The following is an abridged article reproduced – with kind permission – from ‘THE RANGERS HISTORIAN’ Volume 8, Number 10.

It shows that league extensions are not unusual in Scottish Football and that far from repeatedly questioning their “sporting integrity”, Celtic FC have benefited from them more than once.

I believe this is a very important article and I wanted to ensure it has a web presence.

‘THE RANGERS HISTORIAN’ can be bought for £1.50 per copy plus p & p from, PO BOX 1872, GLASGOW G43 2WU. Cheques/P.O payable to ‘TRUE BLUE PUBLICATIONS’ All back issues are available from the same address.

You can also catch ‘The Rangers Historian’ on matchdays walking towards the Stadium from the Ibrox Underground. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

The abridged article was published last season before the UEFA Cup final and before any league extension was decided.

Article Begins:

LIES, DAMNED LIES, SPORTING INTEGRITY AND LEAGUE EXTENSIONS

At the time of writing Season 2007-08 has been a long and draining campaign (both physically and mentally). On the field of play, Rangers have to date dominated both at home and in Europe. Off the field, controversy has reared its’ ugly head with a bitter dispute between (principally) Rangers and Celtic over whether the season should be extended.

Surely only in Scotland would such a debate occur – in almost every other country across the globe clubs would be actively assisted were they engaged in International competition. It is certainly also true that seldom – if ever – have relations between the two Glasgow Giants plumbed such depths as they have this season.

Sadly Rangers, although with absolute right on their side, have been losing the public relations war on this and other matters. Since the Celtic Chief Executive came away with his infamous “sporting integrity” interview, a series of black propaganda interviews and statements have permeated through both the broadcast and written media.

A few examples:

1) Celtic Manager Gordon Strachan stated that in 1982-83 Aberdeen played “something like 73 games” – in actual fact the total was just sixty. Rangers this season will play either 67 or 68 games, dependent on whether they reach the UEFA Cup final.

2) Tosh McKinlay in his column in the ‘Glasgow Evening Times’ stated that no help was offered to Celtic in 2003 en route to Seville in terms of their SPL campaign – in fact their home game with Dundee was advanced from Saturday to the previous Wednesday to give them a clear week prior to the final. Just for good measure, Dundee Manager Jim Duffy fielded what was effectively a reserve team. Celtic won 6-2, which came perilously close to turning the title race in their favour – Rangers of course were crowned champions by one goal. The bold Tosh also claimed that Celtic played as many games in 02-03 as Rangers will this season – they actually played 62.

McKinlay also stated that Dundee Utd received no extension to the season in 1986-87 when they lost to IFK Gothenburg in the UEFA Cup Final. Wrong – their last League fixture was played on Monday 11 May against Hearts. The rest of the League programme had finished the previous Saturday. United played a total of 66 games that season.

In a blatant untruth, the former Celtic full-back claimed that one of Rangers’ outstanding games was a fixture they had themselves requested be postponed prior to the Lyon game in the Champions’ League. Wrong once again – the Gretna fixture was played in January, although it should be stressed that the postponement was something your Editor was categorically opposed to.

Nevertheless, four statements opposing a league extension – and every one of them erroneous. Takes some doing Tosh…

3) The ‘Daily Record’ carried interviews with Tommy Gemmell and Bobby Lennox in which the two former players recalled playing three games in five and four days respectively at the end of Seasons 1970-71 and 73-74. Whilst this is true, what was not mentioned is that in both instances all of these games were extensions to the season AFTER the official end of the League season:

In 1970-71, the campaign officially ended on Saturday 24 April – Celtic played three games in the next week on Monday 26^th, Wednesday 28^th April and Saturday 1^st May. They required three points from these three games to clinch the title.

In 1973-74 the campaign officially ended on Saturday 27 April – Celtic, already champions, played League games after the deadline on Monday 29^th and Tuesday 30^th April together with Monday 6^th May. The games on successive days were at Celtic’s request in order that they had four clear days prior to the Scottish Cup Final on Saturday 4^th May.

Since the war, the League season was also extended in Seasons 1946-47, 47-48, 48-49, 49-50, 50-51, 51-52, 52-53, 55-56, 56-57, 57-58, 59-60, 62-63, 64-65, 65-66, 66-67, 67-68, 68-69, 71-72, 75-76, 76-77, 78-79, and 89-90.

In other words, on no fewer than 25 occasions since the war has the League season been extended to accommodate a backlog of fixtures. The relative absence of extensions from 1980 onwards can easily be explained by the introduction of undersoil heating, and the failure of Scottish clubs to progress in Europe beyond Christmas.

Indeed extensions to a season was never a contentious issue until Peter Lawwell’s “sporting integrity” comments.

In both moral rights, sporting integrity and historical precedent, Rangers were absolutely entitled to an extension to the season – it is simply not good enough that no-one at Ibrox bothered to make all of this public. One wonders exactly what ‘MediaHouse’ Public Relations Consultants (employed by the club) do for their money…?

Copyright ‘The Rangers Historian’. All Rights Reserved.

Article End.

I hope this article impressed you as much as it impressed me. It is a metaphorical sledgehammer to the “sporting integrity” nonsense spouted by Peter Lawwell. All of these facts were in the public domain, and it is astonishing that The Rangers FC did not have the will, or knowledge, to put this forward.

It is also disturbing that so many Scottish Sports Journalists either did not know the above, or worse, did know but kept it quiet. I recall after Peter Lawwell mentioned “integrity”, that four of the ‘panel’ on Radio Clyde also repeated the exact same – and uncommon – term when discussing their personal views of a possible league extension.

Amazing coincidence don’t you think?

‘THE RANGERS HISTORIAN’ can be bought for £1.50 per copy plus p & p from, PO BOX 1872, GLASGOW G43 2WU. Cheques/P.O payable to ‘TRUE BLUE PUBLICATIONS’ All back issues are available from the same address.