Given that the wet pitch forced the cancellation of Rangers’ Scottish Premiership match against Dundee, one could have assumed that John Nelms and company would be expressing their regrets in full.
After all, thousands of fans had already travelled north to witness the match, with the Dens Park match serving as the weekend’s main event on Sky Sports cameras.
With all eyes on Dundee after Celtic’s victory against St Johnstone to lead the Scottish Premiership the day before, the team failed to provide a pitch fit for a match for the fourth time this season.
It is the only surface that was declared unusable this weekend across all of the premier football leagues in the UK, not to mention Scotland.
The condition of the Dens Park pitch has Rangers rightfully angry.
Pictures taken of the park before kickoff revealed just how bad the Dundee grounds crew, who may be in a few anxious meetings this week, had let the surface go.
Some parts of the park were so uneven and unsafe that the ball would not bounce, and only hours before kickoff, the surface’s drainage had been sorely reduced to constant forking into the turf.
Anyone with a sense of self-awareness would be raising their hands at this point if you add in the fact that Dundee neglected to properly notify Rangers of the situation in a manner that bewilders me.
Rangers are understandably incensed about this, and a large portion of their displeasure is due to the way Dundee has handled the situation both on and off the pitch.
However, it is not surprising that John Nelms, the managing director of Dundee, did not show true remorse when you consider his answer, which was to point the finger at almost everyone and everything but Dundee.
John Nelms declines to accept Dundee accountability
After the match, Nelms said he had an entirely inappropriate request—which the SPFL rightfully rejected—to move the tie to 3 p.m.
First of all, regardless of the weather, spectators and the Rangers squad have travelled by 12 p.m. Dundee has an obligation to ensure sufficient drainage and park maintenance during this period. They are ultimately responsible.
It seems sense to have a little delay. A three-hour delay is disrespectful to matchgoers, especially since there is no real assurance that the game will proceed.
Secondly, a later kickoff would have interfered with other programming as the game was scheduled to be televised live on Sky Sports, who provide an important but contextually insignificant contribution to the game.
Thirdly, and maybe most significantly, it is very evident from a quick look at the surface that there is no assurance that playing on it would be safe for a few days, let alone hours later.
Instead, we would implore Dundee and John Nelms to accept some accountability, inquire as to why this continues to occur at their facility, and show a bit more consideration for the other clubs in the division.
Dundee’s practice of calling off games is getting more and more common, which is insulting to the more professional teams in the league who train all week for these contests.
We think this is almost as embarrassing for Dundee and John Nelms as the time their shady email systems rigged a significant post-Covid vote and then lost it again. We mentioned nearly.
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