing at serious risk the fairness to all of our competition," said an SPL spokesman yesterday.

Murray responded by issuing a powerful statement on the official Rangers website yesterday afternoon. He was reacting in fury after another attempt to accommodate Rangers' needs came to a fruitless end, with the SPL deciding that the existing fixture list – scheduled to end only 40 hours before the Scottish Cup final kicks-off – should be adhered to. Murray compared the situation to that in Russia, where the Russian FA have postponed all of Zenit's scheduled three games before the final.

"Their decision does not surprise me, but disappoints and angers myself and indeed the Rangers supporters," Murray said.

"Throughout the world people will laugh at this decision in disbelief, and none more so than in Russia as their own association have done everything they can to assist FC Zenit St Petersburg. We were not asking that all games be called off, simply one match prior to such a prestigious European final. The reaction throughout Europe when we have been discussing other matters with clubs has been one of astonishment that we are in this situation.

"Our chief executive, Martin Bain, has worked diligently behind the scenes in relation to this issue and at all times we as a club have not made public any of the confidential discussions, despite external pressures.

"We wrote to the SPL on Friday asking for the Dundee United match to be moved in respect of our forthcoming Uefa Cup final and both the SPL and the club turned down our request. Subsequently, after being informed of their decision, the SFA then became involved and, after a further meeting today, we have once again been turned down. As a club I don't think we have been treated fairly and indeed most, if not all, football associations throughout the world would have taken a different position.

"In fact, they would have been only too pleased to assist a member club. What has happened here is footballing authorities not being proactive in their assistance, but only at this late stage by being reactive through embarrassment."

A clearly riled Murray said he would seek a meeting with the SPL to understand their decision-making process on this as well as other matters during the course of this season.

Playing into the hands of St Petersburg

COMMENT

WHEN the concluding matches in the Scottish Premier League take place on 22 May, the dust will not have settled by the time the Scottish Cup final kicks off less then 48 hours later.

The need to enforce this timetable is based on a perception that it would not be right or fair to extend the season beyond 24 May. It is merely a notion, dressed up as an unquantifiable variable known as 'integrity' – of which we heard again from the SPL yesterday, but with little explanation of the actual meaning behind it.

There are faults on all sides, and Sir David Murray's remarks yesterday are coloured by his desire to have things done his way, but there is more than a hint of truth in the Rangers chairman's assertion that Scottish football cannot help itself. While Rangers are trying to keep their title bid alive against Dundee United, their Uefa Cup final opponents Zenit St Petersburg will be at a training camp in the Netherlands.

The final round of SPL matches in what has been a season of exceptional disruption takes place ten long and empty weeks before the league kicks off again in August. Yet here we are, cramming in fixtures as if any failure to meet a self-imposed deadline would result in a corruption inquiry.

The domestic season was structured to allow breathing space for a Scotland team to prepare for the Euro 2008 finals. That intention need not have been redundant, with a Scottish club surprising us all by reaching a European final.

For the sake of a few days' delay, today's stalemate defies common sense.