THERE has been a conspiracy theory going around as Rangers’ luck in securing home draws in Cup matches continues to amaze pundits and fans.
On Saturday, Rangers will play Hamilton Accies at Ibrox in the quarter final of the William Hill Scottish Cup. It will be the 11th time in succession that Rangers will have played at home in the Challenge Cup, Betfred League Cup and William Hill Scottish Cup after being drawn first out of the wee tombola box. Their last away draw was the victory against Airdrie on August 26, 2015.
The conspiracy theorists say that the SFA and SPFL have somehow contrived to help out Rangers by giving them a home draw. There is some evidence that the Scottish Cup draws have advantaged Rangers – since season 2012-2013, in those matches where draws were needed, i.e. not semi-finals or finals, Rangers have been drawn at home 13 times, including this weekend’s match, against a mere four away ties. This disparity is apparently achieved by every piece of subterfuge available to human ingenuity, such as ‘retro-fixing’ the numbers – when a ‘home’ number is pulled out the person in charge of the draw switches Rangers’ name on the draw sheet to ensure they are linked to that number and get a home draw.
And then there’s the frozen ball theory, with those doing the draw well aware that the coldest ball is Rangers so at one point they get chosen first.
Underlying it all is that the balls themselves ‘must’ be doctored so that those making the Cup and League Cup draws just need to look for a mark of some kind to ensure they know which is the Rangers ball.
The Rucker can reveal that all the conspiracy theories are absolute tosh because of facts that the theorists have ignored – two different sets of plastic balls are used, one for the SPFL’s Challenge and League Cups and one for the SFA’s Scottish Cup draws. Yes, they share Hampden but don’t share each others’ balls, so to speak, and neither are marked in any way.
There is also the simple fact that the draws for both cups, especially in the latter rounds of the competitions, are made by former players or celebrities – they can’t even see the numbers before they draw them – and it’s Sir Rod Stewart that we can finally thank for blowing away all the conspiracies.
For if you’ll remember, Rod the Mod made the draw for this year’s William Hill Scottish Cup fifth round. Lifelong Celtic fan Stewart drew out the balls first, signifying a home tie for the team, while former Celtic player Alan Stubbs went second after him each time to draw out the away team.
It’s the most scrutinised draw possibly in Scottish Cup history thanks to Rod’s antics, and on Youtube you can see the rock legend was barely concentrating on the job, never mind looking for the ‘Rangers’ ball which, in fact, was last out.
SFA President Alan McRae didn’t do anything other than call out the names on his sheet, and here’s the amazing fact that kills all the theories – in terms of pure statistical probability, Rangers’ success in getting home draws is not significant. So there.
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