Website editor claims Twitter and Scottish websites playing key role in Scotland’s football revolution
The editor of a Scottish-based website has claimed that Twitter and a variety of Scottish websites have played a keyrole in bringing about the revolution in Scottish professional football, which has unfolded over the past few days.
Writing in The Guardian, freelance journalist Mike Small, who edits the Bella Caledonia website along with Kevin Williamson, is also highly critical of the mainstream Scottish media’s role in the crisis sparked off by the demise of Rangers FC.
Small writes: “It's worth getting a few things straight before kick-off. This isn't about ‘relegating’ Rangers. Rangers don't exist anymore. This isn't about Craig Whyte. Craig Whyte's not around anymore.
“It's about a culture of failure, a total lack of transparency and connivance from the very top of the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football Association in a rigged cartel that has brought Scottish football to total crisis.
“The good news is that the inept coterie at the top of the game has been bypassed by ordinary fans and smaller clubs. This is what democracy looks like.
“Just when you thought the corporate takeover of society was just about complete, an event takes place or a movement pops up to renew your faith and make you realise that big change is not just possible, it's inevitable, because right across society the elite that runs our world is being exposed daily as a corrupt and incompetent failure.
“Sevco 5088 Ltd being forced to start their existence in Scotland's lowest league is one of these events, and the sweeping grassroots network that made this happen is one of these movements.
“Only a few months ago this was completely unthinkable, and only a few days ago it seemed like efforts to parachute this new entity into the First Division – the next tier down from the Scottish Premier League – by Neil Doncaster, the now utterly discredited SPL chief executive, would succeed.
“Sporting integrity, or integrity of any kind, would, it seemed, be crushed under the weight of corporate expectation, a conflation of embedded sports and business journalists and the staggering sense of entitlement of Rangers and their allies in the governing bodies.
“Instead, incredibly, we've just seen the transformation of Scottish football, realised almost entirely through Twitter and key websites that have proliferated as the story has dominated every media outlet for over a year: the award-winning Rangers Tax Case, fans site Pie and Bovril, rebel journalist Phil Mac Giolla Bhain, Wings Over Scotland, Scotzine and Paul McConville to name a few.
“These sites give us hope that what may follow is not just a renaissance in Scottish football but in Scottish media. A core part of this saga has been the failure of the sports and business media with allegations of laziness, partiality and just a complete lack of any critical faculties.”