Lenny Boyle
Rangers to play in Division 3 and John Terry found not guilty
12/07/2012
In one of the most news packed sporting days in recent memory; it was announced within moments of each other the verdict in the John Terry race case and the destination for the new Rangers next season.
Sky Sports News couldn’t decide which story they thought the more significant. The whole of Scottish football in turmoil, careening towards inevitable collapse and doom? Or the verdict in the trial of alleged racist John Terry former England captain?
They couldn’t decide. One minute they were whirling frantically to Bryan Swanson outside Westminster Magistrate’s Court. The next returning to reporters outside Hampden and the SFA press conference announcing Rangers’ fate.
Bryan Swanson outside Westminster Magistrate’s Court was barreling into his fellow reporters like a bull in a china shop. He snapped at a photographer who briefly got in front of his shot. He grabbed the Judge’s statement from his neighbour from the BBC. When another reporter sought to gain one of the statements himself - Bryan was clutching about eight of them, this is how he gets the hot scoops - he bellowed, “Can you just let me finish this live broadcast!”
Terry was cleared of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand. The chief magistrate Howard Riddle confirmed that Terry used a racial slur against Ferdinand but, in his statement, “It is therefore possible that what he [Terry] said was not intended as an insult, but rather as a challenge to what he believed had been said to him. In those circumstances, there being a doubt, the only verdict the court can record is one of not guilty.”
Meanwhile thirty Scottish Football league chairmen, including that of LiveSport.co.uksponsored Raith Rovers, met at Hampden to discuss the future of the newco Rangers.
It was a case of there’s some good news and some bad news for Rangers. They were ‘welcomed’ into the SFL but they were not permitted to join the first division. 25 of the 30 clubs voted against Rangers joining the second tier of Scottish football.
But the wrangling isn’t finished. Not by a long shot. Rangers released this statement on their website, “It is now understood that on the back of a briefing SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster and SFA counterpart Stewart Regan gave to clubs last week that the SPL will introduce a plan for SPL 2 – which would include Rangers – and invite existing Division One members to join.”
These two momentous football stories, breaking within moments of each other, will dominate the sports pages - when they are not done so by the Olympics - to the start of the 2012/2013 season and beyond.
You don’t have to be an over excited Bryan Swanson to know that.
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