This week's action

SPL happy to put careers on the line to assist Rangers

Financial problems in Scottish football is nothing new. In the not too distant past Celtic was on the brink of closure. We have also witnessed the demise of Gretna, Clydebank, and Airdrie in recent years whilst a number of other clubs have run up huge debts and diced with death as a result. Much of this debt was caused by the SPL as they forced clubs to build 10,000 all-seater stadiums and then changed the rules after many clubs had already spent the money.

Furthermore, in recent years clubs have been forced to field teams in the reserve league and SPL Under 19's league. Many of these clubs were forced to field the same players across all 3 leagues in order to cover the matches they had to play or face large fines from the SPL. Celtic have taken advantage of the reserve league by changing their signing policy over the past two years and bringing in players in their early 20s who could be sold on at a profit at a later date. In addition it has allowed to promote the "brand" (an awful word but that is how those who run the club see us), by bringing in a variety of nationalities from right across the globe whether they have the quality to get into our first team or not.

Much of this was carried out with the reserve league in mind. Yet all those plans are now in jeopardy after Rangers decided that they couldn't afford to field a team in that league. Many other clubs have had the same complaint for years and those fell on deaf ears, yet the rules are changed immediately when Rangers show any cause for concern. As such there are now young players across the country who are too old for the youth league but who have no chance of forcing their way into their first teams. At Celtic Darren O'Dea, Ben Hutchinson, and Simon Ferry have been forced to go out on loan but many others like Niall McGinn, Paddy McCourt, and Koki Mizuno (to name just a few of a huge pool of Celtic players) will waste the next 5 months at least with no competitive football.

The SPL should be ashamed for changing their rules to assist Rangers and stalling, if not ruining the careers of many youngsters at SPL clubs. The Reserve League has been cancelled and Scottish football dribbles further down the gutter as a result.

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