Alasdair Steps Down
SONSTRUST nominated Scottish Council member of Supporters Direct (SD) Alasdair Galloway has, regretfully, resigned from his elected post stating disagreements with SD over the last six to nine months.
We are disappointed at this news especially as it hard on the heels of two other Scottish Council resignations in the form of Chair Alan Harris and member Colin Pike.
A full update on what has been happening at Supporters Direct to follow.
Programme Sellers Wanted
OUR programme team are looking for sellers to help with distribution of our DFC match day magazine in season 2012/13.
Can you help? We can’t offer much in way of wages, but we can give free entry to all of Sons home matches in the new campaign.
Interested? Drop an e-mail to secy@sonstrust.net or alternatively leave a note/comment on this post.
Membership Renewal 12/13
Ahead of our official renewal process, members are encouraged, if they can, to re-join as soon as possible.
Drop a note to Memsecy@sonstrust.net for further detail.
Of course, you can take the opportunity to renew at this week’s match against Arbroath on 9th May.
Awards Bash Success
The Sonstrust Awards Bash for season 11/12 took place at the Abbotsford Hotel on 5th May, and a packed function suite enjoyed a wonderful celebration of a successful season.
Talented midfielder Scott Agnew (pictured below with gaffer Alan Adamson) won player of the season after topping the fans poll and James Creaney scooped the supporters gong as young player of the year.
Striker Bryan Prunty picked up three awards including top goalscorer, goal of the season and was crowned the Sons View player of the year.
And in a night charged with emotion, the late Dan Lynch was awarded the Graham Brough Memorial Shield for Fan of The Year following a brilliant presentation by Graham’s grandson Jack.
Dumbarton FC’s match day scout Ricky Hutchison was master of ceremonies for the evening and his humour and routine went down a treat with everyone present. The trust board would like to thank Ricky for his excellent contribution.
Congratulations go to trust board member Donald Fullarton who was given the Sonstrust’s Special Award in recognition of his dedication and work for DFC. Donald is the club’s official photographer and is a major contributor to the official website amongst many other media jobs.
A deserving recipient.
Will the Worm Turn? By Robert Ryan
The following piece first appeared in the Ben Lomond Free Press this morning. The BLFP is a daily blog written by former Sonstrust board member Robert Ryan ; and the article in question is a fantastic summary of the situation at Glasgow Rangers FC.
Thanks to Robert for allowing us to use his ‘work’!
THE worm turns – Used to describe when a person or group of people who have been treated badly for a long time suddenly become forceful and stop accepting a difficult situation.
I wonder if anyone remembers the setting up of the Self Preservation League (SPL) back in 1998? Remember those heady days when the top ten clubs headed by our old chums Rangers and Celtic cut adrift the rest of Scottish Football and left them to their fate?
In an act similar in principle to the Highland clearances, the poor were left to their own devices by the aristocracy. The aristocracy had discovered that by simply jettisoning any obligation to their neighbours they could increase the bottom line on their balance sheets.
The Highlanders in the 18th and 19th centuries were left to rebuild their lives by emigration to the new world as the Duke of Sutherland and the like counted their ever increasing piles of cash. The SFL clubs 200 years later were left with no TV money, very little transfer income and a list of criteria almost guaranteed to bankrupt any one of them should they finish top of the pile and thus qualify for the one place available through promotion each season.
Like the resourceful Highlanders of yore, the SFL clubs carved out a future for themselves. Through resourceful and innovative management they attracted sponsorship (The Irn Bru deal has been a long lived and successful one for all parties). The play off system has its supporters and detractors but it has certainly led to many more meaningful games.
In SFL 2 at least six clubs out of ten will be involved in the final mix.
And so to the point of all this.
Rangers.
There has been much talk in recent days that a newco Rangers might just have to start again in the third division of the SFL. Even their manager was quoted as saying that this might be the preferred option.
That’s right, Rangers. Prime movers in the setting up of the SPL and in the time since, along with their Old Firm partners Celtic trying to find some loophole, some way of leaving Scottish football for good and joining the English Premiership.
To play in a different league.
To play in an environment in keeping with their history and status within the game.
It’s a very long way down from the FA Premiership to SFL 3 but Rangers might just find that there would be similar difficulties in gaining admission.
SFL chief David Longmuir outlines in this morning’s press the process that a club, any club would have to go through should a vacancy arise.
In the case of Rangers the SFL clubs would perhaps be tempted by the money and media interest that a re-emerging club would bring into the league. However they would have to balance that with the fact that the third, second and first division championships would be a no contest in the respective following three seasons.
Also, in a footballing environment mercifully free of the issues that surround the Old Firm, there would have to be a real threat of sanctions on supporters’ behaviour to maintain that state of affairs.
It would also be interesting what the opinion of supporters of clubs in the SFL think about this.
Spartans, Cove Rangers and Preston Athletic would probably be able to put forward better long term applications for membership. Any Rangers newco membership would be for three years.
It is looking increasingly likely that the former noble lord who once contemptuously dismissed the pleas of the mendicant serfs may now be throwing themselves on their mercy.
That mercy is, in all honesty, likely to be given but it should not be taken for granted.
Robert Ryan
