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FALKIRK SAGA
Surely the most frustrating part of the summer has been the uncertainty over our participation in this season's SPL. I might as well nail my colours to the mast and say that I never had any sympathy for Falkirk's case for two or three reasons;
1. They knew as far back as the early 90s that they needed to build, or come up with, a 10,000 seater stadium to meet the Taylor Report's recommendations never mind to meet the SPL's entry criteria . This was the same for Motherwell, St. Johnstone, Partick, Raith, St. Mirren etc who have all met the criteria in that time.
2. They were lucky to be in the First Division last season after cashing in on the demise of Airdrieonians and Clydebank. I didn't hear them wingeing then about the rules of the authorities at that time.
3. From number two they obviously decided at the start of this season that they were never going to be in the hunt for promotion and were then caught out by the success of McCall's side. This meant that from about February they went onto a media offensive to convince people that they could meet the criteria by the end of March.
When the 31st March came around they obviously did not meet any criteria and were given extra time ( as had Thistle and Dundee in the past ) to come up with a ground that did have 10,000 seats. This meant that the decision was drawn out until the day before the last game of the season, and as we lined up against Livingston in the last game we all felt secure that we would be in the SPL again for another season.
As expected Falkirk didn't accept this decision, claiming that five teams felt that they met the criteria, without ever mentioning that SEVEN ( the majority ) didn't!! In later weeks they would claim that the seven included clubs with a vested interest in the result, again this was selective information as it is probably true to say that ALL twelve had a vested interest in the outcome!!
The knee jerk reaction was that they would appeal to almost any court in the land that would listen to them, the SFA, OFT, the Scottish Executive and the civil courts all being mentioned. They were granted a hearing with the SFA on 18th June to decide whether they had the right to appeal to the same body on the whether the SPL had followed its own rules correctly. The panel consisted of Lord Ranald McLean ( one of our leading judges ), and the President and Vice President of the SFA.
Falkirk were pleased with this panel as they felt that Lord McLean was from outside the game and would look after their interests. At the first hearing the panel agreed that they could go forward to a full appeal to take place one week later. This then sent a real nervousness through the Well support as seeds of doubt were sewn in our minds that we could eventually end up in the First Division.
During all this time the SPL and SFL fixture lists had been published and we were in the SPL list and First Division Club X in the SFL list. The delays had made a mockery of one of the highlights of the summer, we couldn't really look at the list with any confidence that we would be making trips to Ibrox or Celtic Park or would it be Brechin or Dingwall! We also had the farce of an SPL team being drawn in the League Challenge Cup ( a trophy for only SFL clubs ), with Motherwell being bracketed with Falkirk to play away to Brechin in the First Round.
Even when it came to the final appeal on Wednesday 25th June the meeting ended after three hours of discussion to come to no conclusion with a plan to come back the next night. The next night the meeting dragged on until close to midnight before the decision was made and Falkirk's appeal was dismissed again.
But as was par for this particular course the Bairns couldn't accept this either and claiming that they could still put a halt to the fixture lists by taking an appeal to the civil courts, and still wanting to send a report to the Office of Fair Trading. But by this stage any sympathy Scottish football fans had for Falkirk's case was beginning to fade. Many beginning to feel that they have been given a fair hearing and had been knocked back each time, and it was time to draw a line under the affair and move on.
As for Motherwell we should be grateful to have survived for another season in the top flight and continue the fourth longest unbroken run in the League ( behind the Old Firm and Aberdeen ). But we don't want to end up in this situation again next season, and must put behind us some of our problems of last season to ensure we finish at least eleventh!
The young players will have a full season's experience behind them and we need to ensure that our disciplinary problems are improved to allow us to keep our best eleven on the park.
We have also been able to secure three players with good SPL experience, managing to prise two away from relegation rivals Partick Thistle ( Burns and Craigan ) and also secure the goalkeeping talents of Marshall from Kilmarnock.
Hopefully Scottish football doesn't need to go through this farce again next summer and that the rules and criteria are clear and that those involved in promotion and relegation can accept the rules. It would probably be best if St. Johnstone, St.Mirren or Raith Rovers won the First Division!!
Graham Barnstaple
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