THE goal has been achieved.
After waves of attack and counter-attack, Scottish football has the right result. That much-quoted phrase, "sporting integrity", has, to all intents and purposes, been maintained. But it has to be said that the victory has been achieved with the aid of a lucky deflection.
The stramash, to borrow another footballing term, began on Wednesday when it was announced that in the final round of matches in the Scottish Championship, the key fixture between Heart of Midlothian and Rangers was to be put back by a day, to accommodate live transmission by Sky Sports.
The ensuing furore could and should have been foreseen by Neil Doncaster, the chief executive of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL). Rangers and Hibernian are locked in a battle for second place in the Championship, separated by one point. Rangers stood to gain an advantage through knowing, before they took to the field, the result of Hibernian's corresponding fixture with Falkirk, thus able to adjust their selection and tactics to suit the circumstances.
It is accepted custom and practice in leagues in England, Scotland and elsewhere - and adopted by governing bodies Fifa and Uefa in their tournaments - that in such circumstances, all matches should kick off simultaneously. First to respond were the fans of Hibs and Hearts, who took to online forums to express their ire. Leeann Dempster, the Hibs chief executive, and Ann Budge, the Hearts owner, quickly entered the fray, issuing strongly-worded statements - to which Mr Doncaster responded with an inept press release in which he said "it is not clear to us why this has caused so much surprise".
In one way, though perhaps not in the way he intended, he was correct. No-one is in fact surprised that the broadcasters were calling the tune. The interests of the paying supporters - the lifeblood of the game - can often seem an irrelevance. It was fortuitous therefore that the solution found, in which in the final round of Championship fixtures, all games will kick off at 12.5pm on Saturday May 2 was thanks, in the words of the SPFL, to the fact that "Sky Sports has now suggested an alternative schedule".
The fans will be relieved, but not appeased. Many will call for Mr Doncaster to be dropped. And it is difficult to mount a stout defence of his record. The SPFL, unlike the overwhelming majority of leagues across Europe, still has no sponsor. There is residual bitterness among many supporters at the attempt to shoehorn Rangers into the second tier of Scottish football in 2012. Even in the basic nuts and bolts of his job - to ensure the league is smoothly and efficiently run - there is room for criticism; the post-split fixtures in the Premiership, also released on Wednesday, have angered several clubs (Celtic have no more Saturday fixtures; Kilmarnock have been denied a home game to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their league title win).
Some may say that football is only a game, but it is one that is woven into the fabric of Scottish popular culture, and which plays an important role in the lives of many. It deserves governance of a higher order.
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