Two Cups out of three isn't too shabby for a bad season!!!
Tuesday, April 23, 2002
Gang of Ten to submit resignations
By Roddy Thomson
Scottish football's gang war erupted again as chief Gang of Ten agitator John Yorkston responded to Brian Quinn's broadside by revealing that resignations from the SPL will be formally submitted on Wednesday.
The Dunfermline chairman avoided targeting Celtic plc counterpart Quinn directly - preferring to accuse Parkhead chief executive Ian McLeod of naivety in his handling of the saga over TV income.
Quinn warned that Rangers and Celtic are willing to cut their noses off to spite their faces by refusing to sign up to any SPL deal that does not see them collect closer to the 80 per cent of TV revenues they believe they are due.
But Yorkston hit back in typically colourful language - also introducing his slogan for a post-Old Firm Scottish league.
The Fifers' chief said: 'We will all put our resignations in; we will all word them the same, make sure they comply and all go in together. The future is bright - but it's not orange, and it isn't green.'
Lawyers for the Ten will come up with a uniform wording for their en-masse resignation, with Partick Thistle now firmly in the fold having taken St Johnstone's place.
Yorkston, however, also admitted the real purpose of their plans, stating: 'I think (the Old Firm) will have to come back into the fold; there is nowhere else for them to go.'
The East End Park figurehead realises that the two sides are miles apart in their respective valuations of suitable TV percentages, but added: 'I think the 80-per-cent thing might even change - if you look at what we want to do.
'It is the same model as they have in the Premiership. The pair of them are quite happy to get down there and accept the rules. It is 50 per cent as an equal split of TV money, 25 per cent dependent on your league position and the other 25 per cent based on TV appearances.
'They would get more under that because naturally they would finish nearer the top of the league and they will be on the television more. It probably still would work out at about 40 per cent between them.
'Bear in mind the Old Firm were the first to complain about the lack of competition, yet they want to make it even worse by taking 80 per cent of the money.'
If Quinn escaped personal attack, McLeod bore the brunt of it when Yorkston added: 'I honestly don't think that McLeod at Celtic has done his homework. I don't think they read the papers before they came to the meeting.
'They came back on Tuesday and said that maybe if we accepted this other deal it would work. How can you try to promote something which the previous week he said was a non-starter?
'How the hell do you try to sell something that has got somebody kicking the feet away from you all the time? That is what they have been doing.'
Apparently the Hartson red was rubbish