As another Ibrox club stares into the abyss, hacks chase squirrels instead of the real story.

Yesterday, when the Ibrox club released its financial statements, the BBC tried to play down the story by highlighting a particular milestone: the club was finally “free from legal proceedings”.

It’s an amazing thing to even try to brag about – a classic case of deviation from the main takeaway here: their staggering £17.2m loss.

This convenient narrative was not limited to the BBC; other publications were quick to pounce on it too, lining up to get a distraction.

This is a great example of what the media should be standing up to, but isn’t.

There’s a brilliant scene in season two of The West Wing that reminds us of this. President Martin Sheena Bartlet is furious when a Colombian drug cartel manages to shoot down SWAT helicopters by using a fake radio signal to catch them.

“We weren’t prepared for someone trying to trick us with a trick so sophisticated that it’s a whole generation beyond ‘Hey, look, your shoelaces are untied!'” he fumes. “So I just lost nine guys to a ham street gang?”

But “no lawsuit” was not even the only sleight of hand.

Ibrox has produced yet another story about a so-called billionaire “investor” – hardly a new player on the scene and not even an investment, strictly speaking.

Instead, it is simply restructuring the debt into additional shares rather than injecting new capital into the club. Few in the press looked at it objectively; instead, most opted for a pro-Ibrox scenario. Strangely, neither of them seem interested in exploring what it means to have yet another shareholder shouldering the club’s debts, rather than Ibrox actually living within its means.

But it’s a real question for those who see the club as a serious challenger to Celtic’s dominance.

Our media is terribly susceptible to PR tidbits, trivia and gossip.

The Ibrox PR machine must be giggling as it feeds journalists these half-baked goods. Yesterday’s figures could have sparked a serious debate about the sustainability of Scottish football’s finances. However, the media only touched on it lightly and then moved on to the usual speculative chatter. They could take lessons from the crisis at Inverness, a club whose finances collapsed and where warning signs went unheeded. The only difference at Ibrox is the sponsors who will take on the debt – for now.

But that’s what the Ibrox club is all about; Inverness, with slightly deeper pockets. But what’s in those pockets eventually runs out. Always. It’s just basic math.

The fall of Inverness has highlighted why there is a need for financial sustainability rules similar to those seen in European football. England has adopted Financial Fair Play, with severe sanctions for offenders, and the question of why we have not followed suit is important for the future of the sport.

Right now, Scottish clubs operate without financial constraints, many of them relying heavily on external funds – a destructive path if ever there was one.

It’s not like Scottish football hasn’t been burned before. Hearts, Hibs, Motherwell, Dundee, Gretna all faced financial difficulties due to inconsistent practices. The Rangers themselves died and Gretna fell into disrepair after their benefactor could no longer pay the bill. These examples are grim warnings, but they are consistently ignored.

No European league cries as persistently for regulation of financial stability as ours. With no multi-billion pound television deals to support these clubs, it is vital that they operate within their means. And yet we are moving in the opposite direction. I am still convinced that this approach only serves one club, and that club’s opposition is preventing us from making significant changes.

These figures in themselves are a mockery of our league and an insult to every club that has lost revenue and titles due to the debt burden of the Ibrox club.

Hearts, Aberdeen, Hibs, Kilmarnock all suffered.

They seem strangely willing to go along with it, perhaps hoping that their own wealthy investors will take on the debt on their behalf. This is incredibly reckless.

And for what? This reckless path didn’t bring much glory either, with results that are laughably meager considering the resources invested. Investors had a poor return on every pound, but the myth of potential success persists.

Meanwhile, the media continues to play along, oblivious to or unwilling to explore the broader implications. The Scottish media are well aware that if Financial Fair Play had been adopted, Ibrox would most likely be in breach of these rules tomorrow.

But without that spotlight, the Ibrox club continues its precarious approach, fueled by fresh capital injections rather than living within its means.

Many people misunderstand where this money goes. Despite the huge sums, it’s not just wages or transfers that are draining Ibrox. The club itself is a cumbersome, expensive machine that drains tens of millions before a player even steps on the pitch.

The club will have to make significant cuts in football spending to be sustainable, but they continue to rely on shareholders to foot the bill. The latest headlines highlight one word, and that word isn’t “debt” or “damages” or, God forbid, “consequences”; no, it’s a “billionaire”, as if this “investor” is willing to sink everything he has into the black hole of Ibrox, as if his wealth will change their fortunes overnight. We all know that the reality is different. It’s there to refinance debt, not invest cash, but that would make you think it’s a game changer.

People – including some hackers – see the word and lose their minds, thinking it must be some big event that changes everything. You will never believe that the rules of financial stability exist beyond our imagination.

So the media is once again after a carefully planted pair of squirrels and has resorted to pushing false narratives and convincing fans that this endless cycle can continue unchecked. They cling to the myth that this club can consistently keep up with Celtic. The reports on this issue have been like this year after year, oblivious to the long-term consequences.

If the media investigated this issue as deeply as the Celtic fan sites, they would highlight why financial fair play is important. They would delve into what real life would look like for clubs across the city.

But this superficial reporting does not encourage change. As each new benefactor enters the Ibrox stage, they face the same pressure to chase an impossible dream.

In a twisted way, this cycle works to our advantage, but it compromises the game as a whole. This is the second time the Ibrox club has run to the rocks and the press won’t even acknowledge what happened the first time. It’s no wonder that with such bleak numbers, the rotary machine is in overdrive. But this short-sightedness will cost them.

As F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in The Sun Also Rises, “How did you go broke? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Football clubs die in much the same way. It happened once at Ibrox. They seem almost oblivious to the fact that it could happen again… and so they are locked in this cycle of doom. Because the media acts like it’s normal.