Former Rangers Manager and all round legend, Ally McCoist, has revealed the moment title stripping was placed on the agenda at an SFA meeting and how he reacted to the lunacy.
In an interview with The Daily Record, McCoist explained his reaction and made a more than plausible comparison to Italian giants, Juventus, who had been caught in a bribery and corruption scandal and weren’t punished as harshly:
“I was 100% against it. I was at a meeting as Rangers manager involving the SFA and some other characters and the subject of title-stripping came up.
“I stood up and slammed my papers together.
“There were about 14, 15 people at the meeting and I said, ‘Gentlemen, you’ll have to excuse me because from this moment on I’m taking absolutely no part in this madness’ and I walked out of the room.
“Not only was it a non-starter for me, it was people trying to play to an audience that should never have existed.
“I look back and I tell people, Juventus actually got caught blatantly cheating and they were put down one division for a year. Now I’m not asking people to make comparisons, I’m making a statement of fact.”
McCoist’s tenure as Rangers manager was the most turbulent that any in history has faced, from the initial highs of building a huge lead in the league to having to survive a firesale and lack of transfer funds then seeing his side’s lead collapse as off-field issues tore a hole in the fabric of the club.
Beginning pre-season training in 2012 with little more than a few senior players and the youth team was always going to be a battle, as was the lack of a scouting department for the next few seasons which led to “established” SPFL players being drafted in, with mixed results.
His quality as a manager can be questioned, but what can’t be is his love for the club and there will be few men happier if Steven Gerrard is able to repeat the feats of his mentor, Walter Smith, and return the Scottish Premiership trophy to it’s spiritual home.