SPFL must walk plank over TV streaming and Neil Doncaster is no Jack Sparrow when it comes to pirate hunting

‘I’ve got a guy’. It used to be the kind of line from Trainspotting when some desperado is looking for some kind of illicit hit on a night out or worse.

Now it’s being heard all the time from punters searching for a different kind of fix. A football fix. Call it illegal streaming, piracy, IPTV, a dodgy box or whatever, fans now inevitably know someone who’s got a guy, ready to hook them up to that sweet addictive drug that is the Scottish Premiership. The so-called guys are raking it in left, right and centre as folk decide to bail out on paying the broadcasters top dosh when they can get the same content for shrapnel in comparison.

And even more so, these dealers can even get content delivered right to the couch when they are not even on the actual television. Club TV stations, beamed all across the world but now in the country it comes from, means punters can tune in at 3pm and watch their team no matter where they are playing. SPFL chief Neil Doncaster comes out complaining about the pirates but he’s got more chance of meeting Jack Sparrow than halting this new broadcasting pandemic.

The entire set up that needs to walk the plank. The current TV deal and the way we watch football is not fit for purpose as prohibition just forces people underground. And it doesn’t take Al Capone to work out how to supply the demand. It might have been the rising costs of living or maybe it was covid, but the world has changed for everyone.

Working from home is now the norm, along with hitting a few buttons on your phone to make a double cheeseburger arrive at the door in minutes. It’s the same with our football. Fans were able to buy matches on pay-per-view during the bad old covid days and the deal remained in place last season