Hearn was right about “lazy” Doncaster, he’s still costing Scottish football

Neil Doncaster in “not very good at his job” shocker.

The SPFL’s chief executive has done it again, underselling Scottish football and attempting to give our game to the first rather than the highest bidder with a newly reported Sky TV deal.

The Scottish Premiership is currently ninth on UEFA’s current coefficient list with two of the biggest clubs in the world and, arguably, the biggest derby, and yet, we have footballing superpowers Austria, Denmark, Norway and Sweden raking in up to double what our improved offer is worth.

Writing for The Rangers Review, Jonny McFarlane covered Rangers stance and what – in basic terms, it means for Scottish football with one particularly damning set of figures:

“It’s understood that Rangers’ position hasn’t changed and the club are continuing to bang the drum behind the scenes to effect positive change in the organisation. They’re staying tight-lipped on this latest story but you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out what they will be thinking about this latest suggestion. The SPFL remains an organisation in a state of internal tumult.

“And you can’t imagine this will change any time soon. After all, if you assess the £29.5m offer on a game-by-game basis, the quantum has actually dropped from £556,250 next season to £491,666 from 2025.”

Who in their right mind would try to negotiate a new deal when the current one still has some time to run with the prospect of extending it for a lower game-by-game figure?

Neil Doncaster – that’s who.

Barry Hearn was right all those years ago when he addressed the SFA and SPFL and claimed that if any of them worked for him, they’d all be sacked, branding them “lazy” in the process  – that they laughed and missed the point entirely tells it’s own story, that the same people are still running the game is an even bigger joke that nobody finds funny.