Who was the anti-Rangers chairman? It’s the question fans are itching to know the answer to, and it’s the least they deserve.
George Peat’s revelation during the week that a club chairman phoned him up and informed him not to help Rangers in 2008 was startling. It set a host of emotions firing in Rangers’ supporters. The Gers fans had a mixture of anger and intrigue about who it was that phoned Peat up.
At the time, Peat was the SFA President. He and SPL Chairman Lex Gold discussed ways to make Rangers’ fixture schedule lighter. This was to help the club prepare for the 2008 UEFA Cup final against Zenit St Petersburg.
As we well know, Rangers went on to lose both the UEFA Cup and the Scottish Premier League. The season was extended by only four days, and Rangers were drained by the time the campaign was over.
Speculation was fuelled even more when Peat claimed that everyone could probably guess who the chairman was. Without putting the accusation on anyone, supporters are automatically drawn to Celtic. Gordon Strachan’s side were the only direct rivals to Rangers, and given the information released, it would make sense.
Put the issue to bed
Yet it’s time Peat just put this issue to bed and informed everyone of who the culprit was. Was it John Reid? Was it Rod Petrie? Perhaps even Stewart Milne? Nobody can say for certain because Peat has decided to open up a can of worms. This could’ve easily been put to bed had he just stated which club chairman it was.
But the main crux of the matter is that it’s disrespectful to all Rangers players and staff that the name goes unresolved. It was such a gruelling campaign for the Rangers squad of 2008. If there were moves in the background to sabotage that campaign, then those names should be revealed.
Instead, it’s just led to days of speculation and unnecessary accusations.
We’ll all draw our own conclusions as to who it was. Considering, however, that he won’t inform us of who it was, Peat seems to want us to play Cluedo with the matter.
Yet, for Walter Smith, David Weir, and the rest of the staff that played a huge part that season, they deserve the truth.
Peat can put this entire saga to bed with the answer. In that respect, the ball is in his court. Instead, it seems he would rather enjoy watching Scottish football go nuts over the issue.
