Neil Doncaster needs to follow the politicians’ lead and get out in front of the public to defend himself.
That is the only conclusion to be drawn after a shambolic week for Scottish football which has left the SPFL’s Chief Executive in a very precarious position.
The switch of the Hearts v Rangers game to Sunday and then back to Saturday again had elements of a farce.
It was just the latest in what has been a litany of complaints against the SPFL under Doncaster’s charge.
We have no sponsor for the third year in a row, confusion reigns over the play-off dates and a succession of member clubs have gone public with their grievances.
Typical are the complaints from my old club, Kilmarnock. Following the announcement of the post-split fixtures, they have discovered they are the only team in the bottom six to have to play more away fixtures this season than home games 20 compared to 18. And their request to be given a home game to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their First Division title win has been rejected.
It’s hard not to feel sympathy for Killie in both cases. The first seems almost the definition of unfair. The second surely can’t be too hard to organise.
As a former administrator with the SFA, I know it’s not as easy to run the game as it may look. You try to legislate for all eventualities.
When Rangers were on their run to the UEFA Cup Final in 2008, we changed the schedules around to help them. It may open you to accusations of going against “sporting integrity” by the clubs affected, but the goal was to try to help a Scottish club get to a European Final. It would have been the same for Celtic or Aberdeen.
In these cases, though, it is vital people understand what you are doing and why.
I am sure Doncaster does his best. But when a succession of member clubs choose to go public with their gripes something has clearly gone wrong. The perception is of a disconnect between the League and its leadership.
To save his job, I believe Neil needs to tackle this head on. Now. He needs to address the complaints publicly and explain exactly what is going on.
If he is not prepared to answer his critics, it will be a bad sign. A sign we could soon be heading for a new SPFL leader.
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