Sometimes it is better to remain quiet and let people think you are an idiot rather than open your mouth and confirm it for all to hear.
Neil Doncaster continues to dig himself a hole with another round of carefully chosen interviews in which he dodges the pertinent question – Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s allegations of bullying – and instead launches a bizarre attack on Rangers interim Chairman, Douglas Park as reported by The Daily Record.
The SPFL’s CEO claims that the Ibrox club’s own dossier of evidence proves that his allegations are true when in fact, all it proves is that a conversation took place between the two parties.
Doncaster it appears in his personal briefing with Jackson arranged by Alex Barr & the crisis management The Big Partnership is losing the plot. No wonder people take with a inch of salt what is printed in the Daily Record these days.
Poor….really poor pic.twitter.com/rtCUz9YTs1
— Joe Black (@joe_black1509) May 10, 2020
Doncaster claims that Park made “defamatory” allegations and followed this up with a (presumed) threat to release the information, he then contacted the SPFL’s legal advisor, Rod McKenzie, who then contacted Rangers to make sure that these allegations weren’t made public.
In an interview with Keith Jackson of The Record, Doncaster points to the above extract from the Rangers dossier as evidence of a threat, when asked to elaborate on his claims, he said:
“Yes, I certainly can. I had a call with Douglas Park on the evening of Good Friday at 7:46pm. He made a very serious defamatory allegation and a threat to act in a particular way.
“Now I’ve been in the game for 25 years and I’m used to robust conversations and I have a thick skin. But I do know when a line has been crossed and, for the first and only time in all my years in the game, I felt the need to talk to our lawyer and for him to approach Rangers to seek an undertaking that they would not repeat that defamatory allegation.
“Rod McKenzie made four calls or sent e-mails to seek that undertaking. That’s the first and only time I’ve done that in 25 years in the game so you can form your own view about how serious it was.”
He refuses to detail what the threats were and disappointingly, the interviewer failed to address the fact that the CEO is now contradicting himself, only a week ago he was “entirely mystified” about why Rangers were complaining when he did another – well controlled and selected – round of interviews to defend himself, when he is now claiming that the Ibrox club made “defamatory” allegations. He needs to make up his mind what his defence is and stick to it.
Doncaster is now under increasing pressure, desperately trying to change the focus or narrative on a weekly basis rather than address specific allegations, even on the most basic metric of competence – attracting sponsorship to the Scottish game – he is failing, with the league still to replace the current sponsor Ladbrokes for next season and beyond.
Rangers, like the proverbial dog with a bone, are not letting this one go and regardless of the outcome of the EGM tomorrow, look to have the troubled CEO, and his stooges, exactly where they want them.