David Longmuir against ‘us and them’ SPL/SFL talk

WHEN he met reporters yesterday, David Longmuir was sitting in front of a board advertising this weekend’s Ramsdens Cup final. It seemed fitting that the name of a pawnbroking firm should be so conspicuously displayed over his shoulder.

• Longmuir admits being ‘Rangers man’ - but also backs other 29 SFL teams

He knows there is a perception that some Scottish Football League clubs are willing to trade their consent to radical change in return for the prospect of hard cash.

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And yet, for others, there remains the obstacle of a trust issue, one dating back to 1998, when ten clubs broke away from the SFL to set-up an SPL that was meant to deliver the game into a new era. The new gold dream never happened – as recently as last week a Scotland international team took to the field without a single Scottish-based player, while administration has since hit four of Scottish football’s most venerable clubs. Dunfermline’s current problems are not associated with their return to the SFL; they are deeply-rooted, and date back to living above their means in order to cope with an SPL environment that demanded large new stands and ignored the fact that they would have be paid for, eventually.

The them-and-us mentality the SPL helped breed made Longmuir feel uncomfortable. There was too much division, too much discord. When he arrived at the SFL in 2007, he wanted to encourage a re-unification of the two league bodies. His proposal didn’t get far. “The first thing I said to Lex Gold was: ‘Is it not about time we got things back together again?’ ” recalled Longmuir, with reference to his then counterpart at the SPL. “He told me, ‘not on my watch.’ ”

“But things change, people change and attitudes change,” he continued. “There is a chance here and I’m prepared to go with it and get ourselves into a better place. It could be the right thing for the game.”

Could is the operative word here. There is a leap of trust that needs to be made. Longmuir admits that, for many clubs, the scars from all those years ago have not yet healed. “I’m likening this to a divorce,” said Longmuir.

“We were divorced in 1998 but 16 years have elapsed and we’re now thinking, ‘for the sake of the children, we should be back together again’. But there is mistrust. There is an element of, ‘you did this to us before and I don’t want that to happen again’. That is the analogy.

“In any remarriage, a bit of time has elapsed, a lot of water has run under the bridge and things have happened. But, for the sake of the children, let’s get this sorted.”

A historical grievance could be one reason why 14 SFL clubs last week indicated they had some misgivings about the SPL-proposed plan for 12-12-18. Their change of outlook threatens to stymie the project. Indeed, it might not even get as far as the SPL vote on 15 April, with Ross County and St Mirren believed to be entertaining doubts about the proposal, which would see a middle league of eight teams created after 22 games, when the top two tiers of 12 clubs then split into three.

While this might not sound too attractive to some, there are other strands to the shake-up that have caused ears to prick up. A more even distribution of money means First Division clubs – or those in the new second tier – will no longer be left quite so dangerously close to the financial precipice. However, before his clubs forfeit the £2 million annual settlement payment that is due to the SFL in perpetuity from the SPL, Longmuir wants absolute confirmation that it will be as worth their while as promised.

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He makes no apologies for the time being taken to come to a decision about Scottish football’s future; the SFL clubs will vote on the proposals by 19 April. Longmuir doesn’t want any nasty surprises. “One of the more recent examples of where corporate due diligence failed is where RBS took over ABN Amro,” he said.

“They spent about a day and a half on due diligence and look what happened. We are not going to do that. We are going to do this properly. We are going to do it right.

“The SFL1 clubs are challenging themselves to get into this land of milk and honey – I need to make sure there is enough milk and honey there for them,” he added. “That’s the process we are in at the moment.”

Longmuir is alert to another perception; one that is also based on a degree of truth. The one governing body that is set to take over the running of Scottish football will be SPL-driven. He admits that it is expedient initially for this to be case.

“It has become even more clear as the process has evolved that the only way we can do this is to use the SPL corporate vehicle to bring together all the contracts and all the issues we have as two organisations,” he explained.

“But yesterday we received clarity that there will be a short period of time when that new board will be put in place, the name will be changed and we will have satisfaction that the principles we spoke about in January won’t be far away.”

Rightly, he bristles when the SFL is derided as a small-time operation. It might be small in terms of employees, but the 123 year-old organisation fights above its weight, according to Longmuir. The SFL-run League Cup is currently worth £5m to the game, while this weekend’s Ramsdens Cup final between Partick Thistle and Queen of the South will be played in front of a sell-out crowd at Livingston.

“In the past six weeks we have put on a national cup final, one of the most prestigious events on the Scottish football calendar,” he said. “We’ve done that while all of this has been going on.

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“I have a team of eight people and we are a very lean organisation. We have delivered for Scottish football time and time again in terms of how we run the game. Don’t forget that. This organisation has served Scottish football very well.”

As for his own take on the proposed changes, he, too, is not completely won over. He is desperate for the voice of the 30 clubs – at least, those other than Rangers, who can still count on a high media profile – to be heard, with Neil Doncaster, the SPL chief executive, having been on radio last weekend, establishing the position from an SPL point of view.

“There are certain elements of the package which I am 100 per cent behind,” said Longmuir. “But, like everyone else in the game just now, we have some doubts about certain aspects. We are willing to look at all of the ones we are all aligned to and are for the betterment of the game.

“Neil has been around in the last few days to present an SPL position. I think it’s only right that the SFL’s voice is heard.

“There are different views but it’s only because caution needs to be exercised and I’m only following a diligent path,” he added. “That’s what a chief executive should be doing.”